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View from the Kop

Why for me Liverpool FC has always been a “collective passion”

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Some call it passion, some religion, the late and great Bill Shankly described it as being more important than life and death. I just visualise it with a plaque replicating that found at the top of the players’ tunnel at Anfield, one which sits incongruously in my living room amongst various canvasses and portraits. Frankly, it does not matter an iota that it looks totally out of place, because it is symbolic of everything that this great club means to me.

Brian Reade has famously written of his 44 year old affair with the same bird, well I hate to admit that this bird could at best be described as polygamous and that age and gender is no deterrent to her.

I am often asked how a youngster born in Birmingham into a famous Caribbean cricketing family ended up following the most famous scouse icon of them all, the Liverbird. It was destined from a very young age in all honesty. My mum was a Liverpool supporter from her days back in Guyana, a time when Bill Shankly had just taken his place at the club which was in the second division … she just liked the name! If that was not enough, I found myself sat on the lap of the great Terry McDermott at the age of four as a few of the Liverpool players arrived at Wallasey to watch a charity cricket match in which my dad was playing.

A passion was ignited that afternoon that burns brighter today than ever. When you think about it, 30 years of travelling up and down the country has been some commitment, but one that has been absolutely worthwhile. The Kop was an incredible place to learn about football and the great history of Liverpool Football Club.

As a youngster, school started every Saturday at about 9am when leaving Birmingham for the journey to Liverpool. It would start with the Geography lesson of getting there, followed by the treasured History lessons which took place for at least an hour while we were queuing up for the Kop as the older generation regaled us with stories of glorious feats gone by. It ended with a mixed double period of mathematics counting all of the Liverpool goals combined with an English lesson of sorts trying to learn the unique dialect that is Scouse. I was a pretty good student in school to be honest, but this was where I was at my best, and my recollection of great Liverpool moments has remained where simultaneous equations long disappeared from memory.

Somewhere, my mum still has every shirt that I have ever had. They range from red to white to grey to yellow, black, green and the famous ecru of 1997. They also range from size 4 year old kid through to about 4 times extra large!! One of the funniest moments I recall was spilling curry on my red shirt on the evening before the FA Cup Final in 1992. Never has a seventeen year old ran through so many sports shops so early on a Saturday morning to find a replacement before still making it on to the train to Wembley … just!

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6 comments

  • Sam Wanjere says:

    Thoroughly enjoyed reading this. YNWA! bro. 🙂

  • Amer says:

    Amazing article…a true fan’s journey…together we shall walk on towards the no 19…

  • al says:

    what great memories i can rember the boys pen in kop cally scoring a hatrick in a league cup game distant may be the memory but i think the game was on a tuesday or wednesday afternoon i remember bunking off school to go 1977 going to rome sat in the curva nord paying 10 thousend 500 lira for 3 cornettos 7 pound 50 by mistake mixing the notes up my mate made a top hat which he throw away in the city center because it was to hot later that day or evening we came across a lad wearing it for a laugh we asked him how long it took to make he just smiled and said me ma made it lad ynwa

  • Matt Castellian says:

    Great article – great memories

  • are you related to the great criketer alvin kallicharan

  • Reginald says:

    This past week, Trump offered to give $5 million to a charity of Obama’s choice if he releases his college and passport records. Obama responded by telling his own joke about him and Trump fighting while growing up in Kenya. http://www.bit.ly/WRFiT5

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