Kenny Dalglish was sacked by Liverpool 10 days after the FA Cup final. A League Cup and an eighth place finish were not regarded as success by the owners, Fenway Sports Group. Most fans accepted Kenny had steadied the ship but it was time for something new. Around this turbulent time I got a phone call from the club ticket office offering me a season ticket. 13 years after putting my name on the list, my boat had come in. There had been some work done under the Hicks and Gillett administration to unearth an almost mythical season ticket waiting list that I heard was a list of names on an excel spreadsheet which I found quite disappointing really. FSG took the bull by the horns and letters went out to ask if you wanted to stay on the list. I went home to visit my parents one day and the letter was there so I followed the instructions and retained my place. The other guys were now living in Australia or their wife was expecting their second child. Definitely living in a different world than they were in 1999. That was only the first stage. Once they had filtered out who still wanted one, the list was updated and I was notified of my position on it. I didn’t qualify for a season ticket immediately but then out of the blue, came the call. My life was less complicated and I have a very understanding wife who knew how much this meant to me and told me to do it for a season and see how it went.
My first game as a season ticket holder was at home to Man City at the end of August. Little did I know that the next time City came to Anfield it would be billed as a title decider. At the start of 2012-13, Liverpool looked a long, long way from contenders. At this time I was spending way too long on Liverpool fans forums, debating every aspect of the the club from morning to night. We’d had a few new managers over the last 2 years so this wasn’t new but it did feel like this appointment was very important as neither Hodgson or Kenny had worked out. Brendan Rodgers was installed as manager after owner John W. Henry was pictured walking and talking to Roberto Martinez who would remarkably go on to win the FA Cup with Wigan but also oversee their relegation. Both managers were known for playing good football. Rodgers Swansea had impressed during a nil nil draw at Anfield the previous season and beaten Liverpool at the Liberty Stadium on the last day of 2011/12. Rodgers set out his stall as a manager who liked to play out from the back which was a style of football that I’d always loved. It was no secret Rodgers style was inspired by Barcelona’s tiki taka and he promised whoever played this Liverpool team would be subjected to the longest 90 minutes of their lives as we passed teams to death. Rather than stay over night and add to the cost of going to watch football in Liverpool every couple of weeks, I decided to fly over and back the same day. Initially, I started going from Dublin to Manchester as Ryanair offered the cheapest flights but the drive up and down would add 3 hours onto my journey. I hadn’t a clue what I would do or how long it took to get to Liverpool from Manchester. I didn’t even have a smart phone in 2012. I felt I should get the earliest flight over and the latest flight back to allow me plenty of time to plan for the rest of the season. The night before that city game I was like a kid on Christmas eve. I went to bed at 10pm to get up at 3.30am and drive to Dublin for a 6.30 flight. I think I got to sleep about 3 and the alarm went off half an hour later to begin one of the longest days of my life. I was standing at the National Express station at Manchester Airport at 8am. The game was at 4pm. Already it was clear I’d grossly overestimated how long the trip would take. At about 11, I got off the bus at Tuebrook for some reason without really knowing where I was going. I had a vague idea of where Anfield was and walked in that direction. On the way and by chance, I passed the North West Ambulance Service HQ who I was doing outsourced work for at the time. I’d had a few conversations with the boss there who was a Liverpool fan and he told me he could see Anfield from his office window so I knew I was on the right track. Suddenly the huge structure emerged above the rooftops and I was there at my church before 12. Four hours until kick off. There were a few people about and the crowd would steadily build over the next few hours. I had a walk around the stadium. Spent some time at the Hillsborough memorial. Discovered there was a Heysel memorial near the entrance to where my seat was in the centenary stand. Sky always showed the players getting off the bus so I thought I’d kill some time waiting for them to arrive. That took another hour and as the players disembarked from the bus you got a 2 second side on glimpse of them before they disappeared into the back of the old main stand. Not like the head on view Sky give you. I always remember Andy Carroll, who was being linked with a move away from the club, getting a big cheer. There were a few groans for players getting off the bus too. I think most Liverpool fans really wanted Carroll to do well but it wasn’t to be. He would be loaned out to West Ham before the end of the window. When the stadium