Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher loved Liverpool team-mate but one angry outburst and his contract was cancelled

There are some footballers who just seem like they are born to play for certain clubs.

Those who possess certain qualities - sometimes to do with their approach to the game, sometimes relating to their values or look, sometimes indefinable - which just feel the right fit.

The trick of course is getting them on board at mutually beneficial junctures for both player and club which is not always possible as Liverpool discovered when they were finally able to get Jari Litmanen to Merseyside.

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The Finnish attacker had long been on the Anfield radar with his eventual arrival in 2001 a case of third time lucky after two previously unproductive attempts to bring him to the club.

It looked like a marriage made in heaven with Litmanen widely known to have idolised Liverpool as a kid and maintaining an affinity to such an extent he reportedly irritated Ajax players with his constant references to the Reds during his time in Holland but circumstances conspired against making his time in the red shirt the success all involved hoped and expected it to be.

The man who would go on to be regarded as Finland’s greatest ever footballer began his professional career in his homeland with Reipas, making his top flight debut at the age of only 16 in 1987. The son of parents who had both played international football, he would move to the country’s biggest club, HJK Helsinki, four years later and twelve months later would move to MyPa 47 who he helped win the Finnish Cup. It was his goalscoring performance in the final against FF Jaro which alerted Ajax’s scouting network.

A number of European clubs