Most Liverpool fans in my age group would be highly ecstatic and nostalgic. Remembering the days of sitting alone on a thursday night in a TV room in Kumasi, fighting for a remote on a saturday in a hostel TV room so you can catch a glimple of Liverpool playing for 5 minutes only to be told your club is a mid-table club so your desires cannot be granted or news on missing out on players because you can’t provide Champions League Football. Times have really changed. Players were even choosing Tottenham over Liverpool. How possible?
That was however, a real reflection of what mismanagement and time had done to a big club like Liverpool. From the lofty heights of years gone-by, we had been reduced to sore spectacle. Resplendent in the 80s, lustreless in the late 2000s. The few moments of shine – the treble under Houllier, the champions league, FA Cup and Super Cup under Benitez, the Carabao under Dalglish amongst others. However great these moments were, they were greatly shadowed by the many times Liverpool was close to winning the league and eventually losing it. The team placed second in 00/01,08/09,13/14,18/19. Thats four times since 2000. The pain of dashed expectations and Steven Gerrard never winning one.
Dalglish,Graeme Souness, Roy Evans, Gerard Houllier, Rafael Benitez, Hodgson, Dalglish, Rodgers and Klopp. That’s just the list of managers we had to go through to win our 19th Premier league title. Exhausting. FSG then appointed Klopp to replace Rodgers. An appointment I was skeptical of as he hadn’t won any European trophy then. I mean we were in a pit so I felt we needed someone with the clout of Don Carlo Ancelloti. I was looking short term, short-sighted I guess.
Klopp in his first season took us to the Europa and League Cup finals and that was a great feeling, but we lost both. We finished 8th in that season. Is this the saviour? I questionned. The next season Liverpool is fourth and has qualified for Champions League. A competition I wasn’t really keen on after that defeat to Madrid during Rodgers’ final season. However, things were beginning to look up. We placed fourth the next season and defeated Manchester City and AS Roma fantastically only to be swept away by Madrid in the final. Massive blows.
Klopp never gave up. We signed Alisson and went again. this time defeating Tottenham in the final. Who would have thought Liverpool with Jovanovic running down the wings would have Salah and Mane running down those same wings and instilling fear in the hearts of defenders watching the games at home? Who would have thought? Yet here we are this year. Celebrating a good time. The wait has finally ended and here we are as the Premier League Champions. It hasn’t be rosy at all a ride but it has been amazing and more importantly “Liverpoolistic”. Winning matches at the death and making simple situations heart-wrenching. Thank you Klopp and Dwight Gayle. He wasn’t the reason we lost the title in 2013/2014 though. We were many points ahead we just wasted it.
Be First to Comment