Sportyman says goodbye!

 

I have been writing the Sportyman2020 blog since January of this year and, as I’m moving on to new projects in 2021, I’m now drawing the blog to a close.

Over the course of 62 blogs, a wide range of sporting related topics have been covered, from Olympic basketball to hammer throwing, from Tipperary hurling to stone skimming and, of course, my own brief history of Liverpool Football Club.

At the time of writing, the blog has had almost 8,000 reads in over twenty countries, from New Zealand to Spain and from India to Venezuela.

I hope that reading the blog has been even half as enjoyable as writing it was, and I am extremely thankful to the many readers who have given me support, encouragement and feedback in the writing process.

I am especially thankful to those friends who provided their own guest blogs for Sportyman2020: Eddie Mitchell, Kevin Lally, Eoin Ryan and Philip Finnegan and to David Meagher who hosted an early Sportyman blog on www.verywestham.com in January 2020.

Of course, like all great sporting characters, there’s always a chance that Sportyman2020 may someday make a comeback.

But for now, thanks for reading, happy Christmas and all best wishes for a far more normal new year to come.

'For the sake of the little village...'

 

'Ballina/Boher Parish, Our History and Traditions' (2000) by Kevin M. Griffin (my primary school headmaster) and his son Kevin A. Griffin. The cover artwork is by another son and my former classmate, Enda Griffin. 

This blog has been brewing away in my mind for a while now and I have my sister Anna to thank for prompting me to finally finish and post it. Anna sent me on a link in recent days relating to Dr. Pat O’Callaghan from Cork, a medical doctor and Olympian who won gold in the hammer throw at the Olympics of 1928 and 1932:

https://www.corkbeo.ie/news/history/tg4-show-story-cork-man-19474753

And the story of Dr. Pat O’Callaghan and Anna’s timely reminder about my brewing project got me thinking of another athletic hero even closer to home.

'For the sake of the little village...'

Over the last few months I have written about a range of sporting topics and heroes, from Olympic basketball (see link: https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/10/cold-war-basketball.html) to the history of hurling (see link: https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/03/tipperary-and-kilkenny-curses-hurling.html ), from Eliud Kipchoge (see link: https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/11/kipchoge.html) to Emil Zatopek (see link: https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/03/emil-zatopek-and-pandemic-running.html), along with my series of blogs on the history of Liverpool Football Club.

As for my own recent sporting exploits, I’ve been dealing with a running related injury for the past six months. I’m conscious that listening to runners talking about their running is tedious at best, but listening to runners talking about their injuries is almost unbearable. Therefore, I won’t dwell on the detail, except to say that the injury has forced me off my feet and on to my bike in recent months.

And while cycling lacks the euphoriant endorphin surges of running, an upside is that this activity has led to an expansion of the range and variety of my main exercise loops around the Ballina and Killaloe area. The more relaxed nature of cycling has also helped me reflect more on local topography and history, not least the sporting history.

My map-art attempt at capturing my main running routes around Ballina and Killaloe

More map-art: my enforced cycling has now expanded my exercise territory to include much of northern Tipperary and even a loop around lovely Lough Derg, to the northwest in the above image

Coinciding with these changes in my exercise routines and rituals, I was alerted to the story of a local sporting hero, a man whose exploits in the early years of the 20^th century rival those of Kipchoge, Zatopek and even Kenny Dalglish himself. Many thanks to Seán Ō Maoláin, my friend and fellow enthusiast for all things sporty, who was the first person to tell me the story of this local sporting hero. Seán also gave me some leads and I did some investigation. Next up I have to thank John Sage and David O’Byrnes, who gave further background on the local hero, along with precise directions to his old homestead.

So I headed off on my bike one Saturday morning last autumn and found the homestead of Matt McGrath, an Olympic hero who was born and reared just a few miles from my own home.

The old homestead of Matt McGrath, in the townland of Curraghmore, Ballina. Thanks to John Sage and David O'Byrnes for their help in directing me to the house and for background information on Matt McGrath. And thanks to Seán Ō Maoláin for first telling me the story.

The story of Matt McGrath

Matt McGrath was born in the townland of Curraghmore, in the parish of Ballina & Boher, Co. Tipperary in 1876. He emigrated to the United States in his twenties. The 1901 census record shows that his father Timothy was then aged 49 and his mother Anne was 46 and there remained five younger siblings still at home.

