It has been 30 years since Liverpool Football Club won its 18th
premier league title. The club has been struggling to attain its 19th
title and it even got close to winning the title in the 2013/2014 and 2018/2019
seasons.
The time Liverpool FC (LFC) won the English Premier League
(EPL) was during the 1989/1990 season with a legend of the club, Sir Kenny
Dalglish (King Kenny), the manager at the time. A year after winning
Liverpool’s 18th EPL title, King Kenny resigned due to the
Hillsborough disaster.
Graeme Souness was named successor of Kenny Dalglish after
first-team coach, Ronnie Moran, steered the affairs of the team for several
weeks. Souness won Liverpool the FA Cup in 1992 and made way for Roy Evans, who
also replicated the achievement of his predecessor by winning just one trophy, the
League Cup. This was before Gerard Houllier was appointed joint manager with
Evans in 1998.
Houllier went trophy-less until a treble in 2001, comprising the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup. Two years later, Houllier won
another League Cup but he and the club parted by mutual consent at the end of
the 2003/2004 season. He was replaced by Valencia manager Rafael Benitez.
Benitez was successful in his first two seasons. He won the fifth Champions
League title and the seventh FA Cup Competition for the club. He was also the
finalist in the 2007 UEFA Champions League.
Benitez later had issues with the owners of the club
regarding the transfer of a few players in the year 2010 which led to his exit.
He was replaced by Roy Hodgson who spent less than a year at the club. LFC then
appointed Sir Kenny Dalglish as manager of the club for the second time. Kenny
joined the club at a time where the glorious days of LFC had vanished. LFC did
not win any major trophies for six years until veteran Kenny led them to
victory in just less than two years as manager of the club. He won the EFL Cup
for LFC in the year 2012 but that was not enough to save his job at the club.
Consequently, he was axed from his duty and Brendan Rodgers who was then
managing the affairs of Swansea City took charge of LFC.
Rodgers became the longest serving coach of the club after
Rafael Benitez. He spent over three years at LFC and achieved nothing for them.
His only achievement was getting close to winning the EPL title in the year
2014 but lost to Chelsea FC at Anfield and drew at Crystal Palace on matchday 36 and
37 respectfully to allow Manchester City claim their second in two years.
Then suddenly out of the blue, the “Normal One” Jurgen Klopp
as he describes himself took over from Rodgers in October, 2015 after taking
some months break from his previous job at Borussia Dortmund. Klopp did
incredibly well in his first half season. He went to two finals with the club
but lost both finals to his opponents. He started building his team and
promised the club a major trophy within four years, to which he fulfilled.
Before winning a major trophy for LFC, he lost again in a
final to Real Madrid in the year 2018 and placed fourth in the EPL of the same
season. The three successive defeat in a final didn’t frustrate his focus for
LFC. He stayed resolute and went all the way to the finals of the 2019 UEFA
Champions League and this time around he was able to lead his team to a win by
2-0 against Tottenham Hotspurs, leading to LFC’s sixth European title. The
successes of Klopp didn’t end there. He also won against fellow English
counterpart Chelsea FC, leading to the winning of the UEFA Super Cup and went
on to set a record for LFC as the first English club to win international
treble after beating Flamingo 1-0 to clinch the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup
trophy.
The 2019/2020 premier league season started with loads of
agitation, as to whether Manchester city would win their third consecutive EPL
title or LFC would bounce back stronger after losing the title to the former
during the previous season by just a point. However, things changed drastically
and LFC learnt their lessons. They started the campaign extremely well by
winning all their games with just a draw against their nemesis, Manchester
United, in the first round. The point gap became so wide to the extent that
second placed Manchester City conceded defeat. Everybody thought that the 30
years EPL jinx would be broken this time around by the German talisman until
the dreaded coronavirus disease (COVID-19) hit the world badly to halt all
global activities.
Fans of the club became sad, worried, nervous and confused on
whether the 19th premier league title for LFC would become a reality
or not. All hopes were lost as the Dutch
Eredivisie was declared void. Also, other top flight European leagues were
cancelled as a result of the pandemic. This broke the heart of many LFC fans as
they may be deprived of the title should the league be abandoned.
The German Bundesliga however, broke the odd and resumed
their league on 16th May with fascinating games, goals and
celebrations. Once the Bundesliga is back on track, then there is the
possibility of the EPL returning to action as well.
Now, the good news for all LFC fans is that the premier
league clubs have started training and the league is expected to kick start in
the first week of June. So, in that regard, I confidently believe that the LFC 30
years EPL jinx would be averted this time around by the legendary, Jurgen Norbert Klopp. The plans of enemies aren’t
the plans of God, our maker!
You’ll Never Walk Alone (YNWA).
No comments:
Post a Comment