I keep thinking about my Dad. He died the month before Jurgen Klopp took over. He'd been going to the match since the 50s, before Shankly took over. He'd seen our glory years, but he never got to see Liverpool win the league again after 1990. I began to wonder to myself, might the same thing happen to me? Might we never win the league again? It sounded mad, but maybe that's what would happen.
I'm always drawn to the story of Wolves. They won three league titles in the 50s, and were considered one of the best teams in the world. If you'd said to a Wolves fan in 1959 (the last time they were champions), “That's it, pal, you’re never going to win the league again,” they'd think you were insane. But sixty years later, it's still true. Could that happen to us?
It looks like the wait will soon be over. It looks like we're going to be champions of England once more. Maybe, just maybe, we'll cock it up somehow, but that seems highly unlikely as things stand. And if we do it, then I hope we'll all raise a toast to the many, many supporters who never lived to see it.
I've been thinking of my own dad in relation to the football too. He saw the glory years, and I remember standing in the paddock with him and our next door neighbour for the UEFA Cup Final in'73 against Borussia Mönchengladbach. He also drove us down to Wembley in '76 for the Charity Shield match and was knackered so had a sleep on the grass verge outside before the game. We watched Istanbul together too, and I'll always remember that. I said at half-time it would be the biggest humiliation ever, or the greatest comeback in history. I honestly didn't know which. I think it turned out ok, though.
My dad went into hospital at the beginning of November 2017 and we thought he'd be out soon after. They called us in after a few days and said he had cancer. We thought he might have years, but the doctor gave him 2 days to live. Two weeks previous I was with my partner's dad while he died too. Another massive Red. My dad lasted until the 6th then he died. I think of both these days and I'm sad they missed us lift Big Ears last season. I'm sad that they aren't witnessing what we are seeing today. Both saw our glory decades, but do you know what, what we are seeing at the moment is up there with anything that went before. This is truly special, and I wish they could be here to see it.
I had a prearranged meet with a good friend last night so couldn't see the match. I went to her house thinking Wolves just might be the banana skin. We had lots of important stuff to catch up on so I only got to check the score a couple of times. First time I looked we were 1-0 up. Next time it was 1-1 at, I think around 80 minutes. I thought maybe a draw would do us there. Next time I looked we'd won 2-1. We were both so happy. She's a Red too. I drove home late and everything just felt so good. I came in and looked at my dad's photograph on the table and just smiled. I said, ''dad, my god, it looks like we might just do this.'' In fact, I'm looking at his picture as I type this now.
Back in 1990 I'd never have believed we'd wait so long to be this close again. Even as it dawned on me just how far we'd declined as the 90s wore on, I never believed we'd go longer than the 26 years it took the Mancs to lift the title again. Mind you, no one could have predicted the hijacking of our national sport by crooked billionaires like Abramovich and Abu Dhabi. We had our own problems, of course. We'd vacated our perch by our own hand, but once we tried to climb back on it the landscape had altered so much. It would take something really, really special to elevate us back to where we once were, and it was clear that a lot of old school Reds wouldn't live to see the day the tree finally bore fruit once more. This is one reason why I think we should all savour every single moment of this. We never know what life will throw our way. We can't know how long this will last or how far it will go, but we are here now, alive at a wonderful time to be a Red. We owe it to ourselves to enjoy every second of it. Live it, eat it, breathe it, sleep it, savour it and appreciate it.
I'm old enough and have seen enough to know that nothing, absolutely nothing lasts forever. Good things don't last forever, but neither do bad. Life's fluid and ever changing. It's all about the moment; the here and now. What we have now is something special. I never thought this club could give me more than it did in the 70s and 80s, but my god, it's actually doing just that, right now. Today. There's a way to go yet, but what a journey, what a ride. Again, I'm sad that people I love aren't here to see it, but I'll just make sure I enjoy it all the more, because they can't. That applies no matter what happens from here on in too. It's not beyond the realms of possibility for it to go pear-shaped, although it's unlikely as things stand. Regardless, I'm walking round this city feeling 10 feet tall and I have been since Kiev because I knew what was coming. I could see where things were going, even as that twat Ramos held Big Ears. I knew the Reds were coming up the hill. That wasn't the end, it was just the beginning. There were tears that night, but a monster was born that night too. Amazingly, it still hasn't reached maturity, but it's ripping heads off all over the show.
Savour ever single second of this. No matter how it goes. Old coots like me had our 60s, 70s and 80s, and we look like we are getting a second wind, but you younger Reds, this is your time...
Hold it gently, like the beautiful butterfly it is. Admire it, appreciate it, savour it, because we never know how long we'll have it.