Like so many other Irish of the time, he joined up with the New York Police Department and reached the rank of Police Inspector. During the course of an exemplary career, he was awarded the Medal of Valor on two occasions.

Matt McGrath (1876-1941), Police Inspector in the NYPD and multiple Olympic medal winner

Matt was familiar with the sport of hammer throwing and may well have been quite accomplished in the skills before leaving for America. It was likely this interest that drove him to join the Irish American Athletic Club and the New York Athletic Club. Although a relatively late starter in competition, he excelled and won countless local New York and national competitions.

McGrath in action

But national success was not enough for the big man from Curraghmore and he went on to make his mark on the international stage by representing the United States in the hammer throwing competitions at the Olympic Games of 1908, 1912, 1920 and 1924. Unfortunately, pre-independence Ireland did not at the time have its own Olympic team.

I have covered the 1908 Olympic marathon in an earlier blog (see link: https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-first-marathon-as-we-now-know-it.html). That marathon was won by Johnny Hayes, whose parents had come from Nenagh, just a few miles from the birthplace of Matt McGrath. In fact, McGrath and Hayes have been immortalised together in a statue in Nenagh, along with 1932 Olympic gold medal hurdler Bob Tisdall, also from Tipperary.

Statue in Nenagh commemorating three Tipperary Olympians: 

Matt McGrath, Johnny Hayes and Bob Tisdall

There was to be some controversy at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics of 1908 and McGrath was a central player in that controversy. Legend has it that, while participating in the parade for the opening ceremony, he instructed the American flag bearer not to dip the stars and stripes as was the expectation when passing the royal viewing box. This set up some tension between the British and American teams for the games and to this day the American flag famously ‘dips for no earthly king’.

In the competition itself, McGrath won silver in London. The gold medal winner was John Flanagan from Co. Limerick (also representing the United States) while Con Walsh from Co. Cork (representing Canada) won bronze. This 1908 achievement of three Irish born athletes winning gold, silver and bronze in an Olympic event remains unique.

There was an even wider group of Irish athletes representing America and Canada at the time who were known, because of their size and strength, as ‘The Irish Whales’. Along with McGrath, Flanagan and Walsh were Simon Gillis, James Mitchell, Pat MacDonald, Paddy Ryan and Martin Sheridan.

'The Irish Whales'

Whatever about his athletic and political impacts in 1908, McGrath would go one better again in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm by claiming the gold medal.

McGrath sustained a knee injury in training in the lead up to the 1920 Olympic finals in Antwerp but still managed a 5^th place finish. And at the Paris Olympics of 1924 he achieved even more success, winning the silver medal and becoming the oldest ever track and field Olympic medalist for the United States, a record that stands to this day.

The little village

Throughout and in the years after his athletics heroics, Matt McGrath also kept up close contact with his home parish. His memory is brought vividly to life in the words of another great local athlete who hailed from within a mile of Matt McGrath’s home. Jimmy Sage (father of the aforementioned John) was a leading cross country runner of his day and would go on in later years to establish St. Lua’s Athletic Club in Ballina/Boher with Fr. Dick Kelly and others. It was with St. Lua’s that I had my first experience of cross country running and I can still remember the enthusiasm of Jimmy Sage and other coaches. St. Lua’s Athletic Club gradually faded and went out of existence but athletes from Ballina, Killaloe and surrounding areas now have the new Derg Athletic Club, founded in 2013 and with a wonderful training base at Clarisford Park.   

In a nice link between St. Lua’s Athletic Club and the Irish Olympic titans of the first decades of the 20^th century, Jimmy Sage was recorded on local radio in 1987 recounting his memories of Matt McGrath. The interview with Jimmy was faithfully transcribed by Kevin M. and Kevin A. Griffin in their history of Ballina and Boher parish and I’ve reproduced it here:

‘He was a massive big man. I saw him in our school in Boher in 1936. He did not look his height. Because he was so broad, he did not look the immense man he was, but it was a wonderful thing for a man to come from such a small place up in the Arra mountains to win an Olympic medal – a wonderful achievement’.

