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‘Red Race: A New Bastion’
Available only from www.paultomkins.com, released this week.
The best points haul for 21 years (86, which would have been enough to win seven of the previous 16 league titles); a thoroughly convincing double over Manchester United; a better goal difference and a greater number of goals scored than any other team; and a club record 13 away wins.
And still only 2nd place, with a points total that has never been bettered by any runner-up in a 38-game season, and the lowest number of defeats for any team that didn’t win the league in its 121-year history.
So close –– but no cigar, and, alas, no champagne.
Can’t Buy Me Leagues?
Can’t buy me love, sang Liverpool’s most famous sons, in reference to the one thing supposedly untainted by the filthy lucre. (They also sang about semolina pilchards scaling Parisian landmarks, although that’s more suited to a book about drug abuse in sport than financial doping.)
But does money buy you league titles?
More than ever before, financial power seems to be at the root of any assault on the English league championship. So while this book looks at all aspects of Liverpool’s season, from performances to tactics and off-the-pitch developments, a lot of the themes lead back to money, and how it buys you the power to compete on a level playing field in 2008/09 –– and, more importantly, beyond.
Is there a glass ceiling in the modern era, in that success cannot be achieved without a minimum spend? Certainly the clubs trying to get into the Champions League feel so, but what about those looking to be champions?
In Dynasty, I looked at the financial wherewithal of successful sides dating back to Bill Shankly’s installation as Kop chorister, but this book aims to take that one step further, with more detailed investigation into the modern era, and how the money a club spends affects its chances of winning the biggest domestic prize. Before the top division was rebranded The Premiership, some equity seemed to exist. Cheap, cleverly-assembled sides could win league titles. Teams promoted from the old Second Division could become national champions within a year or two, as seen with Nottingham Forest, Leeds United and, in the Premiership’s early years, Blackburn Rovers.
Most people feel that this is no longer the case. And they have a point. It’s now fourteen years since a team other than Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal won the league. In that time, Liverpool have finished 2nd twice. However, no other team outside of what is currently known as the ‘big four’ have finished in the top two since Newcastle, in 1997. If it seems virtually impossible that any team can break into the top four –– Everton in 2005 being the last gatecrashers –– even though only a few points often separate 4th from 5th, then why should Liverpool have been expected to break what was becoming a Manchester United/Chelsea duopoly?
Truth be told, Liverpool should not be ‘expected’ to win the league title, either now or at any time in the past decade. When people talk of Liverpool ‘blowing’ the chance to win the 2008/09 title having led the table at the mid-point, they were missing the possible inevitability of the situation, which is mirrored in the race for 4th place in previous seasons. In the past four years, either Liverpool or Arsenal have been behind in the race for 4th spot –– at times perilously so –– but each time that little extra quality saw off Everton, Spurs, Aston Villa and any other high-flying hopefuls as the 38th game approached. Did those teams ‘blow it’? Or did natural selection –– survival of the fittest –– abide?
The truth is that Liverpool should be expected to be no better than the 4th-best team in England. Based on history, tradition and both the size and spread of the fan-base, this is of course not the case –– far from it. Only Manchester United from these shores can rival Liverpool, and even they fall behind in certain areas. But those things –– history, fan-base and a magical name –– do not win you trophies. Indeed, they can sometimes even be a hindrance. The one undeniably positive thing a rich history does is keep the club as an attractive proposition, but reputation alone does not attract the best players.
In many ways, Liverpool have the right to be considered the premier English club, although it’s an honour United will obviously feel is rightfully theirs instead. However, based on facts surrounding the club’s wherewithal, Liverpool would not rank so highly. Liverpool’s squad was only the 5th-most expensive last season (2008/09). Anfield was the 6th-biggest stadium in the division, although Newcastle have since very kindly vacated one space above the Reds on that particular list, and none of the three promoted sides have grounds that exceed Anfield’s 45,362 capacity.
