We must break the mould if our dreams are not to be shattered again

With the season bearing down on Liverpool like some starved beast ready to gobble up all our attention, it’s worth a moment of calm in your day to stop and consider the journey we have come on in the last few years.

Within a decade, we’ve rode our luck in 5 major cup final triumphs and seen hope and promise fade away into almost regular disappointment in the form of the Premier League. The statisticians will tell you that besides ‘that season’, otherwise known as last season, we’ve made decent progress, which is true.

That decent progress though, has been sabotaged by some other team who have the audacity to jump ahead of us in the queue for the league title. Greedy teams like Man United and Chelsea have decided that since Arsenal’s last triumph in 2004, nobody else can have the title unless you’re prepared to spend massive amounts. Enter Man City, in an almost carbon copy of what Chelsea did 7 years ago, they’re buying all the top available talent from around the world.

From what I can see, they’ve bought pretty well and effectively. They will obviously be the new kids on the block next season and will have to deal with a lot of pressure, which may or may not be to their undoing. Behind City, United and Chelsea though, we have the slow and steady group; Tottenham, Arsenal and of course Liverpool.

We three teams have been able to spend pretty well, but only if we sell 1st, which means while the three respective managers are busy plate-spinning, teams who aren’t selling are winning the league. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that the biggest spenders with the highest wages win the league every year. That philosophy of course doesn’t count for cup competitions because anything can happen, but for a 38 game season, you basically get what you pay for (competent management permitting).

Liverpool have gradually been creeping up on the big guns for years now with all the subtlety of an Elephant. Constantly talked about and hyped about, we’ve failed to deliver what the press say the fans deserve. A league title. Whether or not we ‘deserve’ one or not is for more debate. One thing that is clear though, the expectation will never change.

Through the 90’s til now, Liverpool fans have felt like there’s a party going on on the top floor but we’re not invited, we’ve tried everything but just can’t get in. We went French, we went Spanish, now we’re going English. Of course, nationality doesn’t mean anything as long as you can speak the language, what counts is the gradual evolution of the team into a squad and then into a club.

Houllier’s team was average at best, and with that team we achieved many average things. A penalty shoot out win against Birmingham City, an improbable turn around against Arsenal and a flukey golden goal against Alaves ensured Houllier went away with his head held high. He did leave us a few gems in the form of Sami Hyypia and Didi Hamman, so give credit where it’s due.

Off the pitch though, Houllier’s legacy was in the academy rejuvenation. Apparently he was shocked at the standard of facilities Liverpool had (which would be later echoed by Rafa Benitez being shocked at the standard of players at said facilities). The work was completed and Liverpool had their brilliant new academy, but we had no-one to put in it. All those bright young English starlets were yet to be picked up and the FA still hadn’t put together a grass-roots plan to right the wrongs.

The answer it seemed came from abroad. Youth players were snapped up with vigour, a whole host of young French players came to fill the academy and reserves but it seems someone was at fault. Our slightly above average team was now unbalanced as it was supported by a below average reserve squad.

As we know now (silly old us) squads and rotation, yes rotation, are vital to any league triumph. Liverpool’s team simply couldn’t sustain a strong title charge so despite a few enjoyable wins over United, we fell away time after time, reaching a peak of 82 points and a second place to United.

With the fans beginning to lose all hope, the board acted, Houllier was sent packing and a new man was brought in. Enter Rafael Benitez.

When Rafa came he was greeted as a conquering hero, he had just broken up the duopoly of Spain with Valencia, twice in three seasons. The Spaniard had also replicated Houllier in winning the UEFA Cup. In this guy, we thought we had the answer.

I won’t dwell on it, because we all know what happened, but Liverpool won the Champions League. This diverted our attention away from another terrible season in which we finished below a progressing Everton side. Nobody blamed Rafa of course, because we all knew it was Houllier’s fault. In that season, Rafa had introduced us to a few Spanish players who divided fan opinion, in Alonso and Garcia he had two great buys, but in Josemi and Nunez, he had handed the ammunition to the future firing squad.

Away from 1st team matters Rafa had set a priority in galvanising the youth setup. With the new facilities, Liverpool rearranged their scouting department and scoured the world, instead of Africa and France, for new talent. Millions were spent on youth players to kick start our academy, with which we’re only now beginning to see bear fruit.

On 1st team matters, Rafa encouraged us on the pitch. In 2005/2006 Liverpool were promising, hope it seems, had returned. Despite the press’s love affair with some Portuguese fella in London, they did afford some attention to Liverpool, if only to compare him to the big spending Chelsea. The endless comparisons and Fergie v Wenger v Mourinho v Benitez stats on Sky Sports News were driving some kopites to despair. Why were Liverpool suddenly branded one of the big boys when we had no right to be so?

This labelling proved a heavy burden in seasons to come as the clamour and hunger for domestic bragging rights grew with what appeared to be every passing month. Rafa continually tried to convince us that we were not ready and 2005 was a huge over achievement, but many wouldn’t listen. In what turned out to be a stroke of genius in 2007, Rafa signed a Spaniard by the name of Fernando Torres. For all his playing down of expectations on the club, Rafa couldn’t curb the wave of expectation that came with Torres’ goal exploits.

At the time of his signing, not many were keen on him since Eto’o and Villa were favoured instead (it would take a brave man to admit that now though). His incredible goal ratio set the bar high for us though and with a new cult hero, the fans started to ask the questions once more, where is this damned title?

Back to the reserves, and Rafa had gradually built up a strong team and decent squad. If you want an inkling into the skill of the scouting department, you should have a look at the price difference from the signings Rafa sold to when he bought them. Profit was the name of the game, which encouraged two new owners to splash out on our old club and promise us that our dreams would come true!

I won’t dwell on the two owners because we’ve probably heard enough, this article is about retrospect on the pitch not politics off it. Anyway, where was I? Ah, yes, money!

No thanks to a shameful display of arrogance at the press conference, George Gillett promised us signings, anyone we wanted. Benitez however, was being told a different thing all together in the boardroom.

A tug o’ war was going on in the boardroom and over the last 3 years of Rafa’s reign, the waters were muddied at Anfield. As soon as the media became a weapon in the struggle for both sides, things started to go badly. The fans became polarised as stories came out against Benitez and the board alike. Many didn’t like Rafa, but they hated the board more.

On the pitch, Liverpool managed to take the premiership by surprise in 2008/2009. Favourites for the league at one point and racking up some famous wins against Madrid and Man United all seemed to be going well. At this point though the wheels were turning and rumours of Rafa leaving started to appear more and more. Despite finishing the season extremely strongly, it wasn’t enough to overhaul United and we spent another summer picking up the pieces.

One piece never got picked up though, and that was Xabi Alonso. His exit caused a right stir and many fans accused Benitez of wasting talent despite the move being instigated by Alonso (although the damage was done the previous year, which was the year Alonso didn’t play so well). Anyway, the following season proved to be a disaster, the great team/decent squad thing was pushed too far by injuries and Liverpool never got any kind of rhythm going. A 7th place and UEFA cup semi-final was a bit too ‘2003’ for most people and so off went Rafa to Milan.

Now, present day and if you haven’t noticed a few similarities in the last 2 regimes, you should start to see them now. Blind optimism gradually eradicates caution when a new manager strolls in. An easy win and decent performance from Joe Cole later and we’re talking ourselves up again. I fear, history may repeat itself.

The only difference I can see now, is that, as one of those ‘slowly but surely’ teams we’ve actually created a very strong foundation to build upon. The last 2 managers have certainly played their part. Houllier laid the foundation and Benitez built the house, all Roy needs to do is decorate the thing and off we go! Right?

Well, one obstacle to our slow yet steady progress would’ve been the American duo at the top. As luck would have it, Liverpool ‘need’ to be taken over, and are just about ready to be so. This, coinciding with a new manager allows a unique opportunity to re-evaluate our position. Whereas once I would’ve preached about caution, it’s now difficult to do that without knowing the intentions of any new owner clearly. I doubt that any takeover can influence transfers in this window, so ignoring the off-field events I will try to focus on the football as it stands.

Liverpool have found themselves at a cross roads it seems. In Roy Hodgson they have someone who can make the fans happy, but who’s record at the very top is sketchy at best. However, with such a strong team and burgeoning youth set up, great strides forward are now possible.

While many of us still nurse the wounds of last season, it is worth bearing in mind that this is still the basic set up that scored 86 points 2 years ago and set the league alight with goals. Chelsea and Man United have chosen to stick with their hand this summer, meaning Liverpool have a chance to make that 5 place gap shrink to none.

In a way, riding behind the pressure of new boys City could help us sneak our way back into contention and dare we dream it, is a title on the horizon? Although, I’m sure I’ve heard all this talk before… ah yes, every season in the last 10 years!

This is why, in finishing on a positive, I think it’s good to remind ourselves of the ups and downs we’ve faced in the last decade and how often things seem to repeat themselves. We need to break out of our mould, this is clear, but we must also remember our history lest we are doomed to repeat it.

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