‘During that period there were a few good weights people in Ballina parish. I remember stories being told at that time that there were people in the parish almost able to beat Matt McGrath in the 56 pound and the hammer’.

‘Mick Egan of Cranna was supposed to have been very close to Matt McGrath in the 56 pound. I doubt very much if he would have been able to get close to him with the hammer. There was one thing that I noticed: he had instructed all the young people while he was at home – they were able to throw the hammer perfectly. I saw three neighbours of his throwing the hammer at different times, and they all had perfect timing, perfect hammer throwing movement. He had instructed all of them to throw it, and they were all lighter and smaller than him’.

‘I remember reading an account in the Nenagh Guardian, that he set a world record in the hammer in the Show Grounds in Nenagh. There was an attendance of approx. 30,000 people in Nenagh that day. It was a Tuesday; the shops in the town were closed and people came from all over Ireland. In fact, there were four Olympic champions competing in Nenagh that day’.

Matt McGrath from (literally) this parish was a true hero in his sport and in his profession, leaving as a young man his ‘small place up in the Arra mountains’ for New York and making his mark in the New York Police Department and in Olympic history.

In fact, such was Matt McGrath’s real life heroism that he outshone another, fictional Matt, the heroic ‘Matt the Thresher’ of Charles J. Kickham’s 1879 novel ‘Knocknagow’ or ‘The Homes of Tipperary’.

One of the most iconic scenes from Kickham's novel involves a high stakes hammer throwing competition held on a rural sports day. The protagonists are Matt the Thresher, effectively representing the poor Irish tenant farmers and taking on Captain French, son of a rich landlord and thus representing the landed gentry.

Matt the Thresher defeats his wealthy opponent with a mighty throw of the hammer and exclaims that his victory is, like the many real life victories of our own Matt McGrath, ‘for the sake of the little village and for the honour of the old home’.

An(ne)field

 

Anfield stadium in 1894-1895

Liverpool’s 19^th top flight league success earlier this year puts the club firmly back in the big time. Going back into the depths of history, however, I've found that Anfield has in fact been the host of the English football champions on twenty occasions. Because of course Anfield was home to Everton FC from 1884 until 1892 and Everton won the 1890-1891 First Division title.

Everton FC was originally known as St. Domingo’s, a football club formed in 1878 for the congregation of the church of that name. The name was changed to Everton FC in 1879, called after the area of the city in which the club was based.

Prince Rupert's Tower, Liverpool. Opened in 1787 as a temporary overnight holding place for criminals and the intoxicated, it remains standing and forms the centrepiece of the Everton FC crest. 

The crest of Everton FC, Liverpool FC's closest and (perhaps) fiercest rivals. The combined twenty eight top flight titles of the two clubs makes Liverpool the most successful footballing city in England. 

In the year following Everton's first league title success, a number of seismic developments took place, pitting the biggest characters within the club against each other and leading to Everton’s departure from Anfield and the subsequent formation of Liverpool Football Club.

I have attached a link below to a detailed description of these events, for those who are interested: 

https://www.lfchistory.net/Articles/Article/2022

In summary, John Houlding was Everton Chairman, the main owner of Anfield and effectively the landlord for Everton Football Club. The pitch was located between Anfield Road and Walton Breck Road. The previous owner of the land had been John Orrell and he had sold the land to John Houlding in 1885. However, Orrell retained a section of land and road beside the football ground and this small strip of land would ultimately lead to the split between Houlding and his allies from the majority of the board of Everton FC, who were led by George Mahon.

Both Orrell and Houlding requested a rent increase for the stadium and the adjoining land in 1891 and Houlding had suggested that Everton form a limited liability company to buy the entire property. In a number of tempestuous meetings from late 1891 through to the summer of 1892, Houlding’s proposals were ultimately rejected and he and Everton parted company. Everton would go on to rent land on nearby Mere Green at Goodison Road. Goodison Park remains their home ground.

Aerial image of Goodison Park (to the north) and nearby Anfield, separated by Stanley Park.

The explosive events at Anfield captured the attention of the footballing public and were widely reported in the local and national media. The events were summed up (presumably by a Houlding supporter) in a satirical song, to the tune of 'The Irish Rover':

'In the year of our Lord eighteen ninety and two,

John Houlding evicted the blues,

From their Anfield abode on the Walton Breck Road,

He was tired of seeing them lose.

