Time has diluted the memory but it’s time to remind yourself, now the magical number has been reached, what happened the night their greatest rivals got to 20 first.
The thunder had been rumbling. You could trace it back to the moment Sir Alex Ferguson did an interview in the Guardian, in September 2002, and told the respected journalist Michael Walker: ‘My greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their f***ing perch. And you can print that.’
United had been relentless, hunting down Liverpool’s standard-setting total of 18 like a racehorse with withering speed. They drew level in 2009, nudged ahead in 2011 and then, in 2013, Old Trafford reverberated to Not Nineteen Forever as Robin van Persie became Robin van Basten. The same Courteeners song rang around Anfield on Sunday.
The Dutchman’s hat-trick against Aston Villa, on April 22, 2013, confirmed United’s 13th title in 20 years. If only football could have been the least of Liverpool’s problems. Instead, they were engulfed in crisis, once again. Hothead Luis Suarez had bitten Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic the previous day.
Liverpool had gone 23 years since being champions and they were as far away then as you could imagine. Brendan Rodgers was trying to restore order to a squad that included players such as Sebastian Coates, Oussama Assaidi, Jose Enrique and Fabio Borini.
They would finish 28 points behind United, seventh in the table. Everton, again, had finished in front of them and Liverpool had been knocked out of the FA Cup by Oldham at Boundary Park. Yes, the football landscape was poor but everything had been exacerbated by Suarez’s latest misdemeanour.Â
Liverpool won their 20th top-flight title – drawing them level with arch rivals Manchester United
Restored to the summit of English football again, it is mission complete for the club
Liverpool chipped away at United by making sensible decisions and not veering off the path
United hadn’t just knocked Liverpool off their perch – what a way with words Ferguson had when he wanted to send a message – he had overseen a shift to such an extent that their most bitter rivals had been evicted from the premises and forced to leave town.
The previous summer, I had been in Boston on Liverpool’s pre-season tour with some colleagues and spent time with John W Henry, the principal figure in Fenway Sports Group – who had been the club’s owners for less than two years – at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox.
Henry doesn’t like to talk publicly – he barely talks privately these days – but this particular afternoon, in one of the boxes, he answered some questions and said, ‘You can’t turn an oil tanker as quickly as you can a speed boat’, when he was asked about the situation.
When we stopped recording, Henry, who had been joined by his cohort chairman Tom Werner, asked a couple of times: ‘What would it be like if Liverpool won the league?’ as he tried to understand the depth of feeling among the fanbase.
It was explained that it wasn’t just a dream. It had, at that point, been 22 years of torment. To be league champions again was the only thing that mattered. If there was one thing FSG had to deliver, it was this prize.
But did anyone ever really believe they would? Henry was an advocate of Financial Fair Play, he wondered how other clubs could invest fortunes almost without a care. Liverpool, he was adamant, would do things following the blueprint that had been successful in Boston.
Such a stance has put him at loggerheads with sections of the fanbase down the years.
Even last January there was fury that the club’s refusal to enter the transfer market would cost them dearly, but the decisions they have made have reaped the most spectacular dividends.
Sir Alex Ferguson declared he wanted to knock Liverpool ‘right off their f***ing perch’
Owner John W Henry tried to understand the desperation of supporters to win the title again
It took a lot to get back but being league champions again was the only thing that mattered
Read all of Mail Sport’s excellent coverage of Liverpool’s 20th league title in The Verdict, Mail+ and online
Chief among them, of course, was hiring Jurgen Klopp in October 2015. Liverpool needed a manager to look forward and stop hankering for those days in the 1970s and 1980s that were starting to become an anchor. A club that keeps one eye on the past is wise; a club that keeps both eyes on the past blinds itself.
Slowly, Liverpool have chipped away. Brilliant signings – never forget that Manchester United asked for the numbers needed to land Virgil van Dijk on the day he was having his medical at Anfield – allayed with sensible decisions and not veering off the path.
Now here they are, restored to the summit of English football. The most successful club, the mission complete.
‘It’s a sobering day,’ said Gary Neville, solemnly. ‘It’s a massive deal. The painful thing to say is the debate is over for a period until United become successful again. It should cause heartache because it took a lot to get ahead of Liverpool.’
And it took a lot for Liverpool to get back. But there they are again. Restored, as Ferguson would say, to that ‘f***ing perch’.
