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Now for a thread I've been meaning to write for some time. It's a belated tribute to Champions Liverpool.
When I first got into football, they were all-conquering.
When I first got into football, they were all-conquering.
The first FA Cup Final I ever watched was 1986; when I wanted Liverpool to win because I didn't like the name 'Everton'. (I'd employed the same reasoning when listening to the previous year's final, also lost by Everton, in my Dad's car).
My Mum bought me Liverpool FC's 1986-87 handbook: its review of the previous season was the first full-length piece I ever remember reading about football. And she also bought me a Liverpool strip, and programme for the 1987 Littlewoods Cup Final.
When Ian Rush put them ahead... but they lost. The first time it'd ever happened! And for some reason, in the months that followed, I lost interest. I don't think it was because they lost that game. I think it's because they were just too successful for someone like me.
Because good lord, they were dominant the following season: still maybe their best side ever. Christ, John Barnes was incredible in the late autumn and winter. But I don't recall feeling sad when Everton ended their unbeaten run; I do recall being in awe of Liverpool 5-0 Forest.
The whole of Europe was in awe of their display that night: maybe the finest in the whole history of English league football.
Yet along with only one other classmate at school, I had a strange feeling Wimbledon would beat them at Wembley.
Yet along with only one other classmate at school, I had a strange feeling Wimbledon would beat them at Wembley.
And their dominance more broadly seemed so overwhelming that Wimbledon's win that day, or Arsenal's at Anfield the following year, or Palace's in an extraordinary FA Cup semi-final, seemed like brief respites. But they weren't. They were the beginning of the slide.
Do you know what game I'll never forget? Everton 4-4 Liverpool in an FA Cup fifth round replay. An astounding game. The best game 12-year-old me had ever seen, by an absolute mile. Barry Davies was beside himself in the commentary box; Tony Cottee was sensational.
Yet it was also a match of epochal importance... because a day later, Kenny Dalglish resigned. And Liverpool made the awful decision to replace him with Graeme Souness: a great player, but far too combative and impatient to manage a club built on such careful long term planning.
Planning which, in any case, had started to go awry under Dalglish.
Liverpool spent the rest of the season looking oddly vulnerable. A 5-4 win at Leeds having led 4-0 at one point was kinda typical of that. And collapse was to follow quickly afterwards.
Liverpool spent the rest of the season looking oddly vulnerable. A 5-4 win at Leeds having led 4-0 at one point was kinda typical of that. And collapse was to follow quickly afterwards.
Souness himself is on record now bitterly regretting how he handled things. And looking back, it's incredible how fast they fell behind. They were nowhere in the Premier League's first season; never showed any signs of progress until a League Cup win under Roy Evans in 1995.
But that side was always soft. Arrogant too: bad attitudes in that dressing room, which ultimately did for the likeable, too liberal for his own good Evans. In 1996/7, after a two-horse race for most of the season, Liverpool somehow contrived to finish 4th. It was embarrassing.
Look at how someone like Steve McManaman often flattered to deceive for that Liverpool side... then excelled himself beyond imagination in Madrid. It told an unhappy story. This was now a wildly under-achieving football club in a very new, different era.
Gerard Houllier took over, things seemed brighter... then Liverpool scored just 2 goals in their last 5 league games in 1999/2000, and choked away a Champions League spot for the second time in three years. The CL began in 1992/3; Liverpool didn't even play in it til 2001/2.
Fair play to Houllier - winning both domestic Cups and holding off Leeds for 3rd place in 2000/1 was impressive - as was the side which emerged the following year. But just like in 1995/6, an awful November cost it a serious shot at the title.
2nd place was their highest for 11 years. Whereupon... CRASH! Instead of making the final step, the glass ceiling above them shattered Houllier and the team: whose 'performances' in much of 02/3 were eye-bleedingly awful. They were practically a long ball side.
So off Houllier went a year later, and in came Rafa. Whose league form was somehow even WORSE; who was knocked out of the FA Cup by Burnley; whose team finished behind Everton for the first time since the Toffees' glory days.