opened, I was in my seat. It was about 4 rows back from the top of the Centenary, right across from the tunnel. I had options of seats in the middle of the Centenary or over at the Kop end of the same stand. I reasoned I was there to watch the football so I would pick the seat that gave me the best view of the game. I wanted to get in and watch the warm up and was glad to sit down for a while. Liverpool had lost their first league game of the season, a 3 nil thumping at West Brom as Rodgers and the team got used to each other. We were 1 nil down at half time then Agger was sent off and the Baggies took full advantage. Rodgers had brought in Joe Allen and Fabio Borini who worked with him at Swansea but perhaps crucially we didn’t have a defender who immediately understood the style. We’d had another week to work on the managers methods and this was a much better performance. Skrtel gave us the lead in the first half. Yaya Toure was pushed further forward and caused instant problems when he equalised. Three minutes later, Suarez scored a peach of a free kick, 25-30 yards out, he curled it low around Joe Harts wall and into the bottom right hand corner. It was looking like a home victory but there was still confusion about when to pass at the back and when to send it long. Skrtel’s indecision allowed Tevez in to make it 2-2 and both teams shared the spoils. It was a brilliant game and well worth the many hours of travelling and hanging about. I didn’t get home until about 1am and slept like a kid who’d played all day with the toys he waited a year to get from Santa.
I was back again the following week for the game against Arsenal. There was a spiky atmosphere around the stadium as Liverpool had failed to sign anyone in the window but let Andy Carroll go. The one deal that looked a possibility was Clint Dempsey who’d been converted from midfielder to striker at Fulham. Jordan Henderson, who had just played for England at Euro 2012, was supposed to go in the opposite direction but rejected the offer. It probably wasn’t appreciated at the time but this kind of never say die attitude would characterise the midfielders personality on the pitch. Rather than sulk, he rolled up his sleeves and worked even harder to force his way into the managers plans. One of the owners Tom Werner was walking around outside the stadium flanked by security in case anyone had a go at him over the transfer strategy. Rodgers would have to work with what he had until January but that would give him time to figure out who should be in his plans. Henderson didn’t play any part in the first three league games. Arsenal totally dominated Liverpool, Abou Diaby bossed the game and the Gunners won 2 nil. Liverpool didn’t win a game until they beat Norwich away in the 6th game of the season. I missed the home game before that against United. A guy I worked with agreed to take about 6 games off me and he got to go to that one. The United game was important because it marked the first game since the Hillsborough families had the names of their loved ones and all Liverpool fans who were there that day, cleared of any wrongdoing. Gerrard scored and pointed to the heavens but United won 2-1 on the way to their 20th title. This would also be Fergie’s last game at Anfield. In the nicest possible way, we were all glad to see the back of him. I should mention also that I had a guy called Azad from Yorkshire sitting to my left and a dad and lad from Liverpool on my right. The lad was now in his late teens or early 20’s but his dad had availed of the 2 for 1 sort of offer many years before. Stoke were a tough, frustrating team to play against and the nil nil borefest against them saw both teams have only 2 shots on target. It was a long way to come to watch a game of so little quality. On the way back through Manchester Airport, I met Pepe Reina who was presumably heading away on international duty. He was kind enough to stop for a photo but then probably regretted it as I rather too firmly asked him what happened today, “we drew” he replied “yeah, not good” I stated. It wasn’t good but it wasn’t his fault, he’d kept a clean sheet. I finally got to see us win a game the next time I was over. It was against Reading and Raheem Sterling got the only goal. Sterling was starting to make a real impression in Rodgers team. Another youngster, Suso was playing on the opposite side of a front three with Suarez down the middle. Rodgers had identified Suarez as the key man in this team and Andy Carroll simply did not fit into his way of playing. Instead Rodgers wanted quick and tricky players, good technicians, as he put it. Around this time a fly on the wall documentary, Being Liverpool, was broadcast about the first couple of months under the new manager with rival fans and Liverpool fans alike thinking that Rodgers came across like David Brent from The Office. He used some motivational methods that were perceived as cringeworthy and not from a football world. Early on, Rodgers stamped his authority when he thought that Sterling had answered him back. The moment that would come back to haunt Rodgers was the speech about how you trust your family only for him to leave his wife for another woman before