While Jordan Henderson was making his England Under 19 debut, the exodus of stars from Liverpool began with Xabi Alonso leaving in 2009. We probably didn’t realise the good times were already over. Rafa brought in Alberto Aquilani to replace him. Could he be the first Italian player to make a name for himself playing for Liverpool? He’d have to overcome injury first. This wouldn’t be the first time signing an injured player would backfire on us. Glen Johnson joined for about 18m which was a lot of money for a full back but English players cost more than twice what they were worth at that time. Settle-ability was the best reason I received for why this was the case. The latest warning that all wasn’t well between owners and manager was when Rafa tried to sign a centre back to replace the long serving colossus that was Sami Hyypia. I know footballers are well paid but if any player deserved a testimonial it was Sami, especially when you consider we only replaced him when we signed Virgil Van Dijk nearly 10 years later. Back in 2009, Rafa was told he had a certain amount of money and wanted to sign Gary Cahill but then was told that amount included player salary which was how American sport worked. Cahill went to Chelsea and won everything. Liverpool ended up with Soto Kyrgiakos for £1.5m. You forget what a soap opera this was for Liverpool fans. Things got so bad between owners, managers and Chief Executive Rick Parry that the bookies stopped taking bets on Rafa leaving Liverpool in early 2009 only for Benitez to sign a new 5 year contract in March. Parry left in the summer of 2009 which was probably one of the reasons Rafa decided to stay but if he thought that would be the end of the problems with the owners then he was sadly mistaken. 2009-10 was a terrible season for Liverpool. They had won only once in 10 games before Christmas and were out of the Champions League before I went to see them in the final group game against Fiorentina that December. I was hoping to be there for another great Anfield European night instead I was witnessing the death knell of the Benitez era. Torres returned from injury that night which began at about 3am for me on a coach from Belfast via Dublin to Holyhead on the ferry and over to Liverpool by late afternoon. I was there with my two friends from the villa game over 10 years before. Dilly had travelled from Australia for this. Chops flew over, met us there and got the bus/ferry home. We debated whether to go or not but regardless of the importance of the game, opportunities to go to Anfield were few and far between. Getting that bus back to the ferry later that night and then arriving in Belfast on the bus at 8am, it didn’t seem such a good idea. Dumped out of the Champions League and the domestic cups, our only hope of any silverware was in the rebranded UEFA Cup now the Europa League which had a similar format to the Champions League. We got as far as the semi finals, returning to Anfield losing 1 nil to Atletico Madrid. Aquilani brought the game level but Liverpool couldn’t get the second to put them through until Benayoun scored in extra time. Old foe Diego Forlan replied for Atletico and they went through on away goals. Not unlike our recent tie against Atletico. Liverpool finished the season in seventh, missing out on the Champions League for the first time in 6 years. Gerrard, maybe rueing not joining Chelsea all over again, played a back pass short that allowed Drogba in to score and secure the league for Chelsea over United. Benitez left or was sacked depending on who you believe. In the North East, Jordan Henderson had broken into the Sunderland first team and played over 30 games in 09-10. He came on in the second half for the infamous beach ball game. I was there pretending not to be a Liverpool fan which wasn’t hard that day as we had little to cheer about.
Torres won the world cup with Spain and was pictured holding the trophy draped in a Liverpool scarf. Rick Parry’s replacement, Christian Purslow lined up Roy Hodgson who had done a brilliant job at Fulham but was probably the most underwhelming candidate for new Liverpool boss. Hodgson it was though. An out of date Joe Cole also arrived while Mascherano went on strike to force a move to Barcelona. In less than a year, we went from the best midfield in the world to not even the best midfield in Liverpool. It’s amazing how quickly things can fall apart but if you can’t offer Champions League football then that’s what happens. That season was less about football and more about the boardroom battle and how the fans took control in one of the most stunning examples of people power I’ve ever witnessed. This was also the year I got married. We decided to go for a September wedding as the weather always seemed to be better when you went back to school. Of course, it rained but we just danced through it as we got photos taken amongst the picturesque beauty of the Mournes coast and then celebrated long into the night. The day after was All Ireland final day and Down were in the final against Cork. A lot of the wedding guests got up the next day to travel to Croke Park in Dublin to support their county. The part of Newry I'm from straddles counties Armagh and Down. There's huge rivalry there but I support them both though I was more interested in Man Utd v Liverpool beforehand. United were 2 up thanks to Berbatov then Gerrard brought it back to two each but the Bulgarian completed his hat trick with six minutes to go to win it for United who would go on to overtake Liverpool with 19 top division titles. Liverpool were now 21 years without a league title. It would never be 26. We flew to Rio De Janeiro for the honeymoon and I got to emulate John Barnes doing toe taps on the Copacabana. I caught as many games as I could when we were in Brazil as things lurched from bad to worse under Hodgson. The unrest amongst the fans regarding the owners took a surprising twist when members of the online forum I frequented, The Liverpool Way, organised an email and letter bombardment on Royal Bank Of Scotland who were warned not to refund the spiralling loans of Gillett and Hicks. One morning in October, every member across every Liverpool FC forum was sent an email template and a list of RBS staff emails and a synchronised mass send was initiated. There were so many involved, I think it crashed their email. Brian Reade’s brilliant book An Epic Swindle, details the whole thing. We were also asked to contact our MP’s and urge them to do whatever they could to get rid of the Americans from our club. My MP for South Down at the time was Eddie McGrady. He sent me a letter saying he understood the predicament but it wasn’t something he had any influence on. I wonder how many MP’s outside of Liverpool got the same template letter and wondered why the hell am I getting this but it made them realise how big and far reaching is the love for Liverpool Football Club. The battle moved from the pitch to court rooms in London and Texas as Tom Hicks, in particular, did everything he could to block the sale of the club to what is now known as Fenway Sports Group led by Boston Red Sox owners John W. Henry and Tom Werner but on a Friday afternoon in October, the new owners emerged from the offices of London law firm, the appropriately named, Slaughter and May to meet a cheering crowd of Liverpool supporters who celebrated like they’d won the league. This had to be only the beginning. Henry and Werner promised not to overpromise and under deliver. The Arsenal model was something the new Americans were interested in copying. Arsenal had long worked within their means while Hicks and Gillett had leveraged the club almost into bankruptcy. Never would this be allowed to happen again.