But in the European Cup, something amazing.
But in the European Cup, something amazing.
A few times in the CL's long modern history, a truly great club fallen on hard times domestically have found something magical in the greatest club competition of all. History, even tradition, seemed to drive Liverpool forwards: in Europe, they were unrecognisable.
They thrashed Bayer Leverkusen (after which, I started wondering to myself: the unthinkable couldn't happen, could it?). They knocked out Juventus, whose squad had been built to conquer Europe, and which won Serie A with Calciopoli in full swing.
Then, famously, they knocked out runaway Champions Chelsea too. Benitez brilliantly nullified Mourinho, turning his near journeyman side into a mirror image of Chelsea... and over the 180 minutes, Liverpool deserved it.
And the din from The Kop that night... my word. Of all Europe's biggest, greatest clubs, none of them can create an atmosphere like Liverpool fans can. It's not just hostile and intimidating; it's so unbelievably emotional. All the history of the place inspiring the home side.
If Liverpool fans excelled themselves that night, they'd do so even more in Istanbul - where surely they didn't have a prayer. Milan were European royalty; Liverpool had finished a distant, mediocre 5th in England, and were full of moderate players who didn't scare anyone.
Throughout the first half, my mind went back to what Milan had done to Barcelona in 1994. It was like an exhibition; men against boys, some footballing version of the Harlem Globetrotters.
But then Rafa Benitez brought on Didi Hamann.
But then Rafa Benitez brought on Didi Hamann.
Steven Gerrard was always a celebrated player: Roy of the Rovers living the dream at his best. But he was also someone who always did TOO MUCH - who frequently played with no positional discipline at all.
Bringing Hamann on solidified midfield and let Gerrard do his thing.
Bringing Hamann on solidified midfield and let Gerrard do his thing.
Everyone knows what happened next. The pub I was in in London went delirious; I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
Even then, the comeback took so much out of the Reds that they spent the rest of the game on the back foot, hanging on for dear life.
Even then, the comeback took so much out of the Reds that they spent the rest of the game on the back foot, hanging on for dear life.
Milan were the better side for sure. But in European Cup Finals, as Bayern Munich found out in 1999 and 2012, that sometimes doesn't matter. Dudek's absolute miracle of a save from Shevchenko late in extra time confirmed that destiny was calling. Liverpool's name was on the Cup.
So that team - and Rafa himself - became heroes, and would go on to reach another CL final in 2007, and a semi in 2008. But domestically, they were nowhere. And that wasn't just because of Benitez' cautious tactics or constant squad rotation.
It was also because, however much money Liverpool spent, they just weren't able to compete consistently for the same calibre of player as Man Utd or Chelsea were. Wages were the main reason why; they ended up buying in QUANTITY, not quality, which was thinned out across the squad
Over 38 games in England, their relative lack of quality compared to United and Chelsea almost always told. Other than in 2008/9: when they actually over-achieved to finish as close to United as they did, with only a run of draws in January costing them the title.
But now the writing was on the wall. Now the whole club fell into existential crisis as two disgusting co-owners took it right to the brink. Liverpool's incredible fanbase rallied around; even the government seemed prepared to step in and help if needs be.
But out of that crisis - which knocked them even further behind the best in England and Europe - the first seeds of where Liverpool are now began to sprout. Who bought them? Fenway Sports Group: as good an ownership group as anywhere in world sport.
Liverpool, like the Boston Red Sox when FSG took over there, were a great, world famous sporting organisation who played in red but had fallen on hard, even snakebitten times.
Liverpool, like the pre-FSG Red Sox, looked like an analogue club in a digital age.
Liverpool, like the pre-FSG Red Sox, looked like an analogue club in a digital age.
Liverpool, like the pre-FSG Red Sox, had to put up with their great, equally world famous rivals dominating everything in sight: rivals who had embraced this new, plutocratic, commercialised era. The Red Sox and Liverpool looked well behind on and off the field.