the end of his time at Liverpool. Rodgers works and lives in the country that invented divorce but it gave his detractors plenty of ammo when the journey came to an end. In 2012, it was just the beginning. We went unbeaten for eight games as we slowly climbed the table. Our next defeat was away at Spurs at the end of November. My last game of the year was another one nil win against Southampton, Daniel Agger got the only goal. There were four nil and 3 nil wins either side of 3-1 defeats to Villa and Stoke so the inconsistency was there for all to see. Another 2-1 defeat to United was one of only 3 in the league after Boxing Day. Jordan Henderson had endured a frustrating time under Brendan Rodgers for most of the first half of the season but slowly he forced his way into the managers plans and eventually after a string of substitute appearances he started his first league game against Swansea. Henderson didn’t cement his place in the team until the end of the year when he started successive 3 nil wins against QPR and Sunderland. Before that, he’d been overlooked in favour of Jonjo Shelvey, Joe Allen and loan signing Nuri Sahin. The Turkish players loan came to an end in the January window when two new signings set Liverpool on the way to an unlikely run that 16 months later almost saw them crowned league champions for the first time since 1990. It would never be 26 years!
When Rodgers left Celtic before the end of his third year on the cusp of a historic treble treble, I totally understood his reasons for doing so. I have a fondness for Celtic. Robbie Keane was ridiculed for saying Liverpool were the team he supported as a boy only for him to say the same thing when he joined Celtic. It’s perfectly normal for kids from across the Irish Sea to support an English club and Celtic or Rangers as the teams might only play each other in Europe once every 10 or 15 years. Obviously if Celtic and Rangers ever joined the English Premiership or if a European League was formed then some fans would have difficult decisions to make but until that day lots of Irish and Northern Irish boys and girls will support two teams. Rodgers was too good for Scotland. When he went there he was told he should win everything but saying that and doing that are two different things. He not only did it, he repeated it year after year and threw in a record unbeaten run that spanned a season and a half. Rodgers achilles heel remained in Europe where he couldn’t make the inroads he needed to pit himself against the best coaches in Europe at the business end of the Champions League but then again he was managing a team where the best player in the country was Scott Sinclair. Rodgers decision to leave Celtic for Leicester before the end of the treble treble was a shock but the more I thought about it the more I understood it. When he was at Liverpool, it took him 6 months to either find a way of playing with what he had or imposing his own style on his new team. Going to Leicester in March meant he had 6 months to get his team operating in a successful way so by the start of the next season they would be challenging for a top 4 position and that’s exactly what has happened. There is no doubt Rodgers totally believes in his own abilities and wants to be in a league where he is up against the best in Europe like Klopp, Guardiola, Mourinho and now Ancelotti. Back in 2012, Rodgers had promised to pass teams to death but that wasn’t really the case as Liverpool became the kings of the counter attack. Daniel Sturridge and Phillipe Coutinho were signed from Chelsea and Inter Milan and their impact was immediate. Sturridge scored in his first 3 games and finished the season with 11 goals for his new club. I was shocked how good Sturridge was. He and Suarez struck up an instant understanding and with Gerrard pulling the strings from deeper in midfield, we looked like we were on to something. The first game I saw this in action was a 5 nil thumping of Norwich. Henderson opened the scoring when he curled a half volley into the top corner from the edge of the box. Sturridge dummied a pass played into him, that allowed Suarez to run through and score. Sturridge then got in on the act to finish a move started by Hendersons floated ball to Downing on the right of the area. Downing cushioned a first time right foot volley across the 6 yard box for Sturridge to tap in. Gerrard, who had been slamming 25 yarders into the net during the warm up, made it 4 nil with a 25 yard slammer into the bottom corner and then Sterling ran through to put the ball past the Norwich keeper for 5 nil. This was what I travelled many miles over many hours to see. And it got better. Coutinho was signed later in the window and didn’t start a game until Swansea in mid February. This was played in between the 2 legs of the Europa League round of 32 against Zenit St Petersburg. We lost the away leg 2 nil and a mistake from Jamie Carragher gifted Hulk another goal at Anfield to make it 3 nil with an away goal. Liverpool took the game to 3-3 on aggregate with half an hour to go but couldn’t seal the deal and bowed out. In between, we got a real glimpse of the future against Swansea. Gerrard put us one up from the spot. Coutinho ran at the retreating defence and hit a low hard shot through the keeper. Then one of the best goals I’ve ever seen, scored by Jose Enrique. He received the ball back from Coutinho wide on the left in line with the edge of the Swansea area and he fizzed it inside to the feet of Suarez who cushioned a lay off into the path of Enrique, he laid it off inside to Sturridge who drew a couple of defenders then with quick feet played back to Enrique who was now at the edge of the six yard box and he fired it high into the net above the onrushing keeper. Sublime stuff. Next, Suarez danced and dummied his way past the Welsh teams defence before finishing beautifully with his left foot and Sturridge got on the scoresheet when Gerrard let him take a penalty.
