Graeme Souness eventually left a very successful Glasgow Rangers team to take over at Liverpool. Rangers were well on their way to equalling the 9 Scottish Premier Leagues in a row record but the lure of Anfield proved too great. The transition from Kenny via Ronnie Moran to Souness would be seen as seamless. It was as good as promoting from within the club. The problem was that the former captain had left 7 years earlier. He played on the continent for Sampdoria, he’d lived a different football life, one that England still wasn’t ready for. He tried to implement what he thought would improve Liverpool and it backfired massively. Years later though, Gerard Houllier would praise Souness for his foresight. Souness inherited an ageing squad but also had some brilliant youngsters coming through like Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler. McManaman announced himself as talent in the first full season of the new manager which ended with Liverpool beating a second division Sunderland at Wembley to win the FA Cup in 1992. It would be about 14 years before I would meet my Sunderland supporting brother in law but he was at that game. He has told me stories about playing a match in Trafalgar Square on the morning of the final - Liverpool fans v Sunderland fans. Ian Rush and the recently signed Michael Thomas scored the goals but McManaman was the best player on the pitch. Souness signed the first Catholic to play for Rangers so it shouldn’t have been a surprise when he signed a player who had broken all the hearts of Liverpool fans. Aesthetically, we were still winning trophies in May but with the old First Division being replaced with the new Premier League (which was ostensibly the same top division rebranded under new ownership and with a lot more live football that you had to pay to watch and get a satellite dish on the side of your house to do so) there was a shift in power as United ended their 26 year title drought by winning the inaugural FA Premier League. It was only 3 years since we’d last won the title. It would never be 26. Souness though, was in big trouble. Liverpool won nothing in 93 and were on the way to winning nothing in 94 when the manager resigned at the end of January. The results weren’t good enough, the expensive signings hadn’t worked and he’d also done an ill advised interview with The Sun which was published on the third anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. I went to my first Liverpool game later that season. It was the last season of the standing Kop. My uncle Jimmy was a Liverpool fan. He died in 2015. My da got him to bring me to a game. I’ve heard about Boston Red Sox fans visiting the graves of family members and placing world series pennants so their loved ones could be part of the celebrations. The Red Sox went 86 years without winning the World Series. Jimmy took me to my first game in March 1994. He told me I could try and swap my main stand ticket for one on the Kop but then he caught me drinking on the boat on the way over and that was the end of that. Liverpool beat Chelsea 2-1. Rush and Barnes scored for new manager, Roy Evans. Craig Burley scored a screamer for Chelsea. The following month I met my future wife when we volunteered in Lourdes. Evans's Liverpool was a mixture of youth and experience. Barnes, Rush and Thomas along with James, Jones, Redknapp, Fowler and McManaman. We won a first trophy in 3 years when the League Cup known as The Coca Cola Cup at that time was landed thanks to another Steve McManaman master class. This was also the year Everton last won any trophy when they beat United to win the FA Cup. I was studying for my A Levels and was away on a study weekend with my RE class. We watched the final together, anyone who wasn’t a United fan was supporting Everton, then played a match against the locals. It was a pot-less year for United. Kenny had pipped them to the league by losing with Blackburn at Anfield. That summer saw the British record signing of Stan Collymore and I was off to University.