Yet Fenway Park, like Anfield, is the most evocative stadium in the respective sports: again, full to the brim of history. And what FSG did with both organisations was marry that incredible history with cutting edge, modern methods: analytics, sabermetrics, moneyball.
All of which would ultimately pay dividends... but it would also inevitably take time. Lots of it. Unhappy periods under Roy Hodgson and Dalglish gave way to a brilliant, but short lived resurgence under Brendan Rodgers. That side was incredible to watch; sensational at times.
But as with so many of Rodgers' teams, it couldn't defend. And if you ever wanted to know how important Jordan Henderson is and was: the reason Liverpool lost the title in 2014 was his last minute sending off v Man City. They couldn't cope without him.
Even so, running Megabucks City so close was pretty remarkable - but as Luis Suarez departed that summer, so did their chances. Could they ever truly build a squad which wasn't so dependent on one or two players?
Answer: yes, but only under a great, great manager.
Answer: yes, but only under a great, great manager.
When Liverpool appointed Jurgen Klopp, Alex Ferguson, now long since retired from Old Trafford, was alarmed. He KNEW that meant they'd mean business; he KNEW Klopp was one of only a handful of managers who could rebuild an entire club in his magnificent image.
Klopp is someone who always has one eye on the present, the other on the future. He reinvigorates performances and playing style but also takes a fundamental, long term approach to all aspects of his club. And of course, is brilliant at building a relationship with the fans.
In that regard, he's done the impossible. He's somehow matched Bill Shankly's impact.
Not having been around at the time, I've no idea if anyone had a bad word to say about Shanks... but I doubt it. Has there ever been a more charismatic football manager anywhere?
Not having been around at the time, I've no idea if anyone had a bad word to say about Shanks... but I doubt it. Has there ever been a more charismatic football manager anywhere?
His warmth, his humour, his faux cockiness... and never, ever forgetting who he was or where he was from. Minus the faux cockiness (whatever Frank Lampard might think), Klopp has all of that too. He's the warmest, most empathetic leader I've ever seen in any sport.
His EMPATHY was what made it possible for Liverpool to do THAT against Barcelona last year. He loves his players and they love him back; as a result, they'll do anything for him. Nothing is impossible; no task too great, no mountain too tall.
Especially with recruitment so superb that it takes the proceedings from Coutinho's sale... and turns them into the final pieces in the jigsaw. Van Dijk and Allison, both the best in the world. And suddenly, Liverpool were no longer a one-man team. Suddenly, they were the best.
196 points in two seasons. Extraordinary. Unbelievable. The bar Manchester City had set - complete with financial doping and all sorts of nonsense - was supposed to be impossible. But Klopp's men hauled them down, went past them, and are the worthiest of Champions.
Champions, lest we forget, of England, Europe... and the world.
But no thread covering Liverpool FC's modern era would be complete without mentioning one dark, dark day in April 1989. When 96 people went to a football match, and never came home.
But no thread covering Liverpool FC's modern era would be complete without mentioning one dark, dark day in April 1989. When 96 people went to a football match, and never came home.
Their families, their loved ones, the whole city of Liverpool would suffer injustice piled upon injustice; cover-up after cover-up; media lies and police lies and governments doing nothing. And fans of other clubs, to their eternal shame, blaming Liverpool for what happened. 
The dignity displayed by the families throughout that time was like nothing else I'd ever known. Every single one of them are heroes, and will always be so. It remains a national scandal that nobody has been successfully prosecuted for what happens; it makes me sick.
But in 2012, when The Truth was finally published in comprehensive detail, in its own way, that was at least some form of justice. The British public learned what had happened; and the city of Liverpool stood united and tall. As it always has.
Even now, it remains a city which endures the most disgusting stereotypes from ignorant morons... but it's a very, very special place. And surely the most left wing city in the UK too. 
After 30 years, its football club is back on its perch.
After 30 years, its football club is back on its perch.
And knocking if off in the future will be an almighty task.
