When Liverpool needed a new No.9 in the summer of 2013, Brendan Rodgers scouted the market to find the answer.
In the end, Celta Vigo striker Iago Aspas was deemed the right option. On this day nine years ago, the Reds completed the signing of the striker in an £8million deal.
Aspas arrived at Anfield with a lot of promise from the Spanish leagues. Having scored 12 goals in 37 appearances during the 2012/13 campaign, his first in La Liga, Rodgers and the infamous transfer committee were hoping he was the club’s next Fernando Torres. However, it’s fair to say that things did not go according to plan.
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Aspas featured in six of Liverpool’s first seven league matches of the 2013/14 season. The Spaniard partnered Daniel Sturridge up front while Luis Suarez served a suspension for biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic in the previous campaign.
But the then-26-year-old would then pick up a muscle injury that kept him out for more than a month. From that point forward, things were never the same for Aspas.
He would go on to make just another eight more Premier League appearances, failing to score a single goal. His solitary strike in a Liverpool shirt came against Oldham Athletic in the third round of the FA Cup.
And what may end up being the lasting image of Aspas’ time in a red shirt came in his final appearance for the club. While the word ‘corner’ is often associated with Trent Alexander-Arnold brilliance against Barcelona, it’s a different matter for Aspas.
April 2014 saw the Reds face Chelsea in a crucial Premier League encounter at Anfield. Jose Mourinho's men would go on to win 2-0 to deal a damaging blow to Rodgers' side's title chances.
But in the closing moments of the game, with the score at 1-0, and Liverpool still very much in it, Aspas took a corner that rolled along the ground and into the path of Chelsea winger Willian. What followed was a counter attack, led by former red Torres, who helped tee up Willian to seal the victory.
Years later, Aspas admitted that moment, which was widely ridiculed on social media, still came into his mind. He even admitted that may be the only lasting memory Liverpool fans will have of him.
“I suppose it’s because it was my last game and we lost,” Aspas told The Guardian in 2017. “It was a great season for Liverpool – one of their best – although I would have liked to have played a bigger part and that corner is the final memory, so it’s their lasting image of me.
“But in football you can’t forever live in the past. Things keep moving, every day gives you another chance."
After just a single season at Anfield, he left on loan to join Sevilla with an obligation to buy. A further year later, a permanent return to Celta Vigo was completed.
What went wrong for Aspas? Was it a case of being in the right place at the wrong time? There's a fair argument to say that the injury combined with the return of an in-form Suarez played a part in the now-34-year-old never hitting his stride at Anfield.
When you look at how much Aspas has thrived since leaving Liverpool, it makes you wonder what might have been.
In the 264 appearances he’s made for Celta since his return, he’s scored 134 goals and gone on to play for Spain. What’s possibly even more impressive is that he’s hit the double-figure mark in each of the seven seasons since his move back to the La Liga club.
What could have been.
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