Occasionally in life you meet an even bigger Liverpool fan than you are. I’m a wool. That’s what Scousers call anyone who isn’t from Liverpool who think they’re from Liverpool. I watch Liverpool on the telly at home in Northern Ireland and I concede that the Liverpool fans who go home and away are bigger fans than I am but in terms of supporting Liverpool from afar, I’d put myself up there with anyone. Then I shared a house with Crickey Fitzpatrick at University in Coleraine. He was a musical genius and played in a few bands. He would sulk for days if Liverpool lost, he’d be elated for days when we won. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be upset and my weekends never felt as good if we lost but it wouldn’t absolutely ruin them. Liverpool were looking good in 95-96. Collymore hit the ground running and Evans 352 formation (that I think he nicked from Ajax after they gave us a hiding in either that pre season or the year before) was working well for us. McManaman was playing in the hole behind 2 of Fowler, Collymore or Rush. Barnes, Thomas and Redknapp shared the midfield duties. McAteer was playing right wing back and putting in some great crosses. Rob Jones played there too when he wasn’t injured and we had Bjørnebye and Harkness for the left side. At centre back we had Babb, Ruddock, Scales and a resurgent Mark Wright for 3 spots and David James in nets. Fowler was the star. He wasn't known as God for nothing. A bit like John Barnes, he could do everything and score all sorts of goals - left foot, right foot, headers, free kicks, penalties, tap ins, solo goals, long range, short range. We even went to the pub to watch him play for England Under 21's. Liverpool fans have been so lucky to have players like these to idolise. My first night in the uni house, Liverpool were playing Spartak Vladikavkaz in the second leg of the UEFA Cup. The game ended nil nil but we went through on aggregate. University was about 2 hours from home. I went home most weekends. We didn’t have Sky but my neighbours did and they would let me watch Liverpool matches in their house. I clearly remember watching the 2-2 draw with United. It's remembered as Cantona’s return but in my memory it was Robbie Fowlers day. He scored 2 brilliant goals but Cantona equalised with a penalty then went pole dancing. Not long after that, Liverpool went on a winless run that the press nicknamed nightmare November and this put pay to our league aspirations. We went on a great FA Cup run after Christmas and got ourselves back into contention in the league around Easter. We beat Villa in the FA Cup semi final. Fowler was brilliant again. 3 days later we had a Newcastle side who were in danger of throwing away the league. I was studying Irish and every Easter the hundreds of Irish uni students would spend 3 weeks in the native Irish speaking area (An Ghaeltacht) of Donegal. We were in Gortahork (Gort An Choirce) and the local bar showed all the football, so off we went to see Liverpool and Newcastle play out the most thrilling match in premier league history. Personally, I think City winning the league at home to QPR in 2012 probably tops it now but it’s still one of the best ever. Liverpool took an early lead through Fowler but Newcastle equalised then went ahead. Liverpool equalised after the break through Fowler again. Newcastle hit straight back. Collymore equalised. 3 each with more than 20 minutes left. 92 mins “Barnes, Rush, Barnes, still John Barnes, Collymore closing in!!!” Crickey and I were lying on the floor of the bar hugging each other. United fans were even more delighted as we’d put a huge dent in Newcastles title winning hopes. We didn’t care. We even had our own ambitions of going on from this to win the league ourselves but in typical Liverpool style we went out and lost to Coventry in the next game. United won the league but we could still win the cup and stop United winning the double. Me and my long suffering Liverpool compadre Chops went down to another mates house to watch it. He kept going into his next door neighbours shed and helping himself to their drink. Years later we would discover that he wasn’t only robbing the shed he was going into their house and stealing money too. The final was a turgid affair as a lot of Liverpool - United games tend to be. Cantona was the outright hero this time, adjusting his body to send the ball goal wards, that somehow found its way through a lot of players and into the net, after a weak punch clear by David James. I saw Crickey playing with his band that night. I could see on his face how devastated he was. I was too but it didn’t stop me enjoying my night. The next day on the bus back to University everybody knew to avoid him. Our United supporting house mate, Sean was sitting smugly saying nothing but the fact he was saying nothing was winding Crickey up even more and he just exploded at him “ SAY IT, GO ON SAY IT”. Sean just sat there smiling, loving it. Looking back at that season, United only scored 3 goals more than us and we conceded one less than them but they finished 10 points ahead of us. We had 11 draws that season and too many draws would cost us most seasons we went for the league. 19-20 was the first season we sorted that out. The football continued with Euro 96. The Republic of Ireland had long been the best team on the island as Northern Ireland regressed after 82 and 86. The Republic had gone out in the play off against Holland played at Anfield so I’d free rein to support England. It was a roasting hot summer and I’d moved to Belfast and was working in a bar. My mates let me kip in their house when I was working and I might stay the next night too for a night out. Trainspotting was out in the cinema, dance music had just gotten huge and nights out went on until the the next morning. It was also a very dangerous time. There was a lot of civil unrest due to Orange parades being rerouted then blocked then unblocked. There were a lot of sectarian killings and it just seemed that those killed were in the wrong place at the wrong time. England were flying in the Euros. Gazza was on fire but it all came to a halt at the semi final stage again when they lost to Germany on penalties, just like 1990 but this was worse. This was on home soil.