After defeats to Blackpool and Everton, we won our next 3 then drew with Wigan. This started a sequence of win a game, lose a game. By December, Liverpool fans were chanting for Roy Hodgson to get the England job so Kenny Dalglish could return to the club. Less than a month later the fans got their wish. Hodgson out, Kenny in - just in time for the FA Cup 3rd round at Manchester United. It wasn’t to be the fairytale start to his second spell as Liverpool manager. United won one nil but Liverpool Football Club was as together as it had been in years. There were suspicions and reservations about the latest American owners but the appointment of the Liverpool legend that is Kenny Dalglish meant everyone was at least behind the manager and the players. I practically never use the word legend as it has been destroyed as an accolade in common vernacular but I will use it when it is merited and The King merits it. He was my first footballing hero, navigated the club through turbulent waters after Heysel, double winning player manager, scorer of one of my favourite ever goals to win the league at Chelsea in 86, league and cup winning manager 88, 89 and 90. The last truly great manager of Liverpool. The selflessness of the man after Hillsborough. For these reasons and more, Kenny Dalglish is a Liverpool legend and he was back to help the club through yet another difficult time. Not everybody was delighted with the new direction the club was going in. Torres heard that Liverpool were going to grow a side but this sounded like it would take too long for the club to be successful so he jumped ship for Chelsea who were willing to pay 50m for a player who loved playing against them. Liverpool replaced Torres with Luis Suarez from Ajax who had made a name for himself as a brilliant footballer but a bit of a bollocks. He annoyed most people in the world for his deliberate handball against Ghana in the world cup in Africa. To me, he just seemed like he would do anything to win. I’d no idea at that stage how much he wanted to win. He made the perfect start to life at Liverpool. Wearing the number 7 made famous by his manager, he scored on his debut at home to Stoke. The other signing was Andy Carroll who cost an eye watering 35m from Newcastle. More on him later. Kenny got the team playing better and climbing the table. One gift Hodgson was able to leave for his successor was European football. Kenny never got to manage the club in Europe following the ban for all English clubs when hooliganism reached it’s nadir in Brussels. Liverpool had topped their group in the Europa League to set up a last 32 tie with Sparta Prague. Dirk Kuyt scoring a late winner in the second leg at Anfield to win the tie one nil. That was as far as we got in Europe losing to Braga in the next round. I got to see us play away to Sunderland that season. Jordan Henderson was being tipped for a big move away from Sunderland in the summer. He was still only 20 but had made enough of an impact that he was listed in the FIFA players to watch in 2011. To be honest, I thought Jay Spearing was better than him on the day. Liverpool won 2 nil with goals from Kuyt and Suarez who was looking like the real deal straight away. Before the game, my brother in law took me to the delightfully named Hetton-Le-Hole, birthplace of Bob Paisley. There is a memorial there that commemorates his 3 European Cups, 6 League titles, 3 League Cups and 1 UEFA Cup in just 9 seasons. Incredible stuff. Sunderland U23 and ladies teams play their games in the village also. Liverpool recovered from their terrible start to the season to finish sixth. The highlight of the remainder of the season was a 3-1 home win against United were Suarez was man of the match even though Kuyt scored a hat trick. Suarez destroyed the league champions while Kuyt scored all his goals from no more than a yard out. The Kop were delighted and even had time to sing happy birthday to Kenny. Andy Carroll announced himself with a pile driving 2 goal performance against Man City. Maxi Rodriguez got a couple of hat tricks and things were looking promising. Would the new owners keep Kenny on beyond the end of the season and would they back him in the transfer market? Yes, yes they would.
