After having sold Michael Owen the previous summer and losing new signing Djibril Cisse to a season long injury early on in his Anfield career, manager Rafael Benitez found his frontline a little lacking in firepower when the transfer window opened in January 2005. With Benitez well aware of this lack of attacking options, the club announced the signing of Fernando Morientes from Real Madrid on the 13th of January, for a fee of £6.3m. A former fans favourite in Madrid, Morientes had seen himself slowly but surely fall out of favour in the Spanish capital. The arrival of Brazilian Ronaldo from Inter Milan pushed him further down the pecking order, and it became apparent his time at the club was drawing to a close. Morientes was loaned out for the 2003/04 season to French Ligue 1 side Monaco, where his goals helped the club reach the final of the Champions League and saw him win the European Striker of the Year award. For reasons unknown though, the deal was never made permanent, and the summer of 2004 saw Morientes return to the Bernabeu. The arrival of Owen had seen further competition for a place in the team though, and after only making 13 substitute appearances in the 2004/05 season Morientes sealed a move to Anfield. Fernando had arrived with a reputation as a proven goalscorer, having netted 100 times in 259 appearances for Real. The fans were excited at the prospect of Morientes leading the line, but unfortunately the reality turned out to be very different. The Spaniard made his debut against Manchester United two days after signing for the club, and went on to make a further 14 appearances for Liverpool in the 2004/05 season, but only finished on three goals (all in 2-1 league victories, against Charlton, Fulham and Portsmouth respectively). Allowances were made though, it is well known that some players take time to adapt to the pace of the Premiership, and it was believed that having fully adjusted and with the opportunity to play on the European stage (Morientes played no part in Liverpool's winning Champions League campaign in 2005, having already played in that year's competition for Real) that fans would begin to see the real Fernando Morientes. The 2005/06 season began a lot more positively for Morientes, a brace against CSKA Sofia in Champions League qualifying lifting fans hopes that he was finally coming good. This positive start was not built on though, and it would turn out to be mid-November before Fernando scored his first league goal of the campaign (in a 3-0 home win over Portsmouth). There were differing theories for his failure to make an impact at Liverpool, the two most common philosophies being that he either wasn't suited to playing the deeper role asked of him by Benitez or that he simply couldn't handle the pace of the league, but regardless of the reasons the general consensus was that it was time to move on. After finishing the season with 9 goals from 46 appearances, with only 3 from 11 in Europe where he was expected to excel, Benitez sold Morientes to Valencia in July 2006 for a reported £3m. (Ed Colenutt)