Luis Suarez is the best player I’ve ever seen live. His hunger to get the ball and do something with it was totally infectious and you could see this inspire every player on the team. His skill, power, directness, subtlety and sheer bloodyminded desire to win are like nothing I’ve ever seen on a football pitch. It was this that led my Man Utd friend, Kenny, to demand to know why Fergie didn’t sign him for them. Suarez did, however, cross the line on many occasions. He was suspended at Ajax for biting an opponent. He was involved in a racial row with Patrice Evra that in my opinion Fergie and United exploited to the maximum because they knew Liverpool had a serious player on their hands and could build a serious team around him. Suarez was eventually banned for eight games but the level of scrutiny of the report around the incident by Liverpool fans showed how important he was to us. In a nutshell, Evra said something pretty horrible in Spanish about Suarez’s sister and Suarez replied to Evra as “negrito” which apparently means little black man. Evra took exception to this and reported it. The term used by Suarez is supposedly common enough and friendly but Fergie stated in one of his books that it’s only a friendly term if you know the person. Evra was upset about it and I’m sure he’s had to face down a lot of racism in his life. This was probably one of the better things he’s been called but in the heat of a football match against your most hated rivals everything gets magnified. It was a huge deal at the time and I remember, only too well, having arguments with United supporting colleagues at work who even produced evidence from Sky Sports News to prove Suarez had said it despite it being clearly stated that there was no TV footage of the incident and it was the players around them on the pitch who were the main witnesses. Undoubtedly, Suarez let himself down with these moments of madness but the football was just stunning at times. There was no greater example of the two sides of Luis Suarez than the game against Chelsea near the end of the 2013 season. Rafa and Torres returned to Liverpool but as manager and striker of Chelsea. This was the most anxious I was for a game I attended that season. We had very little to play for in terms of top 4 but it was Chelsea and we wanted to beat them. Further evidence maybe that they were our biggest rivals now. This was also the game that Hillsborough was remembered and the away fans marked the occasion impeccably. So to the game. Oscar headed them in front halfway through the first half following poor marking from a corner. Sturridge started on the bench but he came on at half time and equalised soon after when he brilliantly volleyed in Suarez’s genius pinpoint cross. A few minutes later, Suarez gave away a penalty when he put his hand up and knocked away a deep corner. Hazard made it 2-1. The red mist was starting to descend. Ten minutes later, Suarez and Ivanovic clashed and when the Uruguayan couldn’t get round the Serb, Suarez’s frustration got the better of him and he grabbed a hold of the defenders arm and bit him. I was in the middle of Centenary Stand so had no idea what happened. The game went on anyway and most fans in the ground would have been oblivious to what happened. It was already by far the best atmosphere I’d experienced at a game that season. My regret is that I decided to leave the game early because I’d stopped flying from Dublin to Manchester and started paying the extra 40 or 50 quid to fly from Belfast to Liverpool. My flight home was at 8 o clock and the game ended about 6. I still had to get to the airport and every minute counted. If I waited until the end it would take me 20 minutes to get out of the ground. I left as the board went up for 6 minutes of injury time torn between waiting to see if we could get an equaliser and not missing my plane. I was outside at the back of the Kop when the roar went up. I knew we’d equalised. A lad ran out of the bar across the road “who scored?” I asked “'oo do you think?” he shouted as he ran towards the Kop like he’d scored himself. I’d bought a smartphone by this stage and as I walked into town to get the airport bus news started to filter through about the bite. A United fan text me. To gloat about another ban for our prize asset? I asked him did Suarez do it and he replied “yes unfortunately”. Even the enemy agreed what a shame it was that a great player could also pull shit like this.
I was devastated. Was this the end of Suarez at Liverpool? There was a double whammy, I got to the airport and my flight was delayed until midnight. I watched the footage of the bite over and over while I ate something paid for by my delayed flight voucher from Easyet. I’d be claiming more than that for a flight delayed for more than 3 hours! Former Crusaders player and now Liverpool Scout Barry Hunter and his former team mate and now Crues Manager Stephen Baxter were sitting behind me on the flight. I asked Baxter if he’d take Suarez on loan if he needed somewhere to rebuild his career “He can come down any time he wants” was the reply. Suarez scored 30 goals and had 10 assists in all competitions. He should have been player of the year instead he was villain of the year.
Season over? Nope. Next game we hammered Newcastle six nil at St. James’s. Jordan Henderson would have loved scoring two in that game against his north east rivals. Henderson, Coutinho and Sturridge linked brilliantly for 3 of the goals and this may have been the first time Sturridge done his wriggly arms dance, goal celebration. I went to my first and to date only derby which has become a horrible affair in recent years. Liverpool haven’t hit the heights we became accustomed too but we’d never gone longer than 6 years without a trophy since last winning the league, Everton hadn’t won anything for nearly 20 years. I have family in Liverpool who are all blues. My uncle David has lived in Liverpool since the early 60’s. We stayed with him and his family when we were young and we got pictures taken outside Anfield and Goodison. He also gave me programmes and tickets from Liverpool games he’d attended through work. I treasured those for a very long time. I got in contact with him in the new year as the all day trips became quite long and lonely. David and his wife Irene, picked me up from Speke and took me to their home in the morning and then dropped me at Anfield for the game. First class treatment. Their son Michael is a massive blue and he picked me up from the airport the day of the derby and brought me to his house. His wife is from Co. Kerry and he has 3 boys who were all blues although he thought one was wavering a bit and might end up going to the dark side. I haven’t spoken to him since I sent him a gloating text when Mane won the derby at Goodison with a very late goal in December 2016. Not sure if he’s been waiting to reply when Everton beat us but that still hasn’t happened. The derby in 2012 was a dreadful game that ended nil nil. I think Everton had a goal disallowed. My memory is of the away fans behaving like wild dogs at the end of the game running over to the main stand side of the away end jumping and screaming and shouting and pointing, as the stadium emptied. We ended the season with a 3-1 win away to Fulham, Sturridge scored a hat trick and a one nil win at home to QPR on the final day of the season. I thought Jordon Ibe scored the only goal but it was Coutinho. Ibe played well though. This was Jamie Carraghers last game for Liverpool and he almost took the roof off Anfield when he hit a 35 yarder that smacked the post. This was also my last game as a season ticket holder. The journey, cost and general guilt I felt about leaving my wife alone for half the weekend meant it was unsustainable. I’d started helping to coach a youth team and had to commit to that for the next season which meant I still wasn’t spending the whole weekend with the wife but at least I was only away for the morning and not all day. Azad, the lad who sat next to me from Yorkshire bought the season ticket off me. I tried to sell it to a local Liverpool lad who was always looking tickets on forum but he didn't want it. Azad said he would still be able to give it to me from time to time as he was often away on business but not sure how I would’ve collected the card from him. In any case, I never heard from him again and the next season I was regretting not holding on to it as 2013-14 continued were 12-13 left off.
