Ciaran Hanley

The first game I remember from the 2004-05 season was the second leg of the Champions League qualifier against Graz. My memory is of the Anfield crowd gasping in unison at how slow Rafa’s first signing, Josemi, was. We lost that game one nil but went through on away goals. I was straight on to my mate Chops after the game, for a bitch. Patience was needed. I went on holiday to Mallorca. On the bus transfer from airport to hotel, I saw some kind of a work van with R. Benitez on the side of it. It’s probably a very popular name but looking back and the fact that I still remember it so clearly, I took it as a sign, though I claim no prescience. I was excited about Rafa. It was between him and Alan Curbishley who’d been doing well at Charlton. Thankfully David Moores and Rick Parry went for the man who’d won La Liga twice with Valencia and the Uefa Cup. Valencia had given Liverpool a lesson in the Champions League in 02-03. Perhaps that was the catalyst for this move. Benitez was dealt a ...

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...

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 Wem...

I never imagined the role Sunderland Football Club and city would play in my life when I watched one of the first games of live football in my memory. Norwich beat Sunderland 1-0 in March 1985 to win the League Cup known as the Milk Cup at that time. It was a competition my team, Liverpool, had dominated in the early 80’s much like Man City are doing now. Liverpool had won it for the previous 4 years along with league titles and European Cups, not that I remember them winning any of these.  Sunderland player Barry Venison would later be part of the last Liverpool team to win the league. At the time of the 1985 Milk Cup final, I was the grand old age of 8 and I was mad about football and Liverpool FC. I was born and raised in Newry, Northern Ireland. My dad went to school with Pat Jennings. In fact everyones dad claimed they went to school with Pat Jennings! How I started supporting Liverpool, I’m not really sure. If you were into football when you were 8 you either supported Liv...

The 2016 Europa League gave Jurgen Klopp a second chance of silverware in his first season. Before the defeat to Man City in the League Cup final at Wembley, Liverpool had beaten Augsburg at home to go through to the last 16 against Manchester United in what was dubbed “The mother of all games” by the Echo newspaper. There were signs that Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho were putting the band from 2014 back together with Roberto Firmino and Divock Origi replacing Luis Suarez and Raheem Sterling. The first leg signalled the return of the great European nights at Anfield. Sturridge and Firmino scored in a 2 nil win. Martial scored early at Old Trafford but Coutinho equalised on the stroke of half time to send Liverpool through to face Klopp’s former side Borussia Dortmund. Origi got the crucial away goal in the 1-1 draw at Westfalonstadion, scene of our UEFA Cup final victory in 2001. It was beautifully set up for the second leg  and I was going to be there. I took my mate...