Years behind in rent all their money was spent,

A bank that held nothing but zeros,

But Houlding instead built a team dressed in red,

Liverpool his Anfield heroes'.

Irish connections...

Along with the song, some of the key figures in these early days of the two clubs were of Irish origin. On Houlding’s side were John McKenna and William Barclay, who ultimately became the first managers of the new Liverpool Football Club that was formed by Houlding after the departure of Everton from Anfield. McKenna and Barclay were the leading figures in the formation of Liverpool’s first team, made up primarily of Scottish player and known as ‘The Team of the Macs’ (see link to earlier blog: https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/05/aston-villa-5-liverpool-0-1899-and-2019.html). On the Everton side was accountant George Mahon, who was born of Irish parents and spent much of his childhood in Dublin. 

John Houlding (1833-1902): brewer, businessman, Lord Mayor of Liverpool and founder of Liverpool Football Club. 

See also earlier blog: 

https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/05/aston-villa-5-liverpool-0-1899-and-2019.html

George Mahon (1853-1908): accountant, local politician, co-founder and Chairman of Everton FC (1892-1895). His parents were Irish and he spent much of his childhood in Dublin. 

John McKenna (1855-1936) from Co. Monaghan, who would become the first manager of Liverpool FC and who had a key role in putting together Liverpool's 'Team of the Macs'.

Dubliner William E. Barclay (1857-1917) has the distinction of being the first manager of both Everton FC and (jointly with John McKenna) of Liverpool FC

Liverpool FC and an even earlier Irish connection...

Delving into the history books reveals that there was another Irishman in Liverpool who would leave a mark on Liverpool FC long before the key players in the 1892 events and long before before even the existence of the original St. Domingo’s club.

His name was Samuel Robert Graves (1818-1873), a businessman and shipping magnate from New Ross in Co. Wexford. Graves relocated to Liverpool and built up his business and political interests there. Graves served as a Conservative MP for Liverpool from 1865 until his death in 1873 and, in 1861, he became the first Irishman to be Lord Mayor of the city.

Samuel Robert Graves (1818-1873)

Graves also purchased land in Liverpool and named it after his home townland in Co. Wexford.

The name of the townland in New Ross where Graves’ family seat of Rosbercon Castle was located is derived from the Irish for ‘the river field’ or ‘abhainn field’, anglicized to Annefield. 

In Liverpool, the name Annefield was of course shortened to Anfield and it became the name of both an area of the city and, ultimately, the name of the world’s greatest football stadium.

Rosbercon Castle, home of Samuel Graves and located in the townland of 'the river field' (Annefield), New Ross, Co. Wexford. 

The modern Anfield stadium

For this week's blog I am extremely thankful again to Dr. Denise Rogers ('Sportyman Southeast correspondent'), who very enthusiastically sent me on lots of fascinating background material on the Wexford connection to this story.

LFC-EMDR blog 3 of 3

 

In the preceding blog I covered the first half dozen significant Manchester United induced traumas for Liverpool over the past three decades, in the hope that facing those traumas head on in the spirit of EMDR would help me and other Liverpool fans process them and move on. And in this third blog of the LFC-EMDR trilogy I have another list of traumatic memories to throw at you. So let's get going.

Trauma number 7: Liverpool players of the past three decades

Considering the success of United players during Ferguson’s reign (e.g. Ryan Giggs ending his career as by far the most decorated player in the history of English club football) also gets me thinking of the fortunes of individual great Liverpool players who ended their careers with relatively little in terms of silverware. Hard as it may be to fathom, players such as Robbie Fowler, Fernando Torres, Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez never won a Premier League medal. Even the wonderful Michael Owen only won a single Premier League medal, and that was with United.

Robbie Fowler will go down as one of Liverpool's most iconic and deadly strikers of all time. During a career with the club that went from 1993 through to 2001 and coming back for a stint in 2006-2007, he ended with a goal every second game average (183 goals in 369 games) for the club. He was on the Houllier team that swept all before them in 2001 (apart from the Premier League) and he also won a League Cup medal in 1995. 

