Supporting Liverpool Football Club is certainly not an easy task, and I am sure that most of the fellow Kopites, especially in this part of the world, would agree with me. The exceptional mockery that we, the Liverpool supporters, do have to face, even today, is sometimes unbearable. And the rivals cannot be completely blamed for such behavior, we have played a big part in it, or rather, our fortunes have.
"Your team hasn't won a League title since 1990", oh I have lost count of how many times I have had to face this comment during my school days. And, to make things worse, every year, this gap kept increasing, from 23, 24,25....... to 29, 30 years, when finally Jurgen Klopp's men did the unthinkable. I finally got something to answer to these people who made fun of the club I love throughout the ages.
Yet, the truth remained, that I could never see Liverpool lift the Premier League during my entire school life. Things were difficult back then, especially when teams like Chelsea, and especially, Manchester United (for obvious reasons) kept picking them up one after the other. I was too young to remember Istanbul, or for that matter, the 2005-06 FA Cup miracle at the Millennium; and too new to this world to associate my feelings to the 2002-03 League Cup triumph over Manchester United. I was still not born yet when we completed the 2000-01 Cup treble under Gerard Houllier, but it was indeed a memorable moment for the Club, the beginning of its quest to return back to the days of the lost glory in the 21st Century. Even though opposition fans were quick enough to deem this feat as the 'Mickey Mouse Treble' because the so-called 'heavier' and more prominent trophies like the Premier League and the Champions League were missing, it can not be denied that the 2000-01 was a changing point for the club in the right direction, driven by the Renaissance Man from France. Winning three trophies in a footballing season was itself an achievement like none other, something which every great team strives for.
Anyway, getting back to the main point, for a long part of my life, the 2012 League Cup triumph was the only victory that I had really and properly felt during my time as a school student. It felt good, it really did, considering what we had gone through just a short time ago. The Hicks and Gillett reign took the club the closest to peril. It can be agreed that Rafa Benitez, who was the mastermind behind the unbelievable events at Turkey and Cardiff, could not work as freely as he would have wanted to. This was the time when players like Torres joined the Reds, and honestly, him and Gerrard together made me fall in love with the game. But collectively, as a team, LFC could not achieve, and truly, in the situations that existed, Benitez' 2006-07 UCL run to Athens and the 2008-09 silver medal can be considered as 'great achievements'.
Then came in a man for whom I have immense respect for as a manager, and for what he did at Fulham. But he took our team to rock bottom, and I still can not believe that we were fighting relegation, four points above the drop zone, 5 wins out of the 20 he had managed during his stint, before he left Anfield.
King Kenny had shown up as 'the messiah' once again, an evergreen servant of the club. We won the league cup, and at the end of the storm, the golden sky did show up, at least a bit.
That was a period of extreme negativity. I myself dwelled with thoughts like 'are we ever going to win the league again?'. I felt really bad for Stevie G that day when he slipped. He is human too, and every human makes mistakes, but the timing of that mistake was very unfortunate. And I used to get so angry when my friends used to make fun of my captain and this incident. It used to hurt real bad. It still does. Gerrard was, and still is my idol, and I pray for it whenever I can, that one fine day, he will lift the Premier League trophy for us. He could not do it as a player, but he still can, as a manager. I hope it becomes a reality someday. He deserves it, more than anyone else, for everything he has done for LFC.
Rodgers could not lift a single trophy, and after a poor start to the 2015-16 season, he was replaced by Jurgen Nobert Klopp, the man, whom Liverpool legend Bruce Grobbelaar, or the 'Flying Zimbabwean', rightfully went on to describe as 'Shankly reincarnated in a German body' quite recently. The time had indeed come to change from 'doubters to believers,' and all of us believed in him. It just felt that we could believe in him. We knew it would take time for him to deliver, but we had already waited for so long, so why not wait for a bit longer?
He promised that in four years, LFC would have at least one title beside it's name. And boy, he delivered. We could have won a few more in those four years- the Europa League, the League Cup, and the Champions League nightmare in Kiev. But, in Madrid, there finally arrived the moment to 'talk about the six, baby!' There is a saying that it is the setbacks which push you to make stronger comebacks, and that was exactly proved. I felt so proud of being a Red, I felt so happy after our captain Henderson lifted that trophy, especially after what had happened last year against Real Madrid. I had just received my higher secondary results a month before this, and I could say this pretty joyously, that my school life ended with the Reds finally getting their hands on a globally coveted piece of silverware. I was happier that I had something to say to my school friends, most of whom were Real Madrid supporters, who had made immense fun of me and my club a year before.
