A new era dawned at Liverpool in the summer of 2010. Rafa Benitez was gone and Roy Hodgson was brought in as his replacement.
And therefore it was time for one of the biggest transfer windows in the club’s recent history. A new manager meant new ideas would be coming to Anfield, and as a result a different selection of players.
One of those was Christian Poulsen. On this day in 2010, Liverpool agreed a deal with Juventus worth £4.5million for the Denmark international.
READ MORE: Liverpool could have 'second chance' to sign Barcelona midfielder on free transfer
READ MORE: Michael Owen makes huge Mohamed Salah claim after being left 'staggered' by Liverpool star
Poulsen was one of eight new signings Hodgson brought to Anfield in that infamous summer spree. He joined the likes of Raul Meireles, Brad Jones, Paul Konchesky, Danny Wilson, Jonjoe Shelvey, Joe Cole and Milan Jovanovic.
He was brought in as an eventual replacement for Javier Mascherano, who was set to leave for Barcelona in an acrimonious move after the Argentine international allegedly refused to play in a match against Man City.
Before either move was completed, Mascherano wanted to make his side of the story clear to Liverpool fans.
"The only thing I want to say is I don't have anything against the Liverpool supporters, the Liverpool people,” said Mascherano, after playing for Argentina against the Republic of Ireland in August 2010. “My problem is not to play for Liverpool. I'm very proud to play for Liverpool. It's another thing.
"I said to him [Hodgson] that maybe for my life I prefer to change the country, not the club. That is the fact. Sometimes you can see all the things that the papers or the press say, but at the end the only thing I can say is thank you to everyone in Liverpool because they supported me all the time, from the beginning until now."
Poulsen was 30 years old at the time of his arrival. Hodgson would have known it was a gamble signing a player of that age, but having worked with him at FC Copenhagen the experienced boss was confident it would work out.
However, there were signs even before his move that Poulsen was more than just a gamble. Indeed, if you were to ask anyone associated with AC Milan, you might not get a friendly answer.
The 2005/06 season saw Milan face Schalke in the Champions League group stage. In one of the contests, Poulsen was starting in midfield for the German club, and was tasked with dealing with Kaka.
Carlo Ancelotti, who was in charge of Milan at the time, did not hold back with his assessment of Poulsen’s tactics after the game. The match finished 2-2 in September 2005 in Germany.
"Normally, I try to be rational when making judgements but Poulsen is a coward," said Ancelotti after the game.
"He plays his game when the referee is not watching, he starts swinging kicks, pushing his rivals when the official's back is turned.
"He is a coward and he shouldn't be playing football."
This match also led then-Milan chief officer Adriano Galliani to admit that the club were thinking about lodging a complaint to UEFA about Poulsen’s tactics during the game.
“The first condition is that the referee didn't see or punish what we will eventually talk about," said Galliani.
"I repeat - should Milan decide to present a video report on what happened Uefa will analyse it."
One incident that Poulsen was on the receiving end of came in the European Championships in 2004. Against Italy, Francesco Totti spat at Poulsen, which the Roma legend would later describe as the "most embarrassing episode" in his life.
Fast forward a couple of years and Poulsen was making headlines for the wrong reasons again. This time it was with his country, Denmark, in a 2008 European Championships qualifying match
In the closing stages of a group stage clash against Sweden in June 2007, Poulsen was shown a straight red card for punching the Sweden striker Markus Rosenberg in the stomach. Sweden were awarded a penalty for the incident, but the spot-kick was never taken after a chain of events led to the match being abandoned.
A Denmark fan then entered the pitch, shortly after Poulsen was shown the red card, and appeared to attack referee Herbert Fandel. The match was soon abandoned, with the score at 3-3.
Poulsen was very remorseful after the game. He labelled the incident as the “stupidest thing” he had done in his life.
"I was involved in a tussle with the Swedish player, who I felt had provoked me twice. I saw red and I hit him," said Poulsen after the game. "I would like to apologise to my team-mates and the general public. It's the most stupid thing I've ever done.
"[The Denmark coach] Morten Olsen told me afterwards there's no place on this stage for this sort of thing and I have to agree. It happened at a time when we'd pulled back Sweden's lead and were in the driving seat. I can't condone it."
Daniel Agger, who was already a Liverpool player at this point, was in the Denmark team alongside Poulsen for that match. And when the time came for the Reds to sign the midfielder, Agger gave his views on his international team-mate moving to Anfield.
Speaking to the ECHO in August 2010, Agger said: “Maybe he will find the pace of here a bit of a culture shock; he will have to get used to the extra high tempo.
“He has played in Italy, Spain and Germany and done very well, so I don't see any reason why he shouldn't be a success with Liverpool. We have Mascherano but it looks like he is leaving so there is a gap there.”
Agger's prediction that Poulsen may be in for a culture shock in the Premier League proved to be correct. The Dane would struggle with the pace of football in England.
Poulsen's struggles would get so bad during the early part of the season that Liverpool fans would even boo him during a draw against Wigan and, when he was jeered from the pitch after being substituted in a Europa League clash with Napoli., Hodgson admitted he was "devastated" with his form.
"He was good against Wigan, his introduction secured the point at least because he was very good when he came on," the Liverpool manager said. "Unfortunately I can't do anything about the fans, but he's had one or two games in front of our crowd where he's not played well and he knows he hasn't. He is devastated by that and the crowd, who aren't stupid, know he's not played well. It's a fact of life.
"He can only keep working hard and when he gets his chance he has to get on with his job. He had a job to do against Wigan and without his introduction, with a very tired Maxi Rodríguez and Dirk Kuyt, who knows we could even have lost the game. But he's got quality, he's a good defensive midfield player. He's not that bad on the ball, but let's not beat about the bush and try to disguise the fact – he's had a bad start."
Hodgson added: "When I took him off in one game he was devastated, not just because I'd made the decision but because he knows he was nowhere near the level he can play. He knows having played in Italy, for Juventus, that when you play well the crowd sing your name and when you're not playing well they boo you. He knows that. But I have every faith in him. We will get a lot of good use out of him over the year but he knows it will be tough to win the fans over.
"I can't wave a magic wand to do that, I can't speak for them, but I'd be surprised if the ones at Wigan said he didn't do anything for the team because he did. He won a lot of challenges, got us on the counterattack on several occasions, didn't miss a pass and won a few headers. He's devastated because he wants to do well, because that's what he came to Liverpool to do. Every player gets sad if they're not immediately accepted by the crowd or if their performances aren't good enough to do that. But he's doing his best and people have bad games."
Unfortunately for Poulsen, things wouldn't improve for him at Anfield and he would fall out of favour once Sir Kenny Dalglish replaced Hodgson as Liverpool manager.
He'd make just 21 appearances for Liverpool in total before moving to French club Evian in 2011, just a year after his move to Merseyside. A move to Ajax followed before he returned to boyhood club FC Copenhagen in 2014.
After retiring from playing in 2016, Poulsen went into coaching and is now the assistant manager of the Denmark national team.
READ NEXT:
