I once collapsed in the Anfield dressing room but injuries aren't why I didn't play much for Liverpool

Jari Litmanen joined Liverpool on a free transfer from Barcelona in January 2001, but that wasn’t the first time the Reds tried to lure him to Anfield.

Jari Litmanen looking back at his career

“In the end, three clubs made an offer in 1999: Liverpool, Barcelona and Bayern Munich,”

"It was not difficult to choose Barca: they had the same philosophy as Ajax."

“They are two different clubs who are built from the same source. I have heard [Pep] Guardiola say: ‘Cruyff built the chapel, and we just painted it.’”

Liverpool would get the boyhood Red 18 months later though, after a frustrating spell at Camp Nou.

But despite being signed to wild fanfare, his fortunes did not improve much on Merseyside.

Litmanen would register nine goals and six assists from 43 appearances for the club, but only started on 19 occasions.

Litmanen insists that injuries wasn’t the reason for his limited game-time as he looked to set the record straight, having never challenged management on his lack of action at the time.

Litmanen said

“It broke into eight pieces,” Litmanen said of that wrist injury suffered just three months into his Liverpool career. He would miss the rest of the campaign as the Reds won a famous cup treble as a result.

“After the game, I collapsed in the dressing room after the adrenaline wore off. I went to the hospital but I don’t remember the journey.

“I played much more with (Gerard) Houllier but when he had his heart problem, Phil Thompson came in. My minutes dropped down. Suddenly I didn’t play at all.

“I remember there were two games in four days in September 2001, Tottenham and Dynamo Kyiv, where I scored the only goals in two 1-0 wins. It took another month for me to start another league match.

“As a player, you think: ‘What did I do wrong?’ But I never asked why. I have never said anything negative about players or staff.

“I didn’t miss any training or games because of illness or injury. That was my best year ever, fitness-wise.

"People would come up to me in Tesco and ask why I wasn’t playing. I didn’t have an explanation.”