Bill Gates was dissuaded from launching a takeover bid for Liverpool when Neil Warnock pointed out their incompatibility with windows, we can reveal.

The Microsoft billionaire was approached about buying out the Merseyside giants and immediately sought the counsel of “any soccer manager who’s available to talk right now”.

He was immediately handed a gold-encrusted telephone with Cardiff City boss Warnock on the other hand.

Warnock recently incurred the visible onscreen wrath of Steven Gerrard when he jokingly cast doubt on the existence of windows in Liverpool.

Speaking exclusively to Football Burp, Warnock described his conversation with Bill Gates.

He said: “Bill says to me, ‘Hello? Are you a soccer manager?’

“So I says to him, ‘It’s called football where I’m from, laddie, but crack on.’

“He says, ‘What do you think of Liverpool? I’m thinking of buying ’em.’

“I says, ‘Liverpool? Don’t think they’ve got windows there, laddie.’ You know, ’cause he’s Bill Gates and all that.

“With hindsight, I think he took me seriously and got a bit affronted at the thought of a whole city shunning his product. Never heard from him again after that.

“It was the first time that anyone’s ever taken me seriously so it was a bit of a shock, to be honest.”