Fernando 'El Nino' Torres scored 81 goals in a relatively brief spell with Liverpool (142 games between 2007 and 2011) before moving on to Chelsea.

Jamie Carragher marshaled Liverpool's defence from 1996 to 2013 and his 737 games for the club puts him second behind Ian Callaghan in the all time list of club appearances. Like Robbie Fowler, he was on the cup winning teams of 2001 but he was also there for the Champions League win of 2005 and the FA Cup win of 2006.

Steven Gerrard was an ever present for Liverpool from 1998 to 2015. Resisting the financial lure of other clubs, he stayed with his boyhood club for his entire career, becoming the longest serving club captain (2003-2015). Of the ten major trophies won by Liverpool during the relatively barren Alex Ferguson years, Gerrard was a key player in eight of those wins, most notably the 2005 Champions League win and the 2006 FA Cup. 

Luis Suarez scored 82 goals in 133 games for Liverpool from 2011 through to 2014. He was the key player in Liverpool's near miss in the 2013-2014 Premier League race. Suarez is pictured above after the 3-3 draw at Crystal Palace in 2014 that effectively signaled the end of that title challenge.

Michael Owen scored 158 goals for Liverpool in 297 games between 1997 and 2004, with perhaps his most memorable performance coming in the 2001 FA Cup final. He would go on to win one Premier League medal with (of all clubs) Manchester United.

Trauma number 8: Liverpool managers

Then there are the Liverpool managers during the Ferguson years. Eight men and ten different managerial combinations tried and failed to win a top flight league title after Kenny Dalglish’s success in 1990.

The physical and emotional toll of leading Liverpool through the Hillsborough disaster was a major factor in prompting Dalglish’s resignation in February 1991. In keeping with Liverpool tradition, they looked to the Boot Room and appointed Ronnie Moran as caretaker manager.

Kenny Dalglish resigns as Livepool manager in 1991

Boot Room men and that last Division One title, 1989-1990. Ronnie Moran (left) would take over as care-taker manager after Dalglish (centre) before club legend Graeme Souness came back as manager in April 1991. Souness left in 1994 and was succeeded by Roy Evans (right). Evans would be the last manager from the long sequence of Boot Room appointees, being succeeded by Gerard Houllier in 1998 after a brief spell of jointly working with the Frenchman. 

Then Liverpool went back to another former playing hero and appointed Graeme Souness in April 1991 as the permanent successor to Dalglish.  Souness attempted a Shankly-esqe clear-out of dead wood from the playing staff but his spell was ultimately unsuccessful, winning just one trophy, the 1991-1992 FA Cup.

Graeme Souness had a glorious playing career with Liverpool, winning 5 league titles, 3 European Cups and 3 League Cups. His spell from 1991 to 1994 as manager would be considerably less successful. 

After Souness, Liverpool again looked to the Boot Room and appointed Roy Evans in January 1994. Evans led Liverpool to the 1994-1995 League Cup and his teams played some swashbuckling and scintillating football at times, e.g. that April 1996 4-3 victory over Newcastle United at Anfield.

Roy Evans, the last of the Boot Room managers. 

In pursuit of a Premier League breakthrough, Liverpool went outside the Boot Room in 1998 and appointed Gerard Houllier as joint manager with Evans. The joint arrangement lasted until November 1998, when Evans resigned leaving Houllier as the sole manager.

Roy Evans and Gerard Houllier during their brief spell as joint managers of Liverpool in late 1998

Houllier would go on to manage Liverpool from 1998 to 2004, becoming the first manager of the club from outside of Britain or Ireland. 

Houllier would go on to lead Liverpool to a cup treble of FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup in 2001 (a quintuple if you include the European Super Cup and Charity Shield), along with a quite sweet League Cup victory in 2003, beating United in the final. But like all before him, the Premier League proved elusive.

Houllier was followed by Rafa Benitez, who managed Liverpool from 2004 to 2010. His crowning glory came early in his reign, winning the 2005 Champions League. To this he added the European Super Cup of 2005, FA Cup in 2006 and another Champions League final in 2007 (this time losing to AC Milan). However, despite coming desperately close in 2008-2009 when coming second to, of course, Manchester United, Benitez also left Anfield without a Premier League title.

