Midfield

By January of 2004, Barcelona was a club in deep crisis. Since the 1999-00 season, they’d finished further and further down the LaLiga table — second in 2000, fourth in 2001, fourth in 2002 and a disastrous sixth in 2003. 

The 2003-04 season looked to be even worse yet. Club president Joan Gaspart had been forced to resign because of the decline, and his young replacement, Joan Laporta, had begun his presidency in farce after promising Barcelona supporters David Beckham only to see him land at Real Madrid.

If you are a Liverpool fan, you should be pretty stoked right now. Your transfer window has gone from about as underwhelming as James Milner at Karaoke Night, to downright exciting, like James Milner at…well, it’s exciting. Just know that.