John Arne Riise opened up on the brutal way he was told he was leaving Liverpool after seven years of service.
Riise is an undisputed Reds legend, racking up 348 appearances and winning the Champions League among the seven trophies he won while at Anfield.
The former defender was an unbelievable servant for Liverpool, joining for just £4million back in 2001.
Who could also forget the contribution he made to the 2005 Champions League victory, assisting the first goal which kickstarted Liverpool’s monumental comeback against AC Milan. Though he did miss his spot kick in the shootout.
He would leave in 2008, though not through his own choice and manager Rafael Benitez coldly told him he had little future at the club.
Speaking on talkSPORT’s The Lineup, Riise said: “I was in training and someone came and called down to the dressing room to say the boss wants to talk to you.
“We had two games left of the season and I had one year left, so I thought it was a contract extension. Hopefully I’m getting a boost.
“I sat down and I had no idea, he said ‘I think it’s time for us to go our separate ways’. I’m thinking I’ve been here for seven seasons and won everything so why?
“I knew there were stories that we were signing a new left back and he told me that Andrea Dossena was coming.
“He gave me the choice that I could stay and fight. But the new player coming in, I’m not going to get a chance for four or five months.”
What made it even more cruel was the fact he was denied making two more substitute appearances that would take him to 350 games for the club.
Riise added: “I asked him that I’ve got 348 games, can I come on as a sub in the last two to get 350 and would average 50 games a season. No chance.
“I went to the dressing room and the guys asked me what happened and I said, ‘I’m done’. I went to the car, cried a little bit by myself. Called my agent, cried to him.
“It was such a shock as I’d been there for seven seasons. My agent said, ‘don’t worry and that we’ll have a new club for you in a few days.’”
The Norwegian would join Roma that summer, where he spent three seasons, before heading back to the Premier League for a spell with Fulham.
He eventually retired from football in 2017 having played more than 850 games for club and country.
It was an illustrious career with perhaps the highlight being that Champions League final against AC Milan.
Naturally, this was discussed on The Lineup and Riise admitted they always felt they could achieve something special.
“We knew with (Rafa) Benitez that in a one-off game, we could beat anybody,” Riise said.
“We could run all day for each other.
“We didn’t have the best one-on-one players, we had Stevie (Gerrard) obviously.
“The only time I’ve ever felt shocked. I was standing in the tunnel and I’m looking next to me. I see (Paolo) Maldini, Cafu, Kaka, all these players.
“I’m thinking, ‘What the f*** am I doing here?’ I come from small-time Norway.”
Liverpool came back from a disastrous start that saw them trail 3-0 at half-time and took the game to penalties.
“For me personally, I saw the change when it became 3-2,” Riise said.
“Gennaro Gattuso started shouting.
“When we scored to make it 3-3, we had to settle back down because we didn’t want to keep going and then they score to make it 4-3 and it’s game over.”
Milan got off to a horror start as Serginho took the first attempt but blazed his effort over the bar.
Pirlo also missed thanks to Reds glovesman Jerzy Dudek, who wasn’t deceived by his slow run-up.
As for Liverpool, they buried their first two attempts via Dietmar Hamann and Djibril Cisse.
Liverpool had the chance to go 3-1 up in the shootout, but Riise was denied by Milan goalkeeper Dida.
Kaka and Smicer scored, meaning Andriy Shevchenko had to score to keep the contest alive.
But Dudek stuck out his left paw to secure Liverpool their fifth Champions League crown and give Reds fans a night to remember.