Rafa Benitez managed Liverpool from 2004 to 2010 and, after initial success with the Champions League in 2005 and the FA Cup in 2006, he ended his stint without a Premier League title. 

Rafa Benitez and Fernando Torres in 2012-2013, reunited at Chelsea

After Benitez came a brief and troubled period when Roy Hodgson was landed into the deep end of a footballing and financial crisis at Liverpool. Needless to say, his six months of management ended in failure, with Liverpool at times flirting with the relegation zone and the ownership of George Gillett and Tom Hicks pushing Liverpool close to the verge of financial ruin.

Roy Hodgson managed Liverpool for a turbulent period in 2010-2011 - it was a tough ask for Hodgson and a tough time for Liverpool FC and its supporters

In their time of most desperate need, Liverpool looked to their greatest living hero and appointed Kenny Dalglish as manager in January 2011 for the second time. He led Liverpool to a League Cup success in 2012 followed by an FA Cup final defeat and was replaced in 2012 by an up and coming young Irish manager called Brendan Rodgers.

Back to the rescue. Despite Liverpool being at a near all-time footballing and financial low point, Dalglish returned to lead them to a League Cup victory and FA Cup final appearance in 2012.

Irishman Brendan Rodgers came desperately close to leading Liverpool 

to a first Premier League title in 2013-2014.

Rodgers managed Liverpool from June 2012 to October 2015. In the 2013-2014 season, the first season after Alex Ferguson’s retirement, Liverpool again came agonisingly close to the Premier League but finished in second. The Premier League winners were a Manchester club, but at least it was City on this occasion.

Trauma number 9: Hollow successes

The 2000-2001 season under Gerard Houllier was Liverpool’s most successful season during the Ferguson years. Liverpool won a penalty shootout League Cup victory over Birmingham City, an equally dramatic FA Cup final against Arsenal and an absolutely crazy UEFA Cup final against Alaves.

I remember exactly where I was for all three games. I listened to the League Cup penalty shootout on the radio while parked in my car. For the FA Cup final, The Blonde and I were in the air flying to Malta to make our wedding preparations. This was in the days before smartphones and other instant news sources so I had to wait to get from the airport to our hotel before I could find out the result. On arrival at the hotel I anxiously asked the hotel receptionist ‘Who won the FA Cup final - Liverpool or Arsenal?’ Picking up on my anxiety he smiled somewhat sardonically and said ‘Wolves’.

As for the UEFA Cup final itself, we were still in Malta at the time so I dragged the long suffering Blonde along with me to watch it in a hostelry.

Despite these wins (followed later in the year by the Charity Shield and the European Super Cup), the footballing year of 2001 still felt hollow because the record shows that the true (Premier League) champions for 2000-2001 were, yes you guessed it, Manchester United.

Cup successes for Liverpool in 2001 - 

but still no Premier League title

And dare I say it, considering how delirious the fans of most clubs would be for such a success, but even the 2005 miracle comeback in Istanbul in the Champions League final against AC Milan filled me with a sense of poignancy for the real heights from which Liverpool had fallen. That 2005 win was Liverpool’s 5^th European Cup/Champions League success, the last being in 1984. But 2005 reminded me of just how far back Liverpool had slipped since 1984. Despite winning that final, Liverpool finished 5^th in the Premier League that season, 37 points behind champions Chelsea and a special case had to be made for their inclusion in the Champions League of the following season.

And there was part of me that thought that the very term ‘the miracle of Istanbul’ referred not to the magic of that second half comeback and penalty shootout victory but instead to the fact that the Champions League had been won by a team of underachievers.

That 2005 Champions League win - but how many Liverpool fans would have swapped it for a Premier League title? (I certainly would have)

Trauma number 10: May 14^th 2011

I mentioned earlier in the blog trilogy Alex Ferguson’s comment about knocking Liverpool of their perch. Well in the long litany of Liverpool heart-breaks and United triumphs during his reign, May 14th 2011 was a key watershed date. Because it was on that date that United won their 19^th top flight league title, thus leapfrogging Liverpool to the summit of the roll of honour. When Liverpool had won their 18^th league title in 1990, United were still stuck on 7 titles since 1967, thus highlighting the extent of overhaul that they accomplished during Ferguson’s reign.

