By Chris Rowland. The 25th of May is a very special day for Liverpool supporters. Possibly – no, make that definitely – the two most celebrated occasions of Liverpool FC’s history – occurred on that same magical date. One or the other will be on top of the ‘Best Ever’ list for every fan like me [...]
* Up to May 24. By Chris Rowland. In Transfer Talk World, it’s always Groundhog Day!So anyone who’s waded through March and April’s T6s will recognise many of these names. Let’s start May’s marathon off with … well, an old link with a new twist, and included not least for the headline: ‘Reds set to beat [...]
By Chris Rowland. Here’s the next instalment of T6 – The Tomkins Times Transfer Talk Tracker – our monthly trip around the land of make-believe that is the media’s transfer gossip. It’s just thinking that the occasional one may just turn out to be true that makes us suspend our disbelief and keep coming back [...]
By Chris Rowland. … and who would they replace in our XI? That’s what we asked the Symposium panel this week. This is what they had to say: By Daniel Rhodes: Bale for Downing. Kompany for Carragher. Yaya Toure for Gerrard. Bale: a bit one-footed, with a daft celebration and a reputation for flamboyant dives [...]
By Chris Rowland. Here we go then – our first monthly spin on the insane transfer gossip merry-go-round we could call The Tomkins Times Transfer Talk Tracker (or T6!). The plan is to make it a regular monthly event, if my sanity holds up. Some conclusions sprang to mind in the process of compiling it; that most [...]
By Chris Rowland. When I think of Bill Shankly, I think of how he spoke – as distinctive as a speech by Churchill or a song by Sinatra. Yet reading this book I didn’t hear that voice. I didn’t hear ‘todee we pleed wi’ greet coheesion, eeeh…’ Instead I hear a measured, ordered, calculating yet [...]
Looking at the songs and chants, flags and banners that form an integral part of the club’s DNA. By Chris Rowland: This article is for Subscribers only.
By Chris Rowland. It may be difficult for younger TTT subscribers (ie nearly all of them!) to appreciate how important a part Roger Hunt played in Liverpool FC’s modern history, and just how many goals he scored for us. It’s a story that started with the arrival of the Huddersfield Town manager and ex-Reds player Bill [...]
By Chris Rowland. So £12m sees the 23 year old Birmingham-born striker heading for Anfield – and his first reported comment is very promising: “Brendan Rodgers said he sees me here for a long time – and I also see myself here for a long time. I’ve not signed here to play for a couple [...]
By Chris Rowland. My umbilical cord connection to Liverpool FC, and through it the city, may have started on April 5th 1969. Speaking of umbilical cords (conceivably [!] the first time that phrase has ever opened a paragraph), it didn’t come from my parents. They were from Lichfield, Staffordshire. It didn’t come from my birthplace. That [...]
By Chris Rowland. Alexander Tate (‘Tattva’) wrote this piece on King Billy for the TTT Top 20 Players Poll, but Liddell so obviously merits a place in the Past Masters series that we have produced another. For Reds of a certain generation, Billy Liddell is still the greatest player ever to pull on the liver bird. [...]
By Chris Rowland. Just a brief fresh thread for this game, as the home leg’s almost broke under the sheer weight of – er, debate. Anzhi are relative newcomers on the European scene, helped enormously by the wealth of the region coming from oil reserves extracted in recent years. The club was bought by local billionaire Suleyman [...]
By Chris Rowland. Cast your mind back two years. To a court case in London, dramatically unfolding on Twitter. To new names like Lord Grabiner, Justice Floyd and John W Henry, as well as established ones like Martin Broughton, Christian Purslow, Tom Hicks and George Gillett. The new owners faced two dominant issues; the immediate one of rescuing the [...]
By Chris Rowland. Liverpool’s post-war title winners ((1946/7) featured some star names from the club’s all-time hall of fame – top striker Albert Stubbins, a certain Bob Paisley, and the incomparable Billy Liddell. But one of the side’s key players was something of an unsung hero – despite matching joint top scorer Albert Stubbins goal for [...]
A ‘From Where I Was Standing’ account of being at Hillsborough on April 15th 1989, by Chris Rowland. I could never forget the date anyway – April 15th is also my mum’s birthday, you see. Every April 15th, I’m torn. I like to call my mum and wish her happy birthday without sounding how I’m [...]
By Chris Rowland. Strikers always hog the limelight and the attention. Always have. They’re the singer/lead guitarist of the football band, whilst the others, the team’s rhythm section, chug away in the background, largely unnoticed (sorry Beez – my brother’s a bass player too!). The 20 top players in the recent TTT Poll (link) contained Dalglish, Rush, [...]
By Chris Rowland. Another full back – so far we’ve had a centre-half, a goalkeeper and two full backs – the old maxim that success is built on defence certainly seems to hold true in the club’s early successes. Forming probably the best full-back pairing in the club’s history with Ephraim Longworth at right back, they back-to-back [...]
By Chris Rowland. It was a tough act to follow. After all, Kevin Keegan was our hero, our talisman. Since he’d arrived we’d won three league titles, two UEFA Cups, an FA Cup against Newcastle when he scored two of the three goals and, most unforgettably of all, our first European Cup in 1977. But [...]
By Chris Rowland. When Shankly signed a gangly Skegness-born keeper from Scunthorpe United for £18,000 in 1967, there was no hint of the scale of what was to follow, and no inclination that Shanks’ signings from ‘unfashionable’ lower league clubs [that also included such as Emlyn Hughes (Blackpool), Kevin Keegan (also from Scunthorpe) and Phil [...]
By Chris Rowland. As the first Liverpool FC captain to get his hands on Ol’ Big Ears, Emlyn Hughes’ place in the club’s hall of fame should be secured for that alone. But he gave us much, much more than that unforgettable night in the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, and that song he gave us at the [...]
By Chris Rowland. After Elisha Scott, another biblical name joins the ranks of past Anfield greats, this time a prince of full backs who captained club and country. Both Eph – as he was known – Longworth and Elisha Scott in goal were instrumental in securing the club’s back-to-back title wins of 1921/2 and 1922/3. The two [...]
The second instalment of this summer’s LFC history lesson looks at the incomparable Northern Irish goalkeeper with the biblical name. Unarguably the best ‘keeper of his day, and arguably the best pre-World War 2, Elisha Scott may also be the best ‘keeper Liverpool F.C. ever had, though Ray Clemence may have something to say about [...]
He may not be a household name now, but without doubt Alex Raisbeck was the club’s first superstar, the Steven Gerrard of his era. He should forever be remembered by Reds’ fans. The first in a long and illustrious line of great Scots to grace Anfield, stretching through Billy Liddell to Ron Yeats and Ian St.John [...]
By Chris Rowland. So how many points should we have got this season? If results had matched performances and we got what we deserved from each game, I mean. Forgetting black swans and outliers, what difference would it have made? This post is for Subscribers only.
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