This was the season that meant it wouldn’t be 26 years without a title. Not that many people thought Liverpool would be serious title contenders with Suarez banned for the start of the season and also demanding a transfer to Arsenal and now training with the youth team. However, Liverpool started the season with three 1 nil wins, one of which was over Man Utd who were now managed by David Moyes, then a surprising 2-2 draw with Swansea and an even more surprising 1 nil defeat at home to Southampton. Sturridge took up the mantle from Suarez, scoring 4 in the first 5 games. The Uruguayan returned in the next game, a win over Sunderland and we went undefeated for 5 games. I’d given up the season ticket but an Arsenal supporting cousin took me to the Emirates to see Liverpool lose 2-0 there. The Gunners stadium is the best I’ve been too. Cushioned seats, extra leg room - although you’d expect that for nearly £100 a ticket. We were doing well but still weren’t finding the consistency. We won five in a row in the run up to Christmas including a 5 nil hammering of Spurs at the Lane. We still looked a little short of big game nous when we lost to City and Chelsea in the space of 3 days. I watched us beat Stoke 5-3 in Berlin then we drew with Villa, beat Everton 4-0 and drew with West Brom who were proving to be a bit of a bogey side for us under Rodgers. What this season showed me more than anything was that you needed to go on long winning runs to win leagues. Sturridge and Suarez had been banging in goals all season. Gerrard, Sterling and Skrtel were at or near double figures also. I went to my first Wembley cup final with my father in law and brother in law. For the second time that season, I was watching Sunderland and Man City live. I'd seen Sunderland stun City at the Stadium Of Light in the league earlier that season. In the final, The Mackems took the lead through on loan Liverpool forward, Fabio Borini but City slowly took control and ran out 3-1 winners. I was Assistant Coach for a local youth team now and the manager got me tickets for Liverpool games from this moment on. His dad is a Sunderland fan and I flew over and back with him. Safe to say he was a lot more devastated than I was. Don’t get me wrong I was a Sunderland fan for the day but a cup final defeat doesn’t hurt as much when it’s someone elses team. Jordan Henderson was in the crowd supporting his local club and not forgetting where he came from. I'm sure he was upset too. Between the 8th February until 27th April, Liverpool won 11 games in a row. In the middle of this run, my wife told me she was pregnant which was the second best moment of my life, the first being the birth of my son later that year. I’d made a short film the previous year and it was selected for screening at Belfast Film Festival 2014. It really was a magical time. We beat Man City 3-2 at Anfield in what seemed to be a giant step but the influential Henderson got himself sent off at the end of that one and would miss the next 3 games. The football was amazing but I was concerned about the defending and when the goals dried up against Chelsea we were still conceding and lost 2 nil. I felt absolutely sick. The next day in work all the United fans, who had conceded the league to us after every game of that 11 game run as I rolled out the “one game at a time sweet Jesus” line, were now laughing at me and how I thought we’d won it. I didn’t. I’ve followed Liverpool too long to count my chickens. I could not believe it though. For it to happen the way it did, for Gerrard, was so cruel it was poetic. It just was not meant to be for one of, if not the greatest ever Liverpool players. We’d never got this close but in the end we couldn’t sustain it. We scored 101 league goals but conceded 50, 3 of them came in the last 10 minutes at Selhurst Park in the game after the defeat to Chelsea. We were 3 nil up and trying to put a dent in the City goal difference and next thing it was 3-3. Crystal-bul they called it. Suarez scored 31 goals and missed the first 5 games of the season. He finally got the Player of the Year awards he deserved but it could have been so much more. Sturridge scored 24 but their partnership was over. Suarez bit someone else at the World Cup in Brazil and Liverpool sold him to Barcelona for somewhere between 60 and 75 million. Whatever they paid it was a steal and he went on to win everything in Spain and Europe. Henderson went to the Brazil as well. He was now a mainstay for both club and country. Brendan Rodgers name was sung to a swashbuckling tune that matched his teams style but for many Liverpool fans not winning the league, from the position we found ourselves in, was unforgivable. The end had begun with the defeat to Chelsea and the draw with Palace. The owners were delighted he’d got us back in the Champions League though, there was a new contract as a reward and one of the manager of the year awards also but how would he get on without Suarez? The ex footballers, now pundits, predicted it would be another 10 years before Liverpool would get a chance like this to win the league. It was looking like it would be longer than 26 years if Rodgers couldn't prove the last 18 months were just the beginning?