Thankfully, this particular trauma for me was extinguished completely just two weeks later when The Blonde gave birth to our son. He arrived on a weekend of sporting magic, with Barcelona beating United in the Champions League final (how I relished in ABU joy) and Tipperary beating Cork in the Munster Hurling Championship (see earlier blog: https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/05/three-may-babies-and-their-sporting.html ).

Manchester United would win their 19th top flight league title in May 2011 but go on to lose the Champions League final to a Messi inspired Barcelona.

Trauma number 11: being made to feel old

In anticipation of Leeds United’s long awaited return to the Premier League I wrote a blog back in July (see link: https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/07/footballs-wars-of-roses.html ) that highlighted how one’s age can sometimes be inferred from the club that one supports. So while the successful Leeds teams of the late 1960s and early 1970s has an ageing army of Irish Leeds fans, Manchester City’s recent dominance of the English game has produced a generation of followers who still haven’t had their Confirmation. During the height of Ferguson’s reign at United it seemed that kids wore only United jerseys and the only occasional Liverpool jersey wearers were ageing football fans like myself. So to add insult to all the other injuries, Ferguson and his teams made me feel old before my time.   

 

The future

Now that I’ve identified and addressed head on a painfully long list of the key football related and primarily Manchester United induced traumas of the past three decades, I’m starting to feel better. I think LFC-EMDR works, even though the process of recollecting so many traumas is not pleasant. 

It’s a full seven seasons since United have been Premier League champions and it seems that even the talismanic Ole Gunnar Solskjaer cannot reignite the success of the Ferguson years. But they are never far away.

And while the footballing history of the past three decades cannot be changed, with trust in Jurgen Klopp and our current squad, Liverpool FC will hopefully go on to carve out a future that has far more triumphs than traumas.

Liverpool Premier League champions (finally) for 2019-2020

 

LFC-EMDR blog 2 of 3

 

Having set the scene in the last blog (https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/12/fergusonian-trauma-lfc-emdr-blog-1-of-3.html) in outlining the basic principles of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy as applied to helping Liverpool fans deal with traumatic memories (i.e. LFC-EMDR), I will now move on to cover the first half dozen traumatic memories of the past three decades, with all traumatic memories accentuated in terms of their potency by virtue of the key roles of Manchester United and/or Alex Ferguson in each of them. 

Trauma number 1: Liverpool losing the 1977 treble

This first trauma actually has its origins from more than three decades ago, but it came to fruition (if that's the correct term for traumas) in 1999. It is therefore something of a retro-retrospective trauma. I am not old enough to remember the 1977 FA Cup final when Manchester United beat Liverpool. Liverpool had just won the league and went on a few days later to win their first European Cup. However, in losing the FA Cup final to United, Liverpool lost out on winning a historic treble, something that United would famously achieve themselves under the management of Alex Ferguson in 1999.

Manchester United with the 1977 FA Cup - thus depriving Liverpool of a historic league/European Cup/FA Cup treble, something that United would famously achieve in 1999...

Trauma number 2: 1996 and the ‘double double’

Alot has been spoken and written about the ‘Spice Boys’ image of Liverpool during the mid-1990s. The Spice Boys jibe is usually summed up with an image of the Liverpool team walking the pitch at Wembley before the 1996 FA Cup final, dressed in cream Armani suits. They would go on to lose that FA Cup final, to Manchester United. And Manchester United would thus become the first club to win the league and FA Cup double on two occasions, having already achieved it in the 1993-1994 season. To add to the misery, that grim ‘double double’ FA Cup final day was also Ian Rush’s last game for Liverpool, a decade after his heroics in the FA Cup final of 1986 (see link to earlier blog: https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/05/may-10th-1986.html )  

Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman and Jamie Redknapp of Liverpool walking the pitch at Wembley before the 1996 FA Cup final, a match they would lose 1-0 to Manchester United, thus handing them an unprecedented league and FA Cup 'double double' (i.e. 1993-1994 and 1995-1996)

Eric Cantona scores the 86th minute winner for United in that FA Cup final - the ball cannoning off Ian Rush on its way goal bound. A decade after his heroics in the first all Merseyside FA Cup final (see link: https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/05/may-10th-1986.html), this was Rush's final game for Liverpool. 

