When I got there, all the pasta and science stuff hadn't quite caught on in England - things that were perfectly acceptable then wouldn't be tolerated now.
We had been getting some bad results, now it is up to us to make up the ground and catch Manchester United.
If they had been a bit tougher in the transfer market, they could have got me for half that. It was crazy and maybe typical of what was going on.
If I'm honest, until I got married, I was always at me mum's, even when I had my own flat, and she carried on cooking and washing and ironing for me.
I was a cheeky little lad who played football every night, pissed around with his mates, and overnight, literally overnight, came fame.
Last season I counted four fingers at them for the number of European Cups Liverpool had won. Next time, I can just stick my whole hand up.
When I emerged Liverpool had a tradition of their players working hard and playing hard, back before the Nineties and through all the glory era.
I've made plenty of mistakes, I know I have, and during my time as a footballer things have changed so that the spotlight is now even more intense.
After taking temporary charge last season he took us from looking down at the fringes of another relegation scrap, to within a kick of getting into Europe.
It's inevitable now, because everyone is a superstar, even if they're just an average player, and maybe that was part of the process set in motion when I signed that contract in 1994.