With Suarez gone and a good bit of money in the coffers, it was important we got the right player in to replace him. There was some debate as to who was in charge of buying players. Rodgers had not wanted to work with a Director Of Football so a committee was formed instead with Damien Comolli recruit Michael Edwards starting to play a leading role in player selection based on something similar to the moneyball method that had taken MLB by storm. It was basically using stats to identify players who could do a job but not cost the earth. Iago Aspas and Luis Alberto were two players who were signed in 2013-14 who didn’t make the grade for Liverpool but went on to have very good careers elsewhere. In the summer of 2014, we signed Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana, Emre Can, Divock Origi, Dejan Lovren, Alberto Moreno, Lazar Markovic and Mario Balotelli. Brendan Rodgers had told a press conference that he would not be signing Balotelli and then he arrived. And so began a season of incredulity. Lambert missed a penalty in a pre season friendly and never recovered. He did get a winner away to Villa and got mobbed by the celebrating away fans but he was brought in as a plan b, a cheaper Andy Carroll. It was hard to know what Lallana’s best position was. He’s undoubtedly very skilful, so two footed I couldn’t tell what his stronger foot was until I saw him hit a penalty right footed so I assume he’s naturally right footed but he doesn’t get a lot of goals or assists. He has excellent work rate but he’s injury prone. Emre Can was an interesting young midfield signing from Germany and I’d seen a bit of Origi in the World Cup and he looked decent. Lovren had scored against us for Southampton the season before and was excellent in a pre season friendly against Dortmund. Moreno looked as though he would have been great in the gung ho side that nearly won the league the year before and Lazar Markovic was one of the top young players in Europe. We spent nearly 120m on the all these players but the drop off from the season before was unbelievable. Sturridge was the man the owners were putting their faith in shouldering the burden left by Suarez. He got a new 5 year deal and he got us off to a good start scoring the winner against Southampton on the opening day but then there were defeats against City, Villa and West Ham. Our first taste of Champions League football in 5 years was a very late 2-1 home win over Ludogorets thanks to a 93rd minute penalty from Gerrard. This was going to be the Liverpool captains final season at the club before he moved to LA to finish his career in the MLS. This was as good as it got for us in the Champions League, in fact it got much, much worse. Defeat in Basel was followed by a chastening 3 nil defeat at home to Madrid. It was the reverse fixture that caused the most upset to Liverpool fans. Rodgers picked a second string to face Los Blancos at the Bernabeu, with one eye on the home game against Chelsea a few days later. The squad players made a better fist of playing the European giants than Liverpools first 11 did at Anfield, losing one nil. The gamble didn’t pay off for Rodgers, we lost at home to Chelsea and then away to Palace. My son Arlo was born a couple of days before so I was in a state of ecstasy for a week or so and nothing else mattered. Liverpool only lost once in the next 17 games, a 3 nil defeat at Old Trafford that didn’t tell the full story because David De Gea was probably man of the match in that game. The next time we played United was at the end of March and we were still unbeaten and in with a shout of top 4, if we could beat our great rivals. I was at this game. Kop seats too. When I had the season ticket, I missed the United game and it was one game I’d always wanted to go to. I took my father in law who is in his late 70’s now. He found the over and back the same day hard going. So did I. We lost 2-1, Mata giving Moreno a torrid time and scoring both goals. Gerrard was on the bench for his final game against United. He was getting plenty of stick from the away fans as he warmed up in front of them but he’ll always be able to give them the 5 times hand signal. The skipper was clearly wound up and no sooner did he come on at half time then he was sent off for going through Herrera. Liverpool made a good go of it when Sturridge pulled