'Double double toil and trouble', chant the three horrific witches from Shakespeare's MacBeth - Liverpool fans endured their own horrific Manchester United 'double double' in 1996...

Trauma number 3: 1999

Three years after that ‘double double’ season, United would go on to win another league and FA Cup double and then turn it into a unique and never replicated treble, by winning the Champions League. And just as United had a hand in preventing Liverpool’s 1977 treble, Liverpool had a hand in helping United to their one in 1999.

The date was January 24^th 1999 and the setting was Old Trafford, with Liverpool taking on Manchester United in the 4^th round of the FA Cup. Michael Owen (more about him later) put Liverpool ahead in the third minute of the tie. I remember watching the game with my brother, also a Liverpool fan. With only a few minutes to go and Liverpool still 1-0 up but United pressure building, he asked me ‘If United equalise, will there be a replay or extra-time?’ As if to answer his question, in two heart-breaking minutes Dwight Yorke (on 88 minutes) and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (on 90 minutes) snatched the game from Liverpool – there would be no need for either extra time or a replay.

Not only was this a vital game for United in their quest for the treble, but the very same scoring pattern would be replicated in the Champions League final in May of that year, with United going behind to an early Bayern Munich opener and then winning the game in injury time with goals from Teddy Sheringham and, of course, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Current Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with a 90th minute winner over Liverpool in the 4th round of the FA Cup in January 1999. United would go on to win the league/FA Cup/Champions League treble and their late brace of goals in this FA Cup tie set the template for their Champions League victory over Bayern Munich in May 1999.

Yes it's that man - and that club - again. Solskjaer with his 

late late winner in the 1999 Champions League final.

1999 by Prince - great song and album, 

but what a truly terrible year for Liverpool fans...

Trauma number 4: Supporting Arsenal

If your enemy’s enemy is your friend, then Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal was surely a friend to Liverpool at different stages of Alex Ferguson’s reign in charge of Manchester United. Arsenal were the most successful United rival during Ferguson’s reign, managing four top flight league titles  after Liverpool’s 1990 success, five FA Cups and two league and FA Cup doubles  of their own, along with a UEFA Cup Winner’s Cup and a League Cup. And I must admit that I frequently went out to watch some of those United versus Arsenal humdingers in the late 1990s, urging on Arsenal with almost the same fervour as which I would urge on Liverpool themselves. In a blog from earlier this year, I have described this particularly unsettling phenomenon as ‘transfandom’ (see link: https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/02/liverpool-v-west-ham-jan-24th-2020-is.html ). 

And what a terrible, false and disloyal feeling that Arsenal transfandom period was, and it constitutes yet another traumatic memory.

Arsenal in 1997-1998 - some rare respite from United's hegemony, 

but Arsenal's successes led me into a dark period of unsettling transfandom...

Trauma number 5: ABU

I think it was Irish sports journalist Des Cahill (a West Ham fan) who, perhaps forgetting the full name of his own club, coined the phrase ‘Anyone But United’ in the late 1990s, in an effort to capture the feeling of the time that everyone was either a fan of Manchester United or a hater of them. Of course I was initially delighted to hear the phrase and immediately identified as the most hardcore ABU fan imaginable. But then I started to realise that the ABU term was really yet another acknowledgement of just how dominant United had become – it was them against everyone else, and they kept beating everyone else.

RTE sports journalist Des Cahill who (as far as I know) 

coined the term ABU

Trauma number 6: Denis Irwin and Roy Keane

Irwin and Keane will go down in history as two of the most decorated Irishmen in the history of English club football. And while it was a joy for many to see Irish players doing so well at the very top of the English game, there was the double edged sword for Liverpool fans of knowing that their success was Manchester United’s success. 

Corkonian Denis Irwin won seven Premier league titles, two FA Cups, one League Cup, one Champions League, one Cup Winners' Cup, one European Super Cup and one Intercontinental Cup during an outstanding career as left back for, unfortunately, Manchester United.

Oh and there was another guy from Cork who played for United around that time too...

So the LFC-EMDR therapy is now starting to hurt, and we've only got as far as 1999. But I know it will be worth it in the end. 

Next blog: another half dozen (at least) Manchester United induced traumas for Liverpool fans.