Saying you're not interested and saying a categorical no is a bit different. Mario was a 'committee' signing all day long. Remember the excerpt from Gerrard's book where Rodgers told him he had no choice but to take the gamble?
He had to take the gamble because he had only so much left of his budget most probably and on paper, Mario was a better player than Remy. We spent 117m in that window, remember?