Laydees and Gents, one article for your delight, delectation and comment... I enjoyed making the comparison to "Fever Pitch", there's something special about a title run in and it's nice to have those old feelings back at last.
Any comments welcome.. no, really.
BSki
I bet I wasn’t the only Liverpool fan to be traumatised by Nick Hornby’s “Fever Pitch”. If it wasn’t bad enough that he brought the book out in 1992, David Evans went on to make the bastard thing a film in 1997. I received the book for Christmas, lovingly wrapped by my Gooner “mate”. Several years later he repeated the gag with the video. Bless him. It was the nineties and for all Fowler’s goals and McMoneymans tricks we weren’t going to win the league or Premiership and it hurt. Looking back, 1989 will never be forgotten for many reasons (JFT96) but even though we won the league the following year it’s only now that those championship feelings are stirring in me again…
The signs are all there: the remaining fixtures have been plotted out and re-plotted, the games I can get to have been ear marked and all other plans rightly scuppered… but most of all, the butterflies and the championship banter is all back. Following our performances at Leeds and Ipswich I have allowed myself that extra portion of optimism and I don’t think I’m talking out of turn in saying number 19 is within reach here. Despite the dross that the “great” British media is pedalling I believe, at long last, that I might (just might) be able to pay the Gooner back and if it’s by Wenger’s “single goal” then all the better.
Back to the point then. Apparently, “Fever Pitch is a film about a mans obsession with football. Colin Firth's Paul is a middle-school literature teacher and die-hard Gooner, hapless against an obsession that began when he as a young boy bonded with his divorced father by spending custody visits at football matches. By the time he's an adult, Paul's devotion to Arsenal is a blend of blind faith and masochism. When Arsenal has its first shot at a championship in two decades, Paul is on the verge of losing his job, his pregnant girlfriend and his very sanity”.
Let’s see how that translates to me then: “Fever Pitch II” is a film about a mans obsession with football. Irvine Welsh’s Barrettski is a writer and die-hard Red, hapless against an obsession that began when he, as a young boy, bonded with his pint of Stella and found his way to Anfield via the away ends of the South East. By the time he's an adult, Barrettski’s devotion to Liverpool is a blend of footballing knowledge and masochism. When Liverpool has its first shot at a championship in a decade, Barrettski is on the verge of a gaining a glittering new career, a gorgeous blonde and day release from the institution”.
It seems to fit pretty well doesn’t it? Well OK… I made a couple of bits up. But hey, this is my article and besides… it isn’t complete fiction . Like any good sequel, there’s an added edge. This time the Mancs and Geordies (huh?) are in with a shout too. The more astute among you will notice that I’ve left out Chelsea and Leeds there. For the record I now think the Jekyll and Hyde boys from the Bates Motel are out of the running and… to my endless amusement, Filthy Leeds appear to have imploded and are now out of reach of the title. Mr O’Leary will do well to re-brand his £100m thugs for next season. Failing that, I’ll look forward to another Elland Road soap opera in 2002/3, featuring the trophy-shy Tyke family.
The serious parallel in there is of course the “first shot” at a championship in over a decade. Shankly maintained that the league was our “bread and butter” and it’s no coincidence that Thommo quite literally echoed his words back in November:
“The Premiership is our bread and butter. We haven't won the championship for a long time and the fans demand we change that. You can feel their emotion.”
It’s therefore no surprise that the emotion generated by a championship challenge is different to the euphoria of knock out competitions and last season’s treble. Quite simply the league is different. The champions earn their title and noone can claim they were “lucky” over an entire season, well not in the same way that Liverpool was ludicrously tagged “lucky” for the 2001 Treble. But then it was Murdoch’s myopic and talent-shy fops that came up with that suggestion and once again did themselves no favours on Merseyside.
Plenty of that emotion I describe (not to mention the nervous energy) was captured by Fever Pitch. In fact, five years on I can almost admit that it is a decent film, my counsellor really is that good. Much of its success is down to seeing things through the fans eyes. Admittedly Mr D’Arcy looked different with a daft shaggy perm and no strides, but his roller coaster ride of emotions were very real. I guess that’s what I can associate with. At one stage Colin Firth was sitting in a pub garden, talking about Arsenal’s tricky journey to Carrow Road. In the same way, last week, I was sat in a pub talking about Liverpool’s tricky journey to Portman Road. I need not have worried so much, but I did and it’s those moments I’m talking about here.
Look back over the past season and can you ever recall so many twists and turns? From the FC Haka Champions League qualifier to “that” demolition of Ipswich last week there are too many to mention, still it’s worth a crack at the edited personal highlights. I couldn’t distort things as badly as “The Premiership” does every week anyway.
The season really awoke for me when Liverpool appeared on the Ceefax Champions League page. Sad but true, but there we were… playing in Finland for the right to return to the elite where we belonged. Five goals and an Owen hat-trick later I was planning my trip to Cardiff… and Jesus was it electric in there with the roof on?. Of course old baldy head slotted home in the first minute and the early season promise, the beating of the Mancs and the Stella were all tasting delicious.
From there a succession of events places me in a certain place, with certain people and quite possibly a certain lager. When Sander said goodbye with Dean Holdsworth’s squirmer it was a local pub, politely highlighting the severe dangers of inappropriate laughing to a Bluenose. For the stunned surreal nature of the 11 September Boavista game it was a bar in Edinburgh. John Arne Riise’s goal at Goodison was just heaven… and his next against Newcastle was enjoyed with a Geordie, looking sheepish in his black and white stripes. Perhaps the most bizarre game was Blackburn. Was that Owen airborne for our goal? I couldn’t tell you, the guy infront was smoking enough weed that it could have been Henchoz for all I knew.
