Liverpool's fall in the back-end of Rafa Benitez's reign at the club was the start of a dark era in Liverpool's history - and none more so personify that time that Alberto Aquilani.
A talented Italian who was extremely highly thought of in the Serie A, Aquilani was Liverpool's replacement for Xabi Alonso, who departed for Real Madrid in 2009.
But his time at the club was tainted before it had even began. He was injured when the Reds signed him, meaning he couldn't feature until at least Halloween.
In an interview with the Liverpool Echo, the now retired Aquilani detailed what actually went wrong at Anfield.
'A lot of people think they spent too much money and never played me so I was a flop.
'They are right. It’s right. But a lot of things happened behind that.'
Before joining the Reds, Aquilani had no quest to leave the Italian capital, but the fact that Roma deemed him surplus, combined with the prospect of playing alongside Steven Gerrard, was too good an opportunity to resist.
'Liverpool was a big change for me,' Aquilani admitted. 'I was a player born in Rome. Player for Roma. Supporter of Roma. For me it was very difficult to leave Roma'
'Liverpool, everybody told me it was the paradise of football. It was the right move.
'It’s a big club and you have to be focused on the pitch and on the game. I went there with a lot of positivity. John Arne Riise spoke to me about Liverpool and I spoke with Rafa Benitez many times.
'I love English football, I love the style of Liverpool, the fans and also the players. Steven Gerrard was my hero so to play alongside him was a big opportunity.'
'The problem was I was injured,” he admitted. “I told Rafa Benitez, ‘Rafa, okay I’ll come, I’m really happy to come, but I am injured’. ‘No problem, we’ll do the deal for five years. Not for five months or five days, for five years so you have recovery’.
'I was paid a lot of money. At this time I was a big name for Liverpool, a big transfer, so the people, the journalists, the press, everyone, they expect me to be a big player.
'But the situation was that I was injured and then on the bench for five months. It was very, very difficult coming to another club, a new club and a big move, and not playing. Not because I don’t want to play, because I can’t play.”
'This was hard and the team was not going good this year. We go out of the Champions League, we go out of the top four. It was not a good situation.'
Aquilani would go on to play just 18 league matches for the Reds, and after loan spells away he finally left the club to join Fiorentina in 2012.
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