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Roy Evans, a boot room veteran who had been on the club's pay roll since the late 1950's, was promoted to the position of manager following the dismissal of Graeme Souness. He guided Liverpool to an eighth place finish in the 1993-94 Premier League campaign, and made two expensive additions to the squad for the following season - central defenders Phil Babb and John Scales. Young striker Robbie Fowler netted 29 goals in all competitions and was voted Young Player of the Year by the PFA, while veteran striker Ian Rush was still scoring vast numbers of goals in his 34th year. Liverpool made big progress during the 1994-95 season, finished fourth in the Premiership and beating Bolton Wanderers 2-1 in the League Cup final.
In the summer of 1995, Liverpool paid Nottingham Forest a British record fee of £8.5million for striker Stan Collymore. The high fee initially looked to have paid off, but during his second season at the club, Collymore's form dipped (and he appeared to be wasting his talent with incidents off the pitch) and he was sold to Aston Villa for £7million in May 1997. Within four years he had quit the game after brief unsuccessful spells with Fulham, Leicester City, Bradford City and finally Real Oviedo.
Robbie Fowler and Stan Collymore formed an impressive partnership for the 1995-96 season which saw the veteran Ian Rush relegated to the substitute bench for much of the season before his departure on a free transfer to Leeds United. Liverpool finished third in the Premiership and were within shouting distance of the title right up to the final weeks of the season. They reached the F.A Cup final and were defeated by Manchester United. But Liverpool still qualified for the European Cup Winners Cup because United had won the Premiership/F.A Cup double.
Liverpool finished fourth in the 1996-97 season having frequently led the table for much of the early part of the season, and were defeated by Paris St. Germain in the semi finals of the European Cup Winners Cup.
1997-98 saw the emergence of a world class young player at Liverpool: Michael Owen. The 18-year-old Chester-born centre forward was a regular player in the first team almost all season long, relegating high profile German striker Karlheinz Reidle to the bench. He became the youngest-ever full England international in February 1998 and was voted Young Player of the Year by the PFA. Liverpool had an outside chance of winning the Premiership title for much of the 1997-98 season but were unable to catch champions Arsenal and runners-up Manchester United, so their place in Europe for 1998-99 was merely the UEFA Cup rather than the Champions League.