Part 2 of Part 22! - A Quarter of a Century of Liverpool FC in the Premier League Era, 1992-2017

Epilogue: How Golden is That Sky?

This is the final instalment of the final instalment of this epic series by TTT Subscriber Anthony Stanley!

It was first serialised on The Tomkins Times and then published by TTT as a book, called A BANQUET WITHOUT WINE - A Quarter-Century of Liverpool FC in the Premier League Era.

Covering the period from the onset of the Premier League in 1992 to Klopp’s arrival in 2017, the book is available from https://www.amazon.co.uk/Banquet-Without-Wine-Quarter-Century-Liverpool/dp/1521850674. It remains a definitive matter of record of Liverpool FC during the period in question.

For years after just about getting their act together (on the field at least) in the Nineties, Liverpool sought to overthrow Manchester United and reclaim their league title. When the Reds finally managed to finish above their deadly rivals in 2002, Arséne Wenger’s Arsenal put together a quite ridiculous run to claim the title; in 2009 Liverpool came up against possibly Ferguson’s best ever United side. In the still raw wound that is 2014, the then most expensively assembled sporting team on the planet ensured that the woodwork again moved. Since the Premier League formed, our rivals have become legion and we have gone from a scenario in 1992 when we were close to United as favourites, onto the sugar daddy days of Blackburn Rovers, through to Wenger revolutionising the Gunners, to Chelsea and Manchester City producing lottery winning tickets. Now Spurs, once a veritable laughing stock, even in our darker days in the Premier League, have joined the party. We’re looking at a big six that looks like it could be entrenched at the top of the league for years to come.

So can Liverpool win that league title?

Personally I believe that, under Klopp, we can.

The achievements of 2016/17 have in some ways been underestimated because of the lopsided nature of the season. To paraphrase our German manager, we went from doubters to believers to doubters again. The run in was tough, the football uninspiring but it was a massively solid foundation upon which to build; Liverpool attained their goals. Flip the two halves of the season and all Liverpool fans are hugely positive with what we could be capable of going into the new season, not a million miles removed with how many felt in the autumn of 2013. Jamie Carragher, speaking in April of 2017, put it succinctly when he asserted that:

“I think Liverpool have got the sixth best squad in the league so to finish in the top four would be a very good season...you saw the reasons why they fell away in the middle of the season, they didn’t have reinforcements, especially when Sadio Mane was gone to the African Cup of Nations. It’s very difficult; they don’t have the revenue to compete with the others, it will be a building process. It won’t be a case of splashing the cash and going for the league next season. I think that it will be a gradual improvement, similar to when I was playing under Houllier and Benítez, when we built to a title challenge, we never quite pulled it off but we came very close on a number of occasions. If Liverpool can get into the top four for two or three years on the bounce, than that would be a major achievement. You cement your position in there and then maybe think, “Ok, let’s go for the title”’.

In 2016, with the Reds struggling in the league but reigniting European dreams, Paul Tomkins wrote that (some) “Liverpool fans wanted Klopp’s Dortmund when he arrived but not the process that made Klopp’s Dortmund so special: the time it took (over two years) and the development of young players from unheard-ofs into world class stars.”

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