Liverpool's History [Continued]

The Graeme Souness Era (1991-1994)
(Honours won: FA Cup (1992))

Graeme Souness had a reasonable start to his career as Liverpool manager. His first season saw the club win the FA Cup with a 2-0 win over Sunderland at Wembley, a success which ensured they would be competing in the European Cup Winners Cup for the 1992-93 season. He sold many good players and spent recklessly on expensive new players who did not all prove to be successful, especially compared to younger players like Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman and Jamie Redknapp. The veteran striker Ian Rush meanwhile, was still scoring goals as freely as ever despite being in his thirties. Long-serving goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar was often being kept out of the team by promising young shot-stopper David James.

Liverpool finished sixth in the first-ever FA Premier League and never looked like title challengers at any stage during the season. The 1993-94 season was no different and Souness resigned in January 1994 after Liverpool suffered a shock defeat against Bristol City in the FA Cup.

During his tenure as Liverpool manager, Graeme Souness suffered from heart problems. This indirectly led to him falling out of favour with Liverpool fans as he sold the story of his recovery to The Sun. The Sun has long been boycotted by people from Merseyside (regardless of footballing allegiance) due to its reporting of the Hillsborough disaster.

The Roy Evans Era (1994-1998)
(Honours won: Football League Cup (1995))

"Boot room" veteran Roy Evans took over from Souness. Evans had been on the club's pay roll since the late 1950s. He guided Liverpool to an eighth place finish in the 1993-94 Premier League campaign, young striker Robbie Fowler scoring 29 goals in all competitions which led to him being voted PFA Young Player of the Year. In his first full season (1994-95) Liverpool finished fourth in the Premiership and won the League Cup, beating Bolton Wanderers 2-1 in the final.

In the summer of 1995, Liverpool paid Nottingham Forest a British record fee of £8.5 million for striker Stan Collymore. Fowler and Collymore formed an impressive partnership for the 1995-96 season which saw veteran striker Ian Rush relegated to the substitute bench for much of the season before his departure on a free transfer to Leeds United. Liverpool continued to progress that season, being within a shout of the domestic double right up to the final few weeks of the season. But they finished third in the Premiership, eleven points behind champions Manchester United, seven behind runners-up Newcastle, and lost 1-0 to Man United in the FA Cup final. Still, Liverpool were recognised as a top team once again, and were starting to attract top players once more, to aid a talented group of young stars like Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler and Jamie Redknapp, who were peaking.

Liverpool led the Premiership at several stages during the 1996-97 season, but in the end they finished fourth and had to settle for a UEFA Cup place. They had been hoping to win the Cup Winners Cup for the first time, but lost to Paris St Germain in the semi finals. The squad's off the field lad culture excesses and underachievement tag on it had also resulted in the team getting derogatorily labelled as the 'Spice Boys'.

1997-98 saw Liverpool finish third in the Premiership for the second time in four years where they finished fourth on both other occasions. Though the critics had accused them as being 'nearly men' again, the highlight of the club's season was the emergence of young striker Michael Owen. Owen became the Premiership's equal top scorer in 1998 with eighteen goals and became the youngest full England international at the time. He was also awarded the PFA Young Player of the Year Award.

The Gérard Houllier Era (1998-2004)
(Honours won: UEFA Cup (2001), FA Cup (2001), Football League Cup (2001, 2003), UEFA Super Cup (2001))

Gérard Houllier, the former French national coach, was drafted into the Liverpool management team for the 1998-99 season to work alongside Roy Evans. But Evans found that the partnership did not suit him and he quit during the season, at the end of which Liverpool finished a disappointing seventh - not even enough for a UEFA Cup place.

2000-01 was Liverpool's best season for many years. The likes of Owen, Fowler, Steven Gerrard and Sami Hyypiä contributed to the club's third place in the Premiership (thus qualifying for the Champions League) as well as completing a unique treble of the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup, followed by the FA Community Shield and European Super Cup later in 2001. The League Cup was won by beating Birmingham City on penalties after a 1-1 draw, the FA Cup by beating Arsenal 2-1 with two goals from Michael Owen in the last ten minutes and the UEFA Cup by beating Alavés, in an extraordinary game, 5-4 in extra time. This feat made Liverpool the first club in English football to achieve two 'trebles' of any kind.

By now, Liverpool's side contained a new set of players including goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek, defender and captain Sami Hyypiä, young midfielder Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen's strike partner Emile Heskey.

Liverpool finished Premiership runners-up in 2001-02, their best league finish since 1991, but suffered a humiliating defeat in the League Cup Third Round at the hands of Grimsby Town. 2001 was also dramatic for Houllier personally as he suffered a major heart problem which kept him away from the club for part of the season.

Liverpool won another League Cup in 2003 but Houllier had again failed to deliver the league title, in fact finishing thirty points behind the champions Arsenal. Although Liverpool qualified for the Champions League by finishing fourth (making three qualifications during his tenure), fans saw Houllier's conservative and defensive tactics as sacrificing too much attacking impetus to challenge Arsenal and Manchester United for the title. During this period Liverpool had their longest streak of not winning any games in the top flight. Against a background of growing disquiet amongst the Liverpool supporters Houllier and Liverpool parted by mutual consent at the end of the 2003-04 season, his replacement being the Spaniard Rafael Benítez who had just guided Valencia to the Spanish league title and UEFA Cup.