linked competitions and potential exceptions can lead to some complex situations. This was the case with Alan Hutton, who could not play in Europe for Tottenham Hotspur following his former club Rangers' coming third in their Champions League group, which meant they switched to the Europa League for the remainder of the competition. Had Rangers come 1st, 2nd or 4th in their group, Hutton would have been able to play for Tottenham. Another interesting case came in 2009, when Real Madrid purchased Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Lassana Diarra – both of whom had already played European football during the season for Ajax and Portsmouth, respectively – during the winter transfer window. Because of UEFA rules, Madrid could only pick one of these players, and ended up selecting Diarra for their European roster. Despite the rule, Real Madrid attempted to circumvent the restriction, to no avail. Manipulation Football managers can sometimes decide whether to field a player in order to deliberately cup-tie (or avoid cup-tying) the player. This can be used to manipulate their value on the transfer market for the remainder of the season, because it affects whether any potential new club can field them in the cup. There are two major motivations for deciding to cup-tie a player or not: To increase a player's value A team that wishes to transfer a player may deliberately choose not to field them in cup competitions to ensure they are not cup-tied, increasing the player's usefulness to a club that is still involved in the same competition. Two examples of this were in the 2004–05 and 2005–06 seasons, both of which involved English Premier League club Liverpool. In 2004–05, Liverpool's Michael Owen sat out of his club's Champions League games so that other top European teams would be able to sign him; he subsequently transferred to Real Madrid. Madrid were knocked out by Juventus in the round of 16, who were in turn knocked out by Liverpool on their way to winning the Champions League that season. The following season, Liverpool manager Rafael Benítez again decided to keep one of his players, Milan Baroš, out of Liverpool's squad for their 2005–06 UEFA Champions League ties in order to retain his value to clubs interested in purchasing the Czech striker's services. This time the manipulation was less successful: Baroš eventually moved to Aston Villa, a club who were not involved in the Champions League