Perhaps more than any top flight team, Liverpool fans have had to deal with the heartbreak of losing almost all of their best, most well-regarded players to rival squads when they reach the top of their game. Owen, Fowler and McManaman were bad enough; the constant threat that Gerard could find something better to do always hangs overhead like a guillotine blade. Nothing will ever quite top the shock of Ian Rush departing Anfield first for Juventus for a year in 1987, then for Leeds in 1996. Unlike Fowler, and many other formerly great players who have left and tried to return to the clubs where they made their name, Rush's two runs at Liverpool were both pretty much flawless. Between 1980 and 1987 he got 139 from 224 appearances, followed by 90 from the 245 times he played from 1988 to 1996. After the first departure was such a dagger in fans' backs, it seemed untenable that he'd pull the same thing again. And yet he did, running off to Leeds and eventually ending his career rather unceremoniously at Sydney Olympic in the 1999-2000 season. All went wrong when he shaved the 'tache.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
