Introduction (by Paul Tomkins)
With the summer promising to see me busy finishing writing and producing my new Liverpool FC book (and a second special-edition TTT book), I thought it would be good to have some kind of series to keep the site ticking over until the new season – especially as it seems that transfer stories will be thinner on the ground, given the strength of the squad and the lack of older players, or those on short contracts. There will be some ins and outs, of course, but nothing major, it seems – because now the improvement can be from growing as a team. (And two of the outs have already left.)
So, I came up with this idea, which I have handed to Chris Rowland, Andrew Beasley and Daniel Rhodes to flesh out, with the aid of our subscribers and contributors.
Football didn’t begin in 1992. But the Reds’ glory years up to 1990 are well documented, and so are some of the seasons since. However, how would you rank them, from 27 – the worst – to #1, the best?
At TTT Towers we (mostly Beez) played with a few numbers, and came up with something that felt close to matching our general impressions (but also with a few surprises). We’ve also used our Transfer Price Index figures to show how much the players cost in current day money, and to look at how relatively wealthy Liverpool was in each season in question; which was factored in to the list we produced.
Having scraped the bottom of the barrel with 1993/94 (here), we now turn our attention to the preceding campaign. It was little better, as you will see.
#26 – 1992/93
TTT Season Rating Score*: 0.95 (League 0.89, Cups 0.00, Finance 0.06).
Manager: Graeme Souness
Premier League: 59 points, finished 6th.
£XI rank: 2nd.
Europe: European Cup Winners Cup 2nd round.
FA Cup: 3rd round.
League Cup: 4th round.
Top scorer: Ian Rush, 22.
Final League Table:
| # | Team | M. | W | D | L | goals | Dif. | Pt. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Manchester United | 42 | 24 | 12 | 6 | 67:31 | 36 | 84 |
| 2 |  |
Aston Villa | 42 | 21 | 11 | 10 | 57:40 | 17 | 74 |
| 3 |  |
Norwich City | 42 | 21 | 9 | 12 | 61:65 | -4 | 72 |
| 4 |  |
Blackburn Rovers | 42 | 20 | 11 | 11 | 68:46 | 22 | 71 |
| 5 |  |
Queens Park Rangers | 42 | 17 | 12 | 13 | 63:55 | 8 | 63 |
| 6 |  |
Liverpool FC | 42 | 16 | 11 | 15 | 62:55 | 7 | 59 |
| 7 |  |
Sheffield Wednesday | 42 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 55:51 | 4 | 59 |
| 8 |  |
Tottenham Hotspur | 42 | 16 | 11 | 15 | 60:66 | -6 | 59 |
| 9 |  |
Manchester City | 42 | 15 | 12 | 15 | 56:51 | 5 | 57 |
| 10 |  |
Arsenal FC | 42 | 15 | 11 | 16 | 40:38 | 2 | 56 |
| 11 |  |
Chelsