The victory parade started on the outskirts of the city and made its way slowly down to the docks were one million people waited to celebrate number six. As usual, I was watching Liverpool on the telly. Chops and I talked about getting the overnight ferry from Belfast but I was the sensible one at 3 in the morning, mostly because I started to feel the effects of the triathlon earlier in the day. I couldn't even stay up another hour to watch what turned out to be one of the greatest shocks in boxing history when Andy Ruiz stopped Anthony Joshua. My mother in law told me she dated a Liverpool Echo photographer in the 60's and she produced a box with a photo of the 1965 FA Cup final victory parade he had given her. She gave it to me the day after Madrid as we all watched the victory parade as a family. There were incredible scenes when the bus entered the Strand - deafening noise, red smoke bombs going off, flags waving and so many people as the players swung scarves above their heads, some hung the cup over the side of the bus, others just stood filming the homecoming while Jurgen sat perched at the back with beer in hand, taking it all in. This is what it's all for. These are the moments. This was the time.
Depending on who you listen to, either Jurgen decided not to sign any new players or FSG told him he wasn't getting any. It was clear to me that Klopp felt he owed the Champions League winning players the chance to see if they could finish the job and finally bring home the premiership. City won all the domestic trophies in 2019, so Liverpool, as league runners up, contested the season opening Community Shield with the Cityzens. It was a tight game, for a change, ending one each but City won on penalties, Wijnaldum the only player to miss. Ten days later the European Super Cup also went to penalties after a 2-2 draw against our other recent rivals, Chelsea. Former West Ham keeper, Adrian, had come in for the want away Simon Mignolet and he was the hero, saving Tammy Abrahams kick. We won our first 8 games of the season while City lost 2 and drew one. A draw with United ended that sequence before we went on a record equalling 18 game run of wins that put more distance between ourselves and City. The blue side of Manchester came to L4 in November and suffered their third league defeat of the season. It was Leicester, under former manager Brendan Rodgers, who were our closest challengers in the first half of the season until they were destroyed 4 nil at home by the reds on Boxing Day. The game before that was a special moment for me. We finally won the competition in which I first watched Liverpool play, back in 1984. We sacrificed a League Cup quarter final to prioritise trying to win the World Club Championship in Qatar. We still played Villa in the cup but fielded an U23 team and lost 5 nil. In Doha, we beat Monterrey 2-1 at the semi final stage, Firmino with an injury time winner to set up a final with South American champions, Flamengo. Firmino, again with the winner in a game that needed extra time. Jordan Henderson did his now traditional quick feet shuffle before lifting Liverpool's third trophy of 2019. There was a fear that this competition would derail our Premier League ambitions but the way we disposed of Leicester made it clear that this was not a typical Liverpool team of the Premiership era - top of the league at Christmas, only to throw the chance away. As Jordan Henderson said, once they won the first one there would be no stopping them and so it proved. I signed up Emma, Arlo and I for fan cards in the hope that I could get tickets for the three of us to go to a game but when the sale came round for matches in the new year, I queued on line for 4 hours and came away empty handed. That rite of passage - taking my son to his first game, as my uncle Jimmy had taken me to mine, would have to wait. Indeed, it was proving impossible to get even one ticket for any game as Liverpool finally looked like they would end the 30 year wait for a league title. Someone put me in contact with what turned out to be a tout. The cheapest tickets he was selling for games were £200. He was looking £1500 for the final home game against Chelsea! I wouldn't pay 200 let alone 1500. Chops and I decided in February, we would take a chance on the now inevitable looking victory parade being on Monday 18th May, the day after the final league game against Newcastle. I hated doing anything like this before the league was decided in case I jinxed us but the price of the flights would go up and up, so we had to take a punt. All the while there was a SARS like virus spreading rapidly through China and there were now a few cases in Italy. There had been a previous outbreak of that virus in the early 2000's that didn't get very far west so most people were probably thinking this one would fizzle out too. How wrong we were. Liverpool lost their unbeaten record when Watford battered us 3 nil at Vicarage Road. Were the effects of a long season and the physical demands of the gegenpress going to catch up with us again? We hadn't been playing well. We lost one nil, in our round of 16, Champions League, first leg at the Wanda Metropolitano, home of Atletico and scene of this teams first trophy win. Next, we went out of the FA Cup against Chelsea. A nervy home win against Bournemouth in the league got us back on track and we were absolutely brilliant in the second leg against Atletico at Anfield but could only score one goal in 90 minutes, through Wijnaldum, which meant extra time. Firmino got his first home goal of the season to put us ahead in the tie but a couple of mistakes from Adrian swung it back in Atletico's favour and our defence of the Champions League was over. It also seemed like the football season might be over as coronavirus brought the world to a standstill. Those first few days were very, very scary. The government didn't know what they were doing. Schools were closing themselves. We were being told to avoid people and if we couldn't then we had to social distance by two metres. I was going grocery shopping with a cycling scarf mask over my nose and mouth and surgical gloves on my hands for fear of contracting the virus while being met with empty shelves, as the less considerate humans, panic bought essentials. The government furloughed employees to fend off a run on the banks. Nobody other than medical staff, economists and those who worked in or for the retail food industry were allowed to leave home unless it was essential as Covid 19 took tens of thousands of lives in the UK and Ireland. Everything other than trying not to get the virus and supporting the NHS staff who were treating people in huge numbers, was unimportant. Along with the homeschooling and working beside Emma in our living room, there was a constant worry that we or our families, would get the germ, as Arlo called it. Luckily none of us did. There was talk of ending the season but that was complicated by tv money - football is a multi-billion pound business- who knew? My own feeling was that if the season resumed then it was a sign we had got ourselves back to some kind of normality. I admit I was worried that we would be denied again but at the same time football just felt like sports entertainment or as Klopp put it "the most important of the least important things". While the Prime Minister dithered and shocked us with his speeches about how many would die, Klopp reassured us. We would get through this, football would return, but when? The government were initially asking overpaid Premier League footballers to donate money to the NHS staff who were now the real superstars. Jordan Henderson was already in discussions with captains of the other 19 teams to raise funds under the Players Together banner and he followed that up with his own #shirtsforheroes campaign, auctioning signed jerseys from some of the leagues biggest stars with all proceeds going to NHS Together Charities. This was leadership from the Liverpool manager and his captain. Meanwhile, there seemed to be a huge push from certain rival fans to null and void the season. Every day, amongst the daily death toll updates and half an hour of exercise, there was an example of how the season could restart - Germany, Italy and Spain put plans in place only for news of a different league ending (though not null and void) like Holland, France, Scotland and Belgium. The government urged the greedy footballers to resume playing to boost the morale of the nation. In the end, it came down to money and the biggest leagues in Europe plus the Champions and Europa League 2019/20 seasons would be finished or face huge bills from tv companies. The training grounds and facilities were safer than Corfu, rules were tweaked, players and clubs were satisfied and training began in May. There was rigorous testing by every team and a handful of covid cases were identified but the season recommenced in mid June. Our first game was against Everton. If city lost to Arsenal we could win it at Goodison. The Gunners were beaten easily and the game across Stanley Park was typical of an away day derby, Ancelotti's team didn't want to lose, the highlight of their season would be not losing at home to the reds. The first games after the restart were largely awful though United and Spurs was decent. City won again to reduce the lead to 20 points. Some fans were talking about a Liverpool capitulation. If Liverpool lost to Palace, then lost to city and then da-da, da-da, da-da.... The reds put on a title winning performance against Palace winning 4 nil with goals from Trent, Salah, Fabinho and Mane. We also set a new Premier League record for not letting an opposition side have a single touch in our penalty box. This summed us up under Klopp. He'd found the balance of scoring goals, playing beautiful football but also not conceding. And so it came down to a game between our two biggest rivals from the last 15 years. City had to win at Chelsea or it was over. I was messaging Chops, Smiddy and non Liverpool fans on a WhatsApp group. There was a mixed reaction to whether it was better to let other teams decide it or face off against City in the next game. Chops wanted his Aguero against QPR moment, I pointed out you don't get those moments in one sided league campaigns like this one. I wanted it over as soon as possible and this was a game worthy of deciding a title. City dominated possession but Chelsea were dangerous on the break. Pulisic took advantage of indecision from Mendy to latch on to a clearance from a City corner then run half the length of the pitch and send a beautiful finish around the outstretched arms of Ederson. I messaged Dilly in western Australia, it was the middle of the night there, no reply he must not have got up to watch. Half time. Halfway to paradise. City couldn't be as bad in the second half though. They weren't. De Bruyne scored a peach of a free kick and then Sterling should have made it 2-1 but he hit the post. Chelsea were through a couple of times on the counter attack but Mount missed and then Pulisic went round the keeper and hit the ball into the empty net, only Walker came from nowhere to clear it off the line. Another Chelsea attack down the right, saw Willian cross for Abraham, who's scuffed shot was saved, Pulisic came in but was also stopped by a combination of the keeper and Fernandinho on the line, it bounced out to Abraham who would surely score but Fernandinho cleared it. What the fuck was going on? I was watching on an Arabic channel so it took me a while to realise there was a penalty shout. When I saw the replay, Fernandinho blatantly punched the ball clear. Penalty. Red card. Willian stepped up and sent his penalty into the roof of the net as Ederson dived the wrong way and height. 2-1. We (Chelsea) had to hang on for about 20 minutes and when the board went up for 6 minutes of injury time, my mind went back to Chelsea at Anfield in May 2005 and the six, mad minutes in the next game in Istanbul when we went from 3-0 to 3-3. Six more minutes....
My oldest niece in Sunderland, Ellie, has just turned 13. That's what age I was the last time we won the league. Guardiola and Lampard bumped forearms at the full time whistle. We'd done it! Emma was there, Arlo should have been in bed but was still running about oblivious to it all. I messaged Chops to organise a celebratory zoom call. Dilly woke up and saw my photo of Skysports News. My mum text me, my brother, my cousin, a Leeds fan friend, United fan friends. I messaged Barry who'd got me so many tickets. It was subdued but glorious. We had our brief zoom call to celebrate together (Smiddy missed it but I caught up with him later) then it was back to the tv to see interviews with the Liverpool players, the captain and manager, also on zoom, all together at a hotel somewhere on Merseyside for the night it became our year. I'd dreamed of this day for so long. There were many false dawns, many mesmerising ups and and devastating downs. I thought of the people who were no longer with us to celebrate. In the Maradona documentary by Asif Kapadia when Napoli won their first Scudetto, someone had written "you don't know what you're missing" on the cemetery wall. I never lost faith, I knew this day would come but I didn't know how or when. In August 2017, Emma and I went to a pre-season friendly in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin against Atletico Bilbao. I hadn't been in that stadium since 1993 when it was plain old Lansdowne Road and Ireland beat England in the rugby. Nearly 30 years later, it was now a beautiful modern arena. Sadio Mane was playing on the left in front of me, he was wearing number 19. After the game, Klopp and his players walked to all four sides of the Aviva to not only meet the fans but get into the stands among us. We can only get 50,000 into Anfield but there are 100 million of us around the world who don't often get the opportunity to see us play live. Everybody wanted to be there to see Jordan Henderson lift the Premier League trophy, with fans prepared to pay up to 2 grand on the black market for the privilege of being at the last home game when it would have been presented. That's 50,000 match going regulars who have been denied the chance to see us lift the hard earned prize at Anfield. Circumstances are such that we will all probably have to settle for watching it on the telly and wait for the time when fans can flock to Liverpool for the mother and father of all victory parades.
Depending on who you listen to, either Jurgen decided not to sign any new players or FSG told him he wasn't getting any. It was clear to me that Klopp felt he owed the Champions League winning players the chance to see if they could finish the job and finally bring home the premiership. City won all the domestic trophies in 2019, so Liverpool, as league runners up, contested the season opening Community Shield with the Cityzens. It was a tight game, for a change, ending one each but City won on penalties, Wijnaldum the only player to miss. Ten days later the European Super Cup also went to penalties after a 2-2 draw against our other recent rivals, Chelsea. Former West Ham keeper, Adrian, had come in for the want away Simon Mignolet and he was the hero, saving Tammy Abrahams kick. We won our first 8 games of the season while City lost 2 and drew one. A draw with United ended that sequence before we went on a record equalling 18 game run of wins that put more distance between ourselves and City. The blue side of Manchester came to L4 in November and suffered their third league defeat of the season. It was Leicester, under former manager Brendan Rodgers, who were our closest challengers in the first half of the season until they were destroyed 4 nil at home by the reds on Boxing Day. The game before that was a special moment for me. We finally won the competition in which I first watched Liverpool play, back in 1984. We sacrificed a League Cup quarter final to prioritise trying to win the World Club Championship in Qatar. We still played Villa in the cup but fielded an U23 team and lost 5 nil. In Doha, we beat Monterrey 2-1 at the semi final stage, Firmino with an injury time winner to set up a final with South American champions, Flamengo. Firmino, again with the winner in a game that needed extra time. Jordan Henderson did his now traditional quick feet shuffle before lifting Liverpool's third trophy of 2019. There was a fear that this competition would derail our Premier League ambitions but the way we disposed of Leicester made it clear that this was not a typical Liverpool team of the Premiership era - top of the league at Christmas, only to throw the chance away. As Jordan Henderson said, once they won the first one there would be no stopping them and so it proved. I signed up Emma, Arlo and I for fan cards in the hope that I could get tickets for the three of us to go to a game but when the sale came round for matches in the new year, I queued on line for 4 hours and came away empty handed. That rite of passage - taking my son to his first game, as my uncle Jimmy had taken me to mine, would have to wait. Indeed, it was proving impossible to get even one ticket for any game as Liverpool finally looked like they would end the 30 year wait for a league title. Someone put me in contact with what turned out to be a tout. The cheapest tickets he was selling for games were £200. He was looking £1500 for the final home game against Chelsea! I wouldn't pay 200 let alone 1500. Chops and I decided in February, we would take a chance on the now inevitable looking victory parade being on Monday 18th May, the day after the final league game against Newcastle. I hated doing anything like this before the league was decided in case I jinxed us but the price of the flights would go up and up, so we had to take a punt. All the while there was a SARS like virus spreading rapidly through China and there were now a few cases in Italy. There had been a previous outbreak of that virus in the early 2000's that didn't get very far west so most people were probably thinking this one would fizzle out too. How wrong we were. Liverpool lost their unbeaten record when Watford battered us 3 nil at Vicarage Road. Were the effects of a long season and the physical demands of the gegenpress going to catch up with us again? We hadn't been playing well. We lost one nil, in our round of 16, Champions League, first leg at the Wanda Metropolitano, home of Atletico and scene of this teams first trophy win. Next, we went out of the FA Cup against Chelsea. A nervy home win against Bournemouth in the league got us back on track and we were absolutely brilliant in the second leg against Atletico at Anfield but could only score one goal in 90 minutes, through Wijnaldum, which meant extra time. Firmino got his first home goal of the season to put us ahead in the tie but a couple of mistakes from Adrian swung it back in Atletico's favour and our defence of the Champions League was over. It also seemed like the football season might be over as coronavirus brought the world to a standstill. Those first few days were very, very scary. The government didn't know what they were doing. Schools were closing themselves. We were being told to avoid people and if we couldn't then we had to social distance by two metres. I was going grocery shopping with a cycling scarf mask over my nose and mouth and surgical gloves on my hands for fear of contracting the virus while being met with empty shelves, as the less considerate humans, panic bought essentials. The government furloughed employees to fend off a run on the banks. Nobody other than medical staff, economists and those who worked in or for the retail food industry were allowed to leave home unless it was essential as Covid 19 took tens of thousands of lives in the UK and Ireland. Everything other than trying not to get the virus and supporting the NHS staff who were treating people in huge numbers, was unimportant. Along with the homeschooling and working beside Emma in our living room, there was a constant worry that we or our families, would get the germ, as Arlo called it. Luckily none of us did. There was talk of ending the season but that was complicated by tv money - football is a multi-billion pound business- who knew? My own feeling was that if the season resumed then it was a sign we had got ourselves back to some kind of normality. I admit I was worried that we would be denied again but at the same time football just felt like sports entertainment or as Klopp put it "the most important of the least important things". While the Prime Minister dithered and shocked us with his speeches about how many would die, Klopp reassured us. We would get through this, football would return, but when? The government were initially asking overpaid Premier League footballers to donate money to the NHS staff who were now the real superstars. Jordan Henderson was already in discussions with captains of the other 19 teams to raise funds under the Players Together banner and he followed that up with his own #shirtsforheroes campaign, auctioning signed jerseys from some of the leagues biggest stars with all proceeds going to NHS Together Charities. This was leadership from the Liverpool manager and his captain. Meanwhile, there seemed to be a huge push from certain rival fans to null and void the season. Every day, amongst the daily death toll updates and half an hour of exercise, there was an example of how the season could restart - Germany, Italy and Spain put plans in place only for news of a different league ending (though not null and void) like Holland, France, Scotland and Belgium. The government urged the greedy footballers to resume playing to boost the morale of the nation. In the end, it came down to money and the biggest leagues in Europe plus the Champions and Europa League 2019/20 seasons would be finished or face huge bills from tv companies. The training grounds and facilities were safer than Corfu, rules were tweaked, players and clubs were satisfied and training began in May. There was rigorous testing by every team and a handful of covid cases were identified but the season recommenced in mid June. Our first game was against Everton. If city lost to Arsenal we could win it at Goodison. The Gunners were beaten easily and the game across Stanley Park was typical of an away day derby, Ancelotti's team didn't want to lose, the highlight of their season would be not losing at home to the reds. The first games after the restart were largely awful though United and Spurs was decent. City won again to reduce the lead to 20 points. Some fans were talking about a Liverpool capitulation. If Liverpool lost to Palace, then lost to city and then da-da, da-da, da-da.... The reds put on a title winning performance against Palace winning 4 nil with goals from Trent, Salah, Fabinho and Mane. We also set a new Premier League record for not letting an opposition side have a single touch in our penalty box. This summed us up under Klopp. He'd found the balance of scoring goals, playing beautiful football but also not conceding. And so it came down to a game between our two biggest rivals from the last 15 years. City had to win at Chelsea or it was over. I was messaging Chops, Smiddy and non Liverpool fans on a WhatsApp group. There was a mixed reaction to whether it was better to let other teams decide it or face off against City in the next game. Chops wanted his Aguero against QPR moment, I pointed out you don't get those moments in one sided league campaigns like this one. I wanted it over as soon as possible and this was a game worthy of deciding a title. City dominated possession but Chelsea were dangerous on the break. Pulisic took advantage of indecision from Mendy to latch on to a clearance from a City corner then run half the length of the pitch and send a beautiful finish around the outstretched arms of Ederson. I messaged Dilly in western Australia, it was the middle of the night there, no reply he must not have got up to watch. Half time. Halfway to paradise. City couldn't be as bad in the second half though. They weren't. De Bruyne scored a peach of a free kick and then Sterling should have made it 2-1 but he hit the post. Chelsea were through a couple of times on the counter attack but Mount missed and then Pulisic went round the keeper and hit the ball into the empty net, only Walker came from nowhere to clear it off the line. Another Chelsea attack down the right, saw Willian cross for Abraham, who's scuffed shot was saved, Pulisic came in but was also stopped by a combination of the keeper and Fernandinho on the line, it bounced out to Abraham who would surely score but Fernandinho cleared it. What the fuck was going on? I was watching on an Arabic channel so it took me a while to realise there was a penalty shout. When I saw the replay, Fernandinho blatantly punched the ball clear. Penalty. Red card. Willian stepped up and sent his penalty into the roof of the net as Ederson dived the wrong way and height. 2-1. We (Chelsea) had to hang on for about 20 minutes and when the board went up for 6 minutes of injury time, my mind went back to Chelsea at Anfield in May 2005 and the six, mad minutes in the next game in Istanbul when we went from 3-0 to 3-3. Six more minutes....
My oldest niece in Sunderland, Ellie, has just turned 13. That's what age I was the last time we won the league. Guardiola and Lampard bumped forearms at the full time whistle. We'd done it! Emma was there, Arlo should have been in bed but was still running about oblivious to it all. I messaged Chops to organise a celebratory zoom call. Dilly woke up and saw my photo of Skysports News. My mum text me, my brother, my cousin, a Leeds fan friend, United fan friends. I messaged Barry who'd got me so many tickets. It was subdued but glorious. We had our brief zoom call to celebrate together (Smiddy missed it but I caught up with him later) then it was back to the tv to see interviews with the Liverpool players, the captain and manager, also on zoom, all together at a hotel somewhere on Merseyside for the night it became our year. I'd dreamed of this day for so long. There were many false dawns, many mesmerising ups and and devastating downs. I thought of the people who were no longer with us to celebrate. In the Maradona documentary by Asif Kapadia when Napoli won their first Scudetto, someone had written "you don't know what you're missing" on the cemetery wall. I never lost faith, I knew this day would come but I didn't know how or when. In August 2017, Emma and I went to a pre-season friendly in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin against Atletico Bilbao. I hadn't been in that stadium since 1993 when it was plain old Lansdowne Road and Ireland beat England in the rugby. Nearly 30 years later, it was now a beautiful modern arena. Sadio Mane was playing on the left in front of me, he was wearing number 19. After the game, Klopp and his players walked to all four sides of the Aviva to not only meet the fans but get into the stands among us. We can only get 50,000 into Anfield but there are 100 million of us around the world who don't often get the opportunity to see us play live. Everybody wanted to be there to see Jordan Henderson lift the Premier League trophy, with fans prepared to pay up to 2 grand on the black market for the privilege of being at the last home game when it would have been presented. That's 50,000 match going regulars who have been denied the chance to see us lift the hard earned prize at Anfield. Circumstances are such that we will all probably have to settle for watching it on the telly and wait for the time when fans can flock to Liverpool for the mother and father of all victory parades.
Edit: He was looking 3k for Chelsea tickets back in January.
Edit: Liverpool have approx 700 million fans worldwide. Source = something James Pearce wrote.
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