Liverpool were due to receive the Premier League trophy at Anfield on Saturday. They will get another chance, but these players won’t. They are some of the best players who never won the title.
Ruud Gullit
Ruud Gullit loved sexy football but he never played for a team sexy enough to win the title in England. Does he care? Probably not. After all, during his career he established himself as one of the best players the world had ever seen.
In 10 years between 1983 and 1993, he won six league titles with Feyenoord, PSV Eindhoven and AC Milan. He won back-to-back European Cups in an incredible Milan side which included the likes of Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard and Franco Baresi.
His finest achievement with Holland was winning the 1988 European Championship in West Germany. Eyebrows were raised when Chelsea signed him on a free transfer in 1995 when he was 33. Ruud still had it, but it would be a few more years before Chelsea became genuine title challengers.
He played a part in that happening on and off the pitch. He became Chelsea player-manager in 1996 and led the team out at Wembley when they won the FA Cup the following summer.
Fernando Torres
Rafa Benitez spent £24m on Fernando Torres in 2007 in order to turn Liverpool from one of Europe's best cup sides into regular Premier League title challengers.
In his second season, Torres and Steven Gerrard went close to bringing the title back to Anfield. Liverpool lost just twice in the league all season and they beat Manchester United home and away, but they still finished four points behind Sir Alex Ferguson's champions. It represented the peak of Torres' club career as a combination of injuries and loss of form undermined his confidence.
A £50m move to Chelsea in 2011 didn't work out even though he was part of the squad that won the Champions League in 2012. He didn't win a title at any of his five clubs, but he won two European Championships and the World Cup with Spain.
Jay-Jay Okocha
Forget everything you think you know about Sam Allardyce. While he was Bolton manager, not only did he transform them into a Premier League club, but he also signed some of the most talented players in the world.
One of those was Jay-Jay Okocha. He was famously so good that they named him twice. He moved to Bolton from Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of 2002 and quickly established himself as one of the most talented players in the Premier League.
Allardyce described him as the best captain he ever had. Not bad for a player who was dismissed by some as a mercenary when he moved to England.
He never won the title at the seven clubs he played for, but he did win the African Cup of Nations with Nigeria in 1994.
Robbie Keane
Robbie Keane hit the headlines in 1997 when he was just 17 with two goals on his Wolves debut in a 2-0 win at Norwich. Two years later he moved to Coventry, then Inter Milan and Leeds.
It was at Tottenham though where he felt most at home, especially when he was playing up front with Dimitar Berbatov. A £20m move to Liverpool in 2008 didn't work out and he returned to play for two more seasons at Spurs.
He retired in 2018. By then he had scored 325 times in 737 games for 11 clubs. He also played a record 146 times for Ireland, scoring a record 68 goals. He was such a good finisher, we'll even forgive him his trademark cartwheel, forward roll, pistol-shooting celebration.
Juninho
Juninho arrived in the Premier League in 1995 just as the competition was establishing itself as the richest and most glamorous in the world. Just months after shining for Brazil with an eye-catching display against England at Wembley, Juninho's £4.75m move from Sao Paulo to newly-promoted Middlesbrough stunned just about everybody.
His club's erratic form didn't prevent Juninho becoming a hero at the Riverside Stadium. They reached both domestic cup finals in 1997 but a failure to fulfil a fixture at Blackburn Rovers in February of that year saw them deducted three points. That turned out to be the difference between staying up and going down at the end of Juninho's second season.
The enduring image of Juninho's brilliant 1996/97 campaign were his tears at Leeds, where a 1-1 draw confirmed Middlesbrough's relegation. However, he returned for two more stints with Boro, and there was to a happy ending in his third spell when he helped the club win the 2004 League Cup.
Marcel Desailly
What a player. What a CV. A World Cup, a European Championship, two Champions Leagues, two Serie A titles and the FA Cup. Desailly is arguably the greatest French defender of all time - and he could play in midfield as well.
