Only four players have had the privilege of two separate playing stints with Liverpool Football Club – Ian Rush, Steve Staunton, Robbie Fowler and Craig Bellamy. Fabio Aurelio technically also falls into this category, having been released by Rafa Benitez in the summer of 2010 only to re-join under the Spaniard’s successor, Roy Hodgson, within a few months.
Jay Spearing could also be included in this list, after he returned to the club as an academy player-coach in 2022, although his second spell with the Reds does not include first team responsibilities. As such, the aforementioned quartet are the only players to hold a place in such an exclusive club, having left Anfield once for greener pastures only to later return for a second stint in the first team.
However, there could have been a fifth member if Sir Kenny Dalglish had his way during his own second stint as Liverpool manager. Taking over from Hodgson on an interim basis in January 2011, the Scot quickly decided to discard Paul Konchesky and was consequently in the market for a new left-back.
The England international featured only once in the Scot’s first five 18-man matchday squads – in a shock 2-1 defeat at Blackpool – before being loaned out to Nottingham Forest on January deadline day. This move was admittedly overshadowed by Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll’s record-breaking arrivals and Fernando Torres’ controversial £50m departure to Chelsea.
The January transfer window saw Kenny Dalglish make two key attacking signings, but he didn’t stop there. He had his sights set on bringing Stephen Warnock back to Anfield.
Warnock, who debuted for Liverpool under Benitez in 2004 and made 67 appearances before moving to Blackburn Rovers and then Aston Villa, was out of favour under Gerard Houllier at Villa. A loan move back to Liverpool in January 2011 seemed on the cards, and Warnock was thrilled at the prospect.
However, complications with Villa led to the deal collapsing. “I was devastated when the move back to Liverpool didn’t happen,” Warnock revealed to the ECHO earlier this year, in partnership with OLBG.
“I wanted to go back, I wasn’t in the team at Villa. I came into training one day and got pulled to one side by Gary McAllister. He told me Kenny Dalglish had been on the phone and he wanted me back at Liverpool.
“I was happy with this and it was all done on Villa’s end, I wanted to play football. Gary told me to just get myself up there and enjoy my football again.”
The player revealed some behind-the-scenes tension that thwarted his potential return to Liverpool, saying: “However, I’d had a bit of a fallout with Gerard Houllier at Villa and he seemed to get his back up about me returning to Liverpool. He clearly wasn’t happy about it for whatever reason and suddenly wanted a bigger loan fee for me to move there. Liverpool just said that they weren’t willing to pay that number.
“I think there was also an element of my agent at the time that didn’t give Liverpool certain information as well. I was more than willing to take a wage cut to go back there to make the move happen.”
Expressing his frustration, he added: “I just wanted to play my football again at all costs, get on to the pitch at Liverpool and enjoy it. I think it was mainly a mixture of Villa playing hardball and also my agent at the time probably being a little bit greedy and not helping me out as well.”