Liverpool played a pre season friendly against Dundalk which is just over the border from Newry. I was working in a meat factory in Dublin with some friends from Uni. One of their mates was another massive Liverpool fan who invited us to stay in his house then go to the game the next day. He had played for Dundalk youth team against a Liverpool youth team that included Robbie Fowler. Liverpool won 10-1. Fowler got 5 but Wayne got the 1. He had a video of the game and he must have played his goal about a hundred times. I randomly was sat beside a mate of his when I was going over for the last game of the 2017 season against Middlesborough and I was telling him this story. Jamie Carragher came on for Liverpool that day against Dundalk. I completely wrote him off as a token Irish lad who we’d never see in a red shirt again. Fast forward 17 years and I was at Anfield for Carraghers final Liverpool game against QPR after about 750 appearances for Liverpool. He hit the post with a 30 yarder too.
Liverpool signed Patrik Berger that summer. He’d been one of the stars for Euro finalists, the Czech Republic. He ended up having a pretty successful Liverpool career but his signing also signified a move away from the traditional 442 with wingers who beat a man and crossed the ball. He was a left sided player but he wasn’t quick enough or skilful enough for the wing. He was an inside forward or an attacking midfielder probably not good enough to play in a midfield two unless the defensive midfielder could do the work of 2 men. Bergers best days would come later. Ian Rush moved to Leeds where I was now living having followed a mate over when I decided I didn't want to be an Irish teacher. Rushie didn’t have a great time at Leeds but I was there when he scored his first goals for them. Liverpool looked to have continued where they’d left off in 95-96 and a first league title in 7 years looked a real possibility when we went 5 points clear on New Years Day but somehow we managed to end up fourth in a two horse race, Coventry again denting our hopes and United beat us 3-1 at Anfield to win back to back premier leagues. We also got all the way to the semi finals of the UEFA Cup but lost to PSG when they were still just plain old Paris St Germain. This was also the beginning of another lifelong friendship with a big Liverpool fan called Dilly. Michael Owen scored on his debut at the end of the season and I saw him play in a pre season friendly against Linfield that summer when I moved back to Belfast. Dilly's sister didn't want to go with him and gave me her ticket. I told a Man Utd supporting mate that Owen reminded me of Juninho, who was one of the biggest stars in the premier league at that time. He laughed his head off at this. A year later, my Man Utd supporting mate was saying Owen was the best footballer in the world.
This was also the era of the missing piece of the jigsaw. The 96-97 season saw Liverpool score lots of goals but concede too many. A defensive midfielder would sort that out and Paul Ince was available having been sold by United to Inter a couple of years earlier. He was ready to return and Liverpool snapped him up. Friedel, Kvarme, Murphy, Riedle and Leonhardsen were also brought in as Liverpool looked to strengthen the squad. Fowler got injured so Riedle and Owen led the line. The 18 year old scored 23 goals and was off to the world cup in France after helping us finish 3rd in the league. in 1998, eight year old Jordan Henderson joined the youth ranks of Sunderland Football Club. Michael Owen reached superstar status that summer when he scored a brilliant individual goal for England against Argentina in a game that saw David Beckham become public enemy number one for the English media when he got sent off and England lost on penalties. France won the World Cup on home soil and one of their selectors would soon be moving back across the English Channel to the city he had called home for a while in the 60’s when he worked in Liverpool as a teacher.
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