20 year old Jordan Henderson was the first signing of the summer. I doubt many would have put money on him still being at Anfield almost 10 years later. Charlie Adam had a great season for Blackpool and almost joined in January before completing a move in the summer. Stewart Downing was brought in to provide the crosses for Carroll. Big Andy’s Newcastle colleague Jose Enrique arrived to solve the left back problem while Luis Suarez had a friendly face in fellow Uruguayan Sebastian Coates who replaced Kyrgiakos as back up centre half. Craig Bellamy returned for a second spell. The plan seemed to be to buy premiership proven with Damien Comolli formerly of Arsenal and Spurs, in a Director Of Football role. It was a mixed season with mixed messages coming out of the club in terms of what the targets were. The owners seemed to be saying champions league football whereas the the team was targeting any silverware it could get its’ hands on. After Christmas, it became only about the cup competitions as Liverpool lost 11 league games between the start of January and the end of the season. Chelsea were beaten at Stamford Bridge in a game that saw Lucas Leiva’s season ended when he was in the best form of his Liverpool career. Champions elect Man City were beaten in the two legged semi final of the League Cup to set up a final with Cardiff at Wembley. We were on the march with Kenny’s army again. The game ended 2 all after the extra time. Cardiff scoring a late equaliser after Kuyt thought he’d won it. Dirk would finally go on to win the trophy with Liverpool he so deserved when he scored one of the penalties in the 3-2 shoot out win. The pictures of John W Henry on the pitch afterwards seemed to suggest he didn’t really care much for League Cups but Kenny felt it was important to get that winning feeling back and the fans were very happy to win a first trophy in 6 years. The FA Cup was next and having gained revenge on United for the third round defeat on Kenny’s return last year the reds beat Brighton and Stoke to set up an all merseyside semi final with Everton at Wembley. It was like going back to the 80’s. Everton led 1 nil at half time thanks to Jelavic but mid way through the second half Distin under hit a back pass and Suarez pounced to equalise. Andy Carroll nodded in a late winner that Jamie Carragher claimed paid his huge transfer fee. It’s always great to win a derby and especially one that gets you into a final but Andy Carroll was a disastrous transfer for Liverpool. He was injured when he arrived then when he did start to play for us, just didn’t seem to have that strikers instinct. I lost count of the amount of games when balls were sent across the six yard box and he wasn’t even in the 18 yard. If the ball wasn’t being plonked on his head then he was non existent. At best, he was a plan b option but you’re not going to have a player who costs a British transfer record sitting on your bench. Anyway, the highlight of Andy Carrolls career was that game at Wembley. The final was one to forget for Liverpool fans. Yet again it was Chelsea who had also reached the Champions League final under Roberto Di Matteo after Andre Villas Boas was sacked earlier in the season. Chelsea took an early lead at Wembley and then went 2 up early in the second half. Andy Carroll was the plan b in this game. He came on and scored to set up a dramatic last half an hour. He then thought he’d equalised when his header came down off the underside of the bar but was ruled to have not crossed the line. Chelsea hung on to win and then went on to finally win the Champions League for Roman Abramovich. My cousin (I'd listened to the 1986 World Cup final with his grandad - my nan's brother) is a lifelong Chelsea fan and season ticket holder and I asked him if he would take me to Wembley with him but he said no. I don’t know if he thought I wouldn’t be able to hide my Liverpool-ness or maybe he was afraid of what I’d hear from the Chelsea fans. It was a shame as it was the sort of thing we talked about as kids when he came over to stay with his Gran who'd moved home to south Armagh after her husband died. I was starting to want to go to more football. I’d finished playing and was thinking about coaching. A phone call in the next few weeks would offer me as much football as I wanted.
Jordan Henderson played 48 games in his first season at Liverpool, winning the League Cup and runner up in the FA Cup, starting both games. He scored 2 goals and had 4 assists while playing from the right a lot. He also became captain of England Under 21's. I was at Sunderland for his first return to the club that sold him and when his name appeared on the big screen, he got a terrific round of applause. Sunderland went on to win one nil with Niklas Bendtner scoring the winner for Martin O’Neills side. I loved going over to Sunderland. My nieces were growing from babies to toddlers to little girls and apart from the obvious attraction of getting to see Liverpool play, there was so much exploring to do around the city - over to Roker to see where Sunderland once played before they moved to the Stadium Of Light. It is now houses with addresses like Midfield Drive and Promotion Close. We travelled up to Alnwick to the castle used as Hogwarts in the first two Harry Potter films, over to Newcastle on the train and down to Whitby and Robin Hood Bay. We went over to Durham for the Miners Gala where a couple of the 33 Chilean miners were invited to give a speech at the cricket ground but just as they got up to speak there was a torrential downpour and unfortunately couldn't be heard. The spirit of the miners that was a big part of the make up of Shankly, Busby and Ferguson was still burning bright in the north east. They make them tough up there and Jordan Henderson would have to show all that grit and determination with one obstacle after another put in from of him as he tried to make it at Liverpool. Henderson wasn’t everyones cup of tea but I remember reading Ronnie Whelan’s autobiography around that time and he started off playing wide for Liverpool and got plenty of stick from the crowd before becoming a fan favourite. Jay Spearing played 25 times for Liverpool but looked totally out of his depth in that final against Chelsea. He made a few more appearances in Europa League qualifying rounds at the start of the following season but he was heading for the exit and he wasn’t the only one.
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