Names like 'Loserpool' are something that we, the Liverpool fans, have always faced from bitter rivals. And, truly speaking, this has hurt me quite a number of times, much like all of you. After one heartbreak after the other, year in, year out, I sometimes started questioning myself", are we really posh losers?" "Are we always going to be defeated?" "Are we never going to win again?"
Jurgen changed it all. He changed the way I perceived things, not just about Liverpool, but about life in general. He made us prove that at the end of the storm, there really is a golden sky. Not once, but twice, and would keep on happening in the times to come. Ending the league as runners-up after amassing 97 points in that 2018-19 season, who would have believed that a team would not win the PL after achieving this? But it just did not happen, yet again. Even though we added up the Champions League to our cabinet, missing out on the PL by that small margin was indeed difficult to take.
In spite of all this, the Reds did not bow down, and they responded in the right manner. In the never to be forgotten year of 2020, as Peter Drury rightfully highlighted, we lifted our first Premier League, our 19th First Division title. 2020 was indeed, a never to be forgotten year, and for us Liverpool supporters, we will associate this year with both extremely negative and equally positive memories. The pandemic took away the normal way of living for us. The traumatizing fears of the league being null and voided, backed by the appeals of opposition fans who could not stand an evident Liverpool victory, were so much difficult to engulf. We were so scared about the fact that again, after being literally 'this' close, we would not be picking up the trophy we had long waited for. But thankfully, nothing could stop Liverpool that year. Project Restart began, and finally, after three decades of heartbreak, the good days were back again. The Liverbird was back in its perch, and I was sure, like everyone else, that the sweet silver song of the lark would be heard now, for a long long time, yet again. Thank you, Jurgen! Indeed, I'm so glad that Jurgen is a Red!
Now, in these seven years, we have won it all! Juergen has completed the lot- Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, Super Cup, and the Club World Cup. After years of grief and literal choking, we have finally arrived to that moment where it absolutely feels so great to be a Red! And it is this man who led us and changed our tunes from 'those were the days my friend' to 'these are the days my friend'. And there is much more to come, it is never a doubt that in the distant future, the Kop end would sing- 'Mo Salah on the wing, we had dreams and songs to sing, about the glory, around the fields of Anfield Road"! Enjoy this Class of '22. Even better days are coming.....
When someone asks me 'Why Liverpool? They hardly win anything,' I just remind them something in the lines of what Stevie G had said a considerable amount of time ago. I could have supported any team, I could have rejoiced winning many more trophies, but it would never feel the same. This love, this bond, being together during the happy times and most importantly the tough ones, unconditionally supporting the club no matter what, singing You'll Never Walk Alone loud and clear irrespective of how things are going on- it all strikes different. I just fell in love with this club, and now I am a small part of this lovely family, which stays together through thick and thin.
This is a people's club, and everyone involved in it, starting from the manager, to the players, the supporters, and even the ground staff and other workers involved with the club, are equal parts of it. And this feeling of failing, trying harder, failing again, trying even harder, and then finally winning, is the best feeling in the world; when everything is against you but you just do not quit, and you eventually succeed, after working the hardest. That is the Liverpool way. And you would never get this feeling anywhere else. The feeling of winning something with Liverpool, is way better than that of winning something with any other club.
This Club has taught me how to be consistent in life, and how to accept failures as a part of the process of achieving overall success. It made me believe that even if things weren't right at the moment, they would eventually be with the passage of time. To bounce back, to answer all the critics who once shrugged you off completely, that is incredible, isn't it? I have done it, and my club has inspired me to do it. This club has taught me how to live. It's anthem gives me spirit to stand up during my darkest times. And most importantly, it gives me hope, it teaches me how to come back stronger after every disappointment. It reminds me how good days are bound to come, we just need to be patient and keep striving for them. And one day, our dreams will come true. Liverpool proves this from its deeds. It is not just a football club. It is something that gives me positivity to move forward. I may be geographically separated from the Club, the home supporters, the beautiful city and its lovely people, but it still gives me a sense of belongingness, a feeling of being at my home. I had always been sure that it would live up to my dreams, and this is what made me indifferent to the destructive criticism that I had to experience during my school days. Indeed, I'm so glad.....to be a Liverpool Red.
You'll Never Walk Alone.
GREAT START LEGEND👏
ReplyDeleteThanks!!
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ReplyDeleteThis is just soooo beautiful!! Keep up the good work... 💯
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