My Granda asked me how the football team I played for had done earlier that day. “We lost” I told him, “You need to get Joe Fagan to manage yous” he replied. It took me far longer than it should have to register who he was talking about and I think I actually asked “who?”. If he had’ve replaced Joe Fagan with Kenny Dalglish, I’d have got it straight away. Kenny was Liverpool to me at 8 years old but at that stage Joe was still the manager who’d won the League, League Cup and European Cup treble the previous season and I didn’t even recognise his name.
Liverpool fans idolise our managers and that is often displayed by the gaffers name being sung loudly, home and away. I’ve seen footage when Shankly’s name was chanted. Kevin Keegan mentions in his autobiography that Shanks was welcomed by his people on the Kop shortly after he retired singing “Shankly, Shankly, here he is’. You can watch the Liverpool fans singing “Paisley, Paisley” to the tune of Amazing Grace when he appeared on This Is Your Life in 1977. It’s worth a look just to see what prime time tv was once like. Did they sing “Fagan, Fagan”? Kenny, of course, had his songs from playing and you can still hear the Kop singing about walking a million miles for one of his goals! Did Graeme Souness and Roy Evans have their names sung religiously or was it only “We’re on the march with (insert managers name/nickname) army, we’re all off to Wembley”?
I only really noticed the singing of the managers name when Gerard Houllier started to bring back success. It’s possible it became more visible to me with better sound on televised football or because we had won nothing for so long that worshipping the managers seemed like something new. Houllier had two songs - in 2001 it was “Hou led (or let) the reds out, Hou, Houllier” a chart hit by Baha Men from around that time. In 2002, it was the gallic “Allez, Allez, Gerard Houllier”. Who can forget the mosaic on the Kop and the fans singing Le Boss’s name as he raised a weak hand to them on his return to the dug out for the Champions League game against Roma? The slow “Liv-er-pool, Liv-er-pool” accompanied our style of play under the Frenchman as we won a unique cup treble and finished runners up in the league. The football was acceptable when we were winning trophies but terrible when we weren’t.
Under Rafa, La Bamba by Los Lobos was quickly turned into a Liverpool anthem that signalled the new Spanish influence. “Rafa, Rafa, Benitez, Rafa, Rafa Benitez, Xabi Alonso, Garcia and Nunez (later Reina)”. His name was also sung to the tune of Skip To My Lou and the Spaniard could often be seen acknowledging this with a humble wave or two back to the Kop. “When the fans sing my name that is because they see the team is doing well” he admitted. The style of play and charge towards Champions League glory also prompted the belting out of Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire. FA Cup glory followed but there were only boardroom battles and runners up honours in Champions League and Premier League after that.
Even Roy Hodgson had songs, though they weren’t very complimentary. It was “Hodgson for England” or “Dalglish” as supporters made their feelings clear on who should have been in charge at that particular time. Kenny eventually took over at the start of the FSG era and was serenaded by all four sides of Anfield as Liverpool destroyed Man Utd on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
Brendan Rodgers team marched to the top of the league with a song derived either from Roger Ramjet or possibly just plain old Yankee Doodle Dandy. Either way the upbeat, high octane style of play conducted something similar from the fans. “Brendan Rodgers, Liverpool, we’re on our way to glory, he built a team like Shankly did, our kids will have a story”. You don’t get higher praise than that. Rodgers accepted the honour by applauding the fans and Boney M’s Brown Girl in the Ring was transformed into “We are Liverpool, tra, la-la la la” as the Reds, propelled by the utter brilliance of Luis Suarez and Depeche Mode, narrowly missed out on finally delivering the league title the fans wanted so badly. A year later they were singing Rafa’s name again as Liverpool lost 6-1 at Stoke.
Jurgen Klopp came into Anfield 6 months after Liverpool again failed to capitalise on a serious title challenge. “Let’s start a new way” he declared. A few weeks later he was challenging the fans to not leave games early if the team were losing. “I felt pretty alone” he said, referencing Liverpools most famous song. It didn’t stop there. If there were groans from the fans when someone in red gave the ball away, the manager defended his players by turning and letting rip at the thousands of supporters behind him in the main stand. He screamed, bawled, barracked and gesticulated wildly “Don’t do that, don’t do that”. That takes some balls because it left him open to fans turning on him if he didn’t deliver what everyone expected from Liverpool, even if it had been over 10 years since we’d won a major trophy. In that first press conference, Klopp acknowledged the length of time since Liverpool were champions of England and how those who preceded him had found it so difficult “carrying history like a backpack”. It’s fair to say there were a few murmurings of doubt as The Normal One finished his first season with two more finals defeats to make it five in a row having also lost his last three at Dortmund.
There was a song for Klopp derived from Life is Live by Opus but true to form the boss soon rebuked the fans for singing it. On a celebratory night, in front of the newly opened Main Stand, Liverpool were leading Leicester 3-1 when Anfield did what it’s always done - showed appreciation by singing the managers name. Klopp lambasted them. “Please don't sing my name before the game is decided” he said post match “Immediately when the Kop started singing 'Jurgen Klopp la la la' they were clear on Simon Mignolet. It's like celebrating a penalty before you have scored”.
You rarely if ever hear his song sung now, not because the fans are pissed off that they’ve been reprimanded but because everything Klopp asked from the fans they’ve done and in return he has delivered another Champions League and landed the holy grail of the Premier League. In between, he ran out onto the pitch to celebrate a last minute Anfield winner against Everton, lost his glasses at Norwich, gave Mane a piggy back at Arsenal, saw the fans leave early in protest at ticket prices, demanded and received a song for Firmino, sold our best player, didn’t panic buy when he didn’t get Van Dijk, lost another final and finished runner up in the league. This time though Liverpool were immediately able to improve on finishing second.
Shankly and Paisley have gates and a statue, Kenny has a stand but Klopp isn’t interested in any monument to his achievements so far with Liverpool. “I want to live for 30 or 40 years so I am not interested in a statue, for sure not in my lifetime – I don't want to pass anything like that”. We still sing the slow “Liv-er-pool” from the days of Houllier, Ring Of Fire is sung from time to time, We are Liverpool can be heard on tv in the fan-less Anfield. We’ve conquered all of Europe, we’re never going to stop - to Elton John's Crocodile Rock and Oh Campione was sung before Scousers ruled the country again but now feels prescient. Joe Fagan had the thankless task of replacing Bob Paisley. He won 3 trophies in his first season, finished runner up in the league the season after and shouldered a lot of the clubs burden after Heysel. Liverpool fans should always remember the part that Joe Fagan played in our glorious history. It's beautifully summarised here by Sachin Nakrani. He probably didn’t want a song or a statue either. Today, if any child is asked if they wanted Jurgen Klopp to manage their under 8’s team they wouldn’t be asking “Who?”.
Comments
Post a Comment