 Fowler began the 2001 – 02 season controversially , after being dropped by the then manager Gérard Houllier from the Liverpool squad for the 2001 Charity Shield match following a training ground confrontation with assistant manager Phil Thompson . He made an appearance in Liverpool 's 3 – 2 European Super Cup victory over Bayern Munich , but starts were intermittent . In October 2001 , he scored his first league hat @-@ trick for three years , helping Liverpool beat Leicester City 4 – 1 , but was dropped for the following league match . Though Fowler had been on a contract extension from 1999 ( unlike Steve McManaman – who exercised his <unk> <unk> the very same year ) , Fowler was linked to <unk> , Arsenal and Leeds , and Liverpool 's management as well as fans and the media constantly reported that what happened with McManaman ( regarded as a huge financial loss ) would never be repeated and thus the club never rejected those bids without consideration . This meant that coupled with Fowler 's relationship with Houllier , speculation over Fowler 's future persisted for most of Houllier 's tenure and became an issue that divided Liverpool fans . His last appearance for Liverpool was against Sunderland , in which he was substituted at half @-@ time . 