one back with 20 minutes to go but we couldn’t get the equaliser and United could have been further ahead only for Mignolet saving a Rooney penalty in stoppage time. That was the end of the league. We were out of the Champions League before Christmas and out of the Europa League in the next round against Besiktas. In the first leg, Balotelli angered Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson when he refused to give him the ball to take a penalty. Luckily Balotelli scored. One nil wasn’t enough and we went out on penalties in the Atatturk, besmirching the memories of 2005 in some Liverpool fans eyes, fans who wanted Rodgers out. We got to the League Cup semi finals where it was Chelsea again. Sterling returned from a mid season break to equalise in the first leg but we couldn’t score at Stamford Bridge and went out. Chelsea went on to win the League and the League Cup. We managed to get Steven Gerrard to Wembley for the FA Cup semi final against Villa but that was as far as we got. Brendan Rodgers was the first Liverpool manager since the 50’s not to win a trophy after 3 seasons. If the writing was on the wall, a giant paint brush attached to a tank smashed the wall into the ground when Liverpool lost 6-1 at Stoke on the final day of the season. Thankfully, I didn’t watch this game live. Gerrard at least scored the goal to mark his final game for the club. He ended the season as top scorer on 13. Sturridge scored 5 in a season ruined by injury. We’d seen the best of Studge unfortunately but it was appropriate that Gerrard was carrying the club again to his final day. What was the impact of losing Suarez? Well, we went from scoring 100 goals in the league to just 50 and we were still conceding about 50. Balotelli scored 4 in 14 games as Rodgers made it clear he didn’t want the Italian. There was a story about Mario scoring a brilliant goal in training, a volley from the halfway line. That was the the quality he had but this moment also showed his lack of discipline, it was an own goal. He’d hammered the ball past his own keeper on purpose.
Brendan Rodgers somehow managed to hold onto his job when 99% of fans wanted him gone. I was in the 1% who thought he could still do a great job for us but his summer signings had me scratching my head again as he signed another target man, Christian Benteke, who just did not seem like a good fit for us given Carroll, Lambert and Balotelli had been disastrous. Roberto Firmino was a very exciting buy from Germany and Joe Gomez was brought in from Charlton on the recommendation of new first team coach Sean O’Driscoll. Rodgers had overhauled his coaching staff bringing in O’Driscoll and Gary McAllister. James Milner joined from City on a free with a promise that he would play more than he had at City and it would be in a midfield three. Balotelli and Markovic were loaned out as two of the previous summers mistakes were corrected. The biggest loss apart from Gerrard was Raheem Sterling and his agent forcing a move to City. Liverpool were again losing their best players because they couldn’t offer Champions League football or Premier League challenges. Jordan Henderson was made captain as he tried to emerge from the shadow of Gerrard. What a career the lad from Huyton had. He was taken for granted a lot of time. We always had his world class presence in our team but now he was gone along with Suarez and Sterling. It took a year to put a title winning team together and a year later it was dismantled. Coutinho was still there at least and he was developing into something special but unless things changed very quickly, we would be losing him also. Liverpool won their first two games of the 2015/16 season then drew with Arsenal. This was followed by back to back defeats, a 3 nil home defeat to West Ham then a 3-1 loss at Old Trafford. Rodgers was on the ropes. It was only a matter of time. The abuse Rodgers got from some Liverpool fans was pretty disgusting. Yes, he was a man in a very privileged position, very well paid and now not doing a very good job but 18 months earlier he was being sung about in the same breath as Shankly. Now as fans from rival clubs ridiculed us and our manager, a large contingent of Liverpool fans joined in by disowning Rodgers. It was clear he had to go but who would replace him?
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