his play right at the end of that last campaign. McManaman scored a crucial goal away at Blackburn Rovers, set up a dramatic injury-time equaliser with a through-ball for Paul Ince to score in front of the Kop against Manchester United, and scored the winner with a "scorching drive" to complete the full turn around result against Tottenham Hotspur after trailing 2–0 at half-time. In what was the final match of the season, and what would be McManaman's final match and final contribution on the pitch for the club, McManaman assisted Karl-Heinz Riedle with a goal at the Kop with a trademark right-wing run and pull back as Liverpool won 3–0 against Wimbledon, enabling McManaman to end his career at the club to a standing ovation, a lap of honour at Anfield, and a two-row squad farewell at the entrance of the players' tunnel. Real Madrid 1999–2000: Early success On 1 July 1999, after 364 appearances and 66 goals for Liverpool, McManaman transferred to La Liga club Real Madrid as Guus Hiddink's last signing (before being sacked, and while the club was under president Lorenzo Sanz). Before McManaman arrived, the club was described as undergoing a management and debt crisis and Raúl told the press, "The dressing room is a cesspit of lies, treachery and whispers ... I feel sorry for new players like Steve McManaman coming into the club. If McManaman thinks he is coming to one of the world's top clubs then he has made a big mistake." According to The Independent, "as Steve McManaman was unveiled at a press conference at the Bernabeu stadium, a mile up the road Clarence Seedorf was explaining his part in a dressing-room altercation with Fernando Hierro...The Madrid newspapers had carried a word-by-word and blow-by-blow account of the spat that morning. Pitched unwittingly into the mayhem, McManaman must feel as if he has left the Spice Boys for Oasis." The club had appointed John Toshack as its new coach and had already been forced to sell key players like Predrag Mijatović, Davor Šuker and Christian Panucci due to mounting debt, while Seedorf was later released shortly after McManaman arrived. McManaman's arrival saw him become only the second English player to ever play for the club, after Laurie Cunningham had played for them in the 1980s. He became the first-ever player from the Premier League to move to play for Madrid and was