Walking On....

So.

I've just watched Liverpool lose.
At home.
To Fulham.
It was their 13th defeat this season. It was Fulhams first EVER win at Anfield. For a club of Liverpool's stature, that kind of form is bad. VERY bad.

They weren't always like this though in league days. They were good.Actually not just good,they were the BEST. And I mean,they would terrorize opposition. They were the team to watch. I try to remember my earliest memory of Liverpool. And it comes to me really easily.

Cushions.

Cushions,you say? Let me elaborate. When I was 4 or 5,every Friday night we'd go up to my nanas for a few hours and watch the Late Late and stuff. Just Mam,Dad and myself. I used to be kept to the one spot in the kitchen as Dad would tie my shoelaces to the leg of the table. There's ingenuity right there. To this day I get a little antsy at table legs. I used to take some solace in this by writing on the underside of the table that I was "chained" to with chalk. It was like hieroglyphics by the time I was done with it. A proper Raiders of The Lost Ark job. Would explain my fascination with graffiti. I did all this sitting and sometimes snoozing on a Liverpool cushion. Was often relayed to me by my late uncles that they were the in thing,so who was I to dispute. So there you go. My long association with Liverpool FC started with pipedreaming on one of their licensed cushions. You can safely assume there were no Man Utd ones in the house.

I remember them carving defences apart. Ian Rush was just unreal upfront. So good he came back from Juventus! And then of course there was/is the King. Player manager for 6 years and bringing in 3 leagues and 2 FA Cups. Not too shabby. I remember then a Saturday. One Saturday in particular. It was the 15th of April 1989. Hillsborough. I was sitting on the floor in the sitting room at home with my legs crossed watching the horror of it all. Me,being 9 watching, was just looking on in disbelief. This isnt supposed to happen. This WASNT supposed to happen.

Fast forward to the mid 90's where supporting Liverpool in secondary school was greeted with indifferent social status. One of the lads in PE gave me unreal guff one day as we had been knocked out of the FA Cup by Bristol City. Bristol City,like?! He got an accidental shove through one of the double doors in the PE hall. It was an accident. Graeme Souness left soon after. In fairness to Souness, he gave some of the young lads a crack of the whip,like Steve McManaman (who left on a Bosman to Real Madrid i.e. we got feck all money for him - this trend will continue shortly) and God himself, Robbie Fowler (still has the fastest hat trick record in the Premiership). An absolute HERO. Another lad who was so good,he came back to us. I have a signed picture of him from when he was playing in Australia, which takes pride of place beside a picture that says "To Paul,Kenny Dalglish". I wrote to him when he was over the Academy a few years ago, so having that in my possession is a pretty big deal. I remember when Robbie left, went to Leeds for £11m. I was gutted in work. He had a fallout with the manager at the time, and of course more often than not, when you have a disagreement with the manager, there is only going to be one winner. Just ask Taggart down the East Lancs Road. Oh he is some bollocks.

In 2000,I got to treat myself by going over to see Liverpool at Anfield for the first time. And sitting on the most famous grandstand in world football, the Kop. Now this was a major,major deal. On the Kop,with my scarf,singing Youll Never Walk Alone with the faithful..nothing could go wrong....right? WRONG! Marcus Stewart scored the winner for Ipswich (in front of the Kop no less). So my Merseyside virginity was lost (literally). Luckily, the next seven trips over had no defeats in them,plus with recessionary and health issues, I havent been over since. Still, one defeat in eight isnt bad.

Moving onto 2004. Liverpool brought in Rafael Benitez to change the clubs fortunes. And did he! More on that in a second, but first, a little knive to sharpen and an axe to grind with someone. A certain little Boy Wonder. Michael Owen.
Now I wont discount all the goals he scored, he gave the club some great days and nights. But then he starts stalling on a contract and basically says to the new manager "Bye! Off to Madrid to win trophies". (How did that work out for you again, Michael) and running down the contract so Liverpool got £8m for him. Oh,and Antonio Nunez. Yeah. Rafa brought Liverpool their first Champions League trophy in 21 years in the most unforgettable game in Istanbul against AC Milan. Three nil down at half time and six crazy minutes saw Liverpool come back to level it up and eventually win on penalties. I dont recall much of that evening, only putting one of the lads into a taxi after he verbally abused a bouncer of a formerly prominent Limerick nightclub. With that his (and my) celebrating were cut short. Benitez brought in players like Xabi Alonso,Javier Mascherano, Pepe Reina,Alvaro Arbeloa and some lad called Fernando Torres. I wonder whatever happened to him. Anyway, Benitez had issues (along with practically every fan) with the American owners at the time, George Gillett and Tom Hicks. Those two dopes nearly ran the club into administration, and tried to hawk Reina all around Europe. He had almost agreed to join Arsenal at one stage. But he stuck it out. Ironically, the club was taken out of immediate debt by another American consortium led by Boston Red Sox owner,John W Henry. They laid their groundwork down pretty quickly by ditching Roy Hodgson (who had a miserable time at the club to say the least - and today was appointed England manager - logic,what logic?) and bringing back King Kenny. Splashing the money they got for Torres on Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll was a sign that these new owners meant real,real business. The subsequent summer saw the club spend major bucks on players like Adam,Henderson and Downing. The jury is out on them but fingers crossed, along with a few tweaks in the summer (and with hopefully another cup to compliment the Carling one) all will be a-ok. We live in hope!