Liverpool, by some distance, paid only the 4th-highest wages in the land. The club’s turnover was also only the 4th-highest. These figures are based on the most recently published accounts, which don’t include last season, but there will have been no dramatic changes in the interim. As with a lot of the financial figures, Tottenham and Newcastle are actually far closer to Liverpool than the Reds are to Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United. Indeed, in some cases, such as squad cost, Spurs are actually ahead of Liverpool. Manchester City also feature highly, ending the season with a considerably more expensive squad than Liverpool.
So where do Liverpool match or trump their main rivals, aside from factors relating to its past? How about the passionate crowd, the famed ‘12th man’? Well, certainly on European nights against the big names it can be worth a goal head-start. But for league games, Anfield can be rather muted, and sometimes against the smaller teams you could hear a pin drop on its soft green turf.
Then there are the managers. Alex Ferguson is hardly some bumbling rookie, while Arsène Wenger is as respected as anyone in the game. Both have been in charge for what seems like forever. Chelsea have recently appointed Carlo Ancelotti, whose record in Champions League finals against Liverpool reads ‘won one, lost one’, but who also won the trophy in 2003 against Juventus. Clearly he’s one of the best around, too (although totally unproven in England), but at least Liverpool can claim to have a manager whose achievements rank alongside each of his main rivals. His career may cover different scenarios and different time-spans, but over the past eight years, Rafa Benítez has earned the reputation of a master, across the continent at least, even if he’s still not as widely respected throughout England.
Which of them is the best manager is hard to say, given their different approaches, wide-ranging budgets and time allocated to building their respective dynasties. (Ancelotti, of course, hasn’t even got started at Stamford Bridge, at the time of writing.)
But that’s about where the equality expires. When it comes to the experience of winning the English league title, Liverpool had just one such player: Jermaine Pennant –– who wasn’t even at the club from January onwards, and who has now moved to Spain. With Liverpool obviously unable to boast anyone winning the title in their colours, it’s no surprise to see such a low number, given that those who have done so in the past decade were/are at rival clubs; clubs that are certainly not going to sell directly to the Reds. Even Everton have more Premiership league winners in their ranks, although, of course, their medals were collected at other clubs. The arrival of Glen Johnson brings Liverpool’s tally back up to one.
Five different clubs have won the title since Liverpool last lifted the trophy, meaning that the Reds rank 6th in that particular list. Of course, it’s a fairly meaningless list, seeing as not one single player remains from that success, in 1990; the Reds could rank 50th and it not alter anything. But what isn’t meaningless is how the teams contesting the league title with Liverpool do have this experience, and in the case of two of the three, managers who have masterminded the most successful period in their club’s history. If experience of having won the competition you’re contesting is helpful (and surely it has to be, to some unquantifiable degree), then this is another hurdle for the Reds to overcome.
However, despite all the obstacles and handicaps, Liverpool proved themselves genuine title challengers last season. Wherewithal suggests that the Reds should have finished a distant 4th, but instead they came incredibly close to landing the club’s first title in 19 years. Why? Liverpool needed to be extremely good, and they were, but what other factors played a part in almost taking the title the wire?
Chelsea’s lack of stability at the top left a slight gap to squeeze into, and the Reds took the initiative, even though the Londoners were still strong enough to find themselves just one minute away from their second Champions League Final in two seasons. Arsenal’s inexperience and lack of mettle left a bigger opening, and Liverpool brushed past the Gunners –– a team who were still good enough to make it to the Champions League semi-final –– by a 14-point margin. Teams who were 30 points ahead of Liverpool when Benítez arrived, and after he’d spent a first season sorting Willy Wheat from Charlie Chaff, were now trailing in the Reds’ wake. But it still wasn’t quite enough. While the pressure to end a long wait for the title adds a further burden, the hunger to do so –– and the rewards on offer to the players, as overnight legends –– can make a difference; certainly when compared with Chelsea, whose own burning desire appears directed at Europe, something that may also be true of Manchester United.
The question is, with the wealth pumped into rival clubs from multi-billionaires and the far greater income they generate from much bigger stadia, can anything ever be enough?
And if it can be, wouldn’t that make it the greatest achievement in the Reds’ history?
© Paul Tomkins 2009