He spent six years at Chelsea after moving to Stamford Bridge from AC Milan in 1998. In his six seasons in London Chelsea finished third, fifth, sixth, sixth, fourth and second. When he left, they won back-to-back titles under Jose Mourinho and Roman Abramovich.
Gianluca Vialli
Gianluca Vialli had just won the Champions League with Juventus when he arrived at Chelsea in 1996. Ruud Gullit had succeeded Glenn Hoddle as manager and he was determined to make Chelsea genuine title challengers.
Vialli could play anywhere across the front line and he had established his reputation in Italy linking up with forwards such as Roberto Mancini, Roberto Baggio, Alessandro Del Piero and Fabrizio Ravenelli. He had won nine major honours in Italy and was nearing the end of his playing days when he moved to London.
Despite an uneasy relationship with Gullit, he still won the FA Cup, the League Cup and the European Cup Winners' Cup as a player and player-manager at Chelsea.
Steve McManaman
It is unlikely that Steve McManaman has ever lost a night's sleep worrying about the fact he never won a title in England.
Within 12 months of moving to Real Madrid from Liverpool he was lifting the Champions League trophy in Paris. That was after a man-of-the-match performance and a stunning goal in a 3-0 win against Valencia in the 2000 final at the Stade de France.
In four seasons at the Bernabeu he won two Champions Leagues and two La Liga titles. Of course he also played for Liverpool and Manchester City but in those days the most successful league clubs were Manchester United, Arsenal, Leeds, Blackburn and Chelsea.
Gordon Banks
Gordon Banks was in goal when England won the World Cup in 1966 and he will also always be remembered for his "save of the century" against Pele four years later.
At club level, he began his career at Chesterfield before moving to Leicester in 1959, jumping two levels to the First Division. He started in the reserves with five goalkeepers ahead of him in the squad and gradually rose to first choice as Leicester reached two FA Cup Finals in 1961 and 1963.
He won the League Cup with Leicester in 1964 but despite his World Cup win in 1966, Banks was dropped as first choice at Filbert Street the following season in favour of a young Peter Shilton. That brought about his departure to Stoke where he won another League Cup in 1972 but a car accident later that year ended a glorious playing career.
He was named FIFA Goalkeeper of the Year six times.
Xabi Alonso
It doesn't seem fair that in an era when Spain had midfielders as good as Xavi, Andres Iniesta, David Silva, Sergio Busquets and Cesc Fabregas, they also had Xabi Alonso. He could read and control the game and his long-range passing as a deep-lying midfielder was out of this world.
He spent five years at Anfield and was an integral part of the Liverpool side that won the Champions League in 2005. He only started winning league titles after he left Liverpool though - one at Real Madrid and three at Bayern Munich.
Robbie Fowler
Robbie Fowler scored on his Liverpool debut and never looked back, establishing himself as the best natural finisher of his generation. He was so good Liverpool fans called him God.
At Anfield he was part of Roy Evans' exciting young team which pushed Manchester United and Newcastle in the title race in 1996 - but that proved to be as good as it got as far as league titles were concerned.
He won four major honours at Anfield, including a cup treble in 2001. During two spells at Liverpool between 1993 and 2007 he scored 183 goals across 11 seasons.
Gianfranco Zola
Gianfranco Zola was one of the first foreign players to come to the Premier League at the peak of his career. He had learned from the best at Napoli, training with Diego Maradona and he lit up Stamford Bridge when he moved to Chelsea in 1996.
He won four major trophies in seven seasons at Stamford Bridge but no league titles. The 1998/99 season is remembered because of the title race between Manchester United and Arsenal. United went on to win the treble but Chelsea were also in the race for the title and they lost just three league games that season.
Chelsea were never in contention for the title in the remaining four years of Zola's time in West London, although he played a key role in getting the club into the Champions League in 2003. That same year Zola was voted the best Chelsea player of all time.
Jamie Carragher
There's no question that Jamie Carragher was good enough to play in a title-winning side. He just played for Liverpool in an era when the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea were dominating the Premier League.
