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