There are the lows too of course. It’s always fun to bump into a Chelsea colleague after they’ve put four past Dudek isn’t it? Almost as much fun as arguing with a Villa fan that Jerzy is a quality keeper and could do little for any of their three goals. For a bonus point, convince him that the brummies couldn’t qualify for the Champions League. Then Fowler leaving has to go down as a real watershed. There had been so much speculation and so many rumours that I think I only truly realised he’d left when I sold and re-bought him online for my Fantasy League team. Bugger me if the little sod didn’t appear on my screen with a white shirt on. I just stared at the pixels, they just did not look right.
Gerard’s illness knocked everyone sideways. Where were you when you after the Leeds game and heard he had been admitted to hospital complaining of pains in his chest? I was infront of a screen, miles from Anfield and completely gob smacked. The Stella was put down and the colour drained from my face. I thought we’d seen enough “incident” for one season but this really was one of those moments when you look at the person next to you… and say all you need to say without words. It wouldn’t take a skilled director to reproduce that moment anyway.
But then there are always the real highs. That result in Kiev, a fabulous dirty weekend to accompany the West Ham win, the Leeds and Ipswich results but for me the high point has to be beating United. At this stage the screen fades to Barrettski punching the air as Murphy tips the ball over Donald Pleasance and fades again to Riise’s thunderbolt at Anfield. These are the moments that every fan waits for. These are the moments that normal words fail you (I’ll hold off on the comparisons to sex… thanks) and only the shouting and the singing will do.
Then when you’ve finished looking back at all that, you have to look forward again. Place yourself in that local, at the same seat, with the same banter. The daft bubble perm and lack of strides are down to personal choice though. “Will Gerard coming back be the edge we need for the run in”, “has his appearance and comments already triggered current form?”, “can Heskey sustain his form” and “can Owen and Gerrard stay fit to do the business?”. The discussion has an upbeat air about it, although few are blind enough to believe number nineteen is definitely on the cards. Look at those moments. Priceless aren’t they? Surely half the reward in being a fan is living and sharing those moments, not just the trophy lifting and the glow of success but also the uncertainty and the journey itself? This might be “Zen and the art of being a Liverpool fan”… perhaps, but I think I have a fair point here.
Perhaps the biggest tell tale sign that we’re in a movie script here is the discussion about other teams and their performances. I know that the management and staff are often at pains not to discuss other teams, but many fans can’t help it. This season more than ever, the fate of the top clubs will depend on others dropping points and so it’s only natural to start looking at their fixtures. Not just their fixtures, but also their European commitments and injuries too. I’m sure Nick Hornby will be somewhere in North London this evening, talking through Arsenal’s remaining games and the difficulties of four London derbies, not to mention a trip to Old Trafford. The difference this time is that I’ll be doing exactly the same somewhere in Liverpool… and Nick, I don’t like the look of that North London derby so close to the Champions League quarter finals, mate.
I still walk past that flag pole on the non-Albert corner of the Kop, each time remembering when the championship flag last flew there in 1990. Over ten years I’ve been doing that now and I’ve probably still got the Charlatans T shirt from my first walk past it. I’m not expecting Liverpool to win the Premiership in this, the third of Gerard’s five year plan. Nope, I’m not expecting. But I do have a wonderful feeling of renewed optimism, driven by a belief that it’s within reach once again. So when we do win the title again, you can be sure I’ll be round to my Gooner friend’s house with the book, the video, the sound track and the Panini sticker album. I’ll leave it to your imagination exactly where I’ll be sticking them.
Incidentally, if anyone would like to make “Fever Pitch II: The Revenge” then I’d like to offer my services in playing myself, just so long as Cameron Diaz plays my love interest… cheers.
…and for those of you wondering what the remaining fixtures look like, here they are… minus Newcastle because I still refuse to believe they can sustain a challenge after visiting Anfield. I’m just wondering if there’ll be that slow motion scene as we come out of Anfield in mid-May to hear Everton have handed us the title at Highbury. It could happen you know.
Liverpool
23-Feb-02 H Everton
02-Mar-02 A Fulham
06-Mar-02 H Newcastle
16-Mar-02 A Middlesborough
24-Mar-02 H Chelsea
30-Mar-02 H Charlton
07-Apr-02 H Blackburn
13-Apr-02 A Sunderland
20-Apr-02 H Derby
27-Apr-02 A Spurs
11-Mar-02 H Ipswich
Manure
23-Feb-02 H Aston Villa
03-Mar-02 A Derby County
06-Mar-02 H Tottenham Hotspur
16-Mar-02 A West Ham United
23-Mar-02 H Middlesborough
30-Mar-02 A Leeds United
06-Apr-02 A Leicester City
13-Apr-02 H Arsenal
20-Apr-02 A Chelsea
27-Apr-02 A Ipswich Town
11-May-02 H Charlton Athletic
Arsenal
23-Feb-02 H Fulham
02-Mar-02 A Newcastle United
05-Mar-02 H Derby County
17-Mar-02 A Aston Villa
23-Mar-02 H West Ham United
30-Mar-02 H Sunderland
01-Apr-02 A Charlton Athletic
06-Apr-02 H Tottenham Hotspur
13-Apr-02 A Manchester United
20-Apr-02 H Ipswich Town
27-Apr-02 A Bolton Wanderers
11-May-02 H Everton