The closest he came to winning the title was in 2009 when Liverpool finished second, four points behind Manchester United, and in 2002 when they finished second behind Arsenal.
Carragher was a legendary one club man who would be regarded by many as the best defender to have ever played for Liverpool. While he may be challenged by Virgil van Dijk for that honour in years to come, Carragher can always look back on an incredible career which saw him win seven major trophies including the Champions League in 2005.
Glenn Hoddle
If you were making a list of the most naturally-talented footballers England had produced, you could make a pretty good case for making Glenn Hoddle No 1. In the '70s and '80s he was the player every kid in the playground wanted to be. He had extraordinary vision and ability and he looked the part - stylish, elegant and supremely gifted.
He won two FA Cups at Spurs but it wasn't until he moved to Monaco that he got his hands on a league title in 1988.
It's remarkable that he played only 53 times for England. He was regarded by some as a luxury player. If he been any other nationality he would probably have played twice as many games for his country.
In September 1983 he scored one of the best goals you will ever see in a 3-2 win for Spurs at Watford. One touch, turn and an outrageous chip. All in under three seconds. Somehow it wasn't goal of the season, but those who have seen it will never forget it.
Gary Lineker
Only Sir Bobby Charlton and Wayne Rooney have scored more goals for England than Gary Lineker. Charlton and Rooney won eight titles between them, Linkeker didn't win one - not even at Barcelona.
The closest he came was in his one season at Everton in 1985-86. Lineker scored 30 league goals but Everton finished second, two points behind Liverpool. Everton had won the title the season before Lineker arrived and they won it the season after he left.
Does he lose any sleep over not winning a league title? Unlikely. He had a glittering career, starred at World Cups and became an accomplished broadcaster and the face of the BBC's football coverage.
Paul Gascoigne
If he had moved to the right club, Paul Gascoigne would have been a multiple title winner. To be fair, he did win two titles in Scotland with Rangers but the only medal he won in England was the FA Cup in 1991 and that was bittersweet because he badly injured himself in the opening stages of the final against Nottingham Forest.
Of course, everybody knows Gascoigne turned down a move to Manchester United in 1988 and signed for Tottenham instead. Gascoigne says it's one of the biggest regrets of his career. To be fair to him, United hadn't won the title for 21 years when he moved to White Hart Lane instead of Old Trafford.
Nobody knows quite what would have happened if he had picked United, but it's fair to assume it would have involved at least one league title.
Steven Gerrard
Liverpool had already gone nearly a decade without winning the title when Steven Gerrard made his debut in 1998. He was a key figure at Anfield as Gerard Houllier moved the club on from the unfulfilled promise of the Spice Boys era and turned them into an accomplished cup side.
Gerrard grew in stature under Rafa Benitez and his remarkable captain's display in Istanbul helped Liverpool win the Champions League final in 2005 despite having been 3-0 down at half time against AC Milan. He could have won the title elsewhere if he had not turned down two chances to sign for Chelsea.
The closest he came to winning the title at Liverpool was in 2009 and in 2014 when his infamous slip allowed Demba Ba to score for Chelsea in a 2-0 win at Anfield. Twelve months later, Gerrard moved to LA Galaxy after 17 seasons at Liverpool. He won seven major honours at Anfield, but no league title.
He is arguably Liverpool's greatest ever player, but Sir Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness might have something to say about that.
Bobby Moore
Bobby Moore could read the game as easily as you have read this article. In an era when centre-backs had to be tough as teak he was a pure footballer who was renowned for the timing of his tackles and his leadership qualities. He is a national icon who captained England to World Cup glory in 1966 and his statue stands proudly outside Wembley Stadium.
He played for England an incredible 108 times in an era when caps were hard to come by. He is unquestionably West Ham's greatest-ever player and he ended his career at Upton Park having won an FA Cup and a European Cup Winners' Cup.
Pele described him as the best defender the world has ever seen.
It's just a shame he didn't receive the knighthood he deserved. And it's a shame the FA never found a role for him in the game after he retired.