Gerard Houllier came in as joint manager with Roy Evans. The last man at the club from the boot room would resign in November 98. Liverpool were way off the pace in the premier league, out of the League Cup and heading out of the UEFA Cup. The rebuild under Houllier began there and then. McManaman was not going to sign a new contract so Liverpool tried to sell him to Barcelona in December. He didn’t go but instead agreed to join Madrid at the end of the season. I'd been working as a technician in a university and had regular access to the internet and email for the first time in my life. Dilly, Chops and I went to a game together for the first time. When I was buying the tickets, I put our names down for season tickets which was a rare bit of foresight from me at a time when I was living hand to mouth. We lost 1 nil to Villa in a game that was only memorable for the fans demanding Sean Dundee got a run out. Anfield could soon see why he hadn't been playing. That night we sampled Cream. Pete Tong and Boy George were on the wheels of steel. United went on to win the treble in 99 as the new era at Liverpool continued. The last summer of the century saw me travel to the east coast of America for the summer. I arrived in New York in the middle of the NBA Finals when the Knicks defied the odds to face off against the San Antonio Spurs. The Knicks were attempting to win their first finals series since 1973. There were those 26 years again. They were already 2-0 down in the series but they won game 3 though lost the series 4-1. I was hooked. Unfortunately, they haven’t got anywhere near the finals since. While in America, I discovered a new phenomenon, the internet cafe. I checked the Teamtalk football website for news and gossip daily. We signed Hamann, Hyypia, Henchoz, Westerveld, Smicer, Meijer and Camara. The season began with United continuing to chase down our league and European Cup record. Theres a famous picture from a home game against United around September 99 that shows Liverpool fans and players all holding their heads in unison. Liverpool lost 3-2 to the treble winners. Houllier was building something though. Steven Gerrard broke through with a goal against Sheffield Wednesday in December that year and in the spring (before the January window) we signed Emile Heskey from Leicester for a club record 11 million. We were looking good for a champions league place but somehow managed to blow it by losing to Bradford on the last day of the season.
The summer 2000 signings, added to what was already there, took us to the next level. Barmby crossed the divide from Everton, Babbel joined from Bayern, Arphexad was signed as back up to Westerveld, French world cup winner Bernard Diomede and intriguingly Gary McAllister from Coventry. There was a long, protracted tug of war to get Christian Ziege when Liverpool activated a release clause in his Middlesboro contract. This was now looking like a very strong squad with a mixture of youth, experience and scouse/english core of carragher, gerrard, murphy, owen, heskey and barmby. Later in the year we would add Jari Litmanen and Igor Biscan. This season started and ended with attending a cousins wedding. The first one was in September 2000 and I missed our UEFA cup win over Rapid Bucharesti and the second one was the day of the 2001 FA Cup final against Arsenal. In between, Liverpool put together the most thrilling season I’d seen. Every single game seemed to be televised as we fought on all fronts. I’ve watched the season review so many times and it was interesting to read in Dietmar Hamanns book how close we came to not winning the first trophy in an early round of the League Cup (The Worthington Cup). We played Stoke BP (Before Pulis) and we beat them 8 (Eight) nil but when it was nil nil they had a great chance to go one up when their player went round Arphexad and missed an open goal. Didi and I agreed “who knows how the season might have gone if that had gone in”. It didn’t and Liverpool won their first trophy in 6 years, making a meal of beating Birmingham City in Cardiff. Regardless, the monkey was off our back and we were marching on in the FA Cup, the UEFA Cup and the league. In April, when we were playing FA Cup and UEFA Cup semi finals I came down with the worst flu I’d ever had. I watched us beat Wycombe from my sick bed. “Tell me ma, me ma, to put the champagne on ice, we’re going to Cardiff twice, tell me ma, me ma”. The following Thursday I was still only about 50% but there was no way I was missing the semi final second leg against Barca in the pub. Gary Mac scored the decisive penalty and the season continued to go from good to great. The FA Cup was won on a scorching Saturday in May in front of a large number of my Arsenal supporting family. Michael Owen turned the game on its head when he scored two brilliant goals in the last 10 minutes. I was talking to one of my cousins recently, he was still shaking his head at what Owen did and the Henchoz hand ball! The third leg of a remarkable treble was the UEFA Cup final in Dortmund against Alaves a few days later. An absolutely crazy game that we won about 3 times before finally winning it with a silver own goal from a Gary Mac free kick. We hadn’t won a trophy for 6 years then we won 3 in a few months. We also qualified for the Champions League for the first time with a final day victory over Charlton. It really was an incredible season and it seemed the league would be next. The victory parade bus had “tell yer ma we did it” displayed on it as players and fans celebrated winning the 3 trophies.
The 2001 odyssey carried on at pace when the Charity Shield and European Super Cup were added to the Anfield trophy room at the start of the next season. Houllier asked the players that summer what they wanted to prioritise, League or Champions League. The League was selected of course. It had been too long but unbeknownst to me and probably the players was that there is something irresistible about Liverpool and the European Cup or Champions League as it was now known. Liverpool teams just seem to come to life in this competition and our first journey in Europes top competition, since its rebranding, awoke the giant. In September, our Champions League football adventure began on 11th September. Earlier that day the the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York were attacked by Islamic terrorists. More people died on 9/11 than in 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland. Life went on. At this point in the Champions League, there were two group stages. A team had to play 12 games just to get to the two legged quarter finals. We beat Dynamo Kiev home and away and then Dortmund at home in the final round of group stage one to qualify. We were rewarded with a group containing Barcelona and Roma who we’d beaten on the way to winning the Uefa Cup. Galatasary were also in there to make it a group of death. Gerard Houllier returned from an almost fatal heart attack to inspire his team to a win at home against Roma and make the knock out stages. "Allez, Allez, Gerard Houllier". We were in great form in the league but were up against an Arsenal side that was about to become one of the greatest in Premier League history. We won all but two of our last 15 games but still finished 7 points behind the Gunners. Michael Owen had been named European Footballer of the Year but his missed chances in the second leg in Leverkusen put pay to dreams of a first European Cup in 18 years. A season that promised so much ended with nothing other than qualification for the Champions League the next season.
Poor recruitment in the summer of 2002 saw the wheels come off Houlliers red machine. There was another League Cup win over United in Cardiff in 2003. It was now 13 years since we won the league though, an angry manc work colleague reminded me afterwards. Buoyed by winning a cup against the all conquering Manchester United, I declared resolutely that it would never be 26 years. "Yeah, it will be longer" he replied. One of us would be right. Harry Kewell and Steve Finnan signed that summer. Houllier played the left footed Kewell on the right, first time I’d seen that since Chris Waddle at Spurs. Champions League qualification was missed out on for 2003-04 and we had to settle for another crack at the Uefa Cup. That was ended by a certain Didier Drogba of Marseille who would go on to be a thorn in our side for many years to come. Houlliers parting gift was to give us Champions League football the following season as yet another new era at Liverpool FC began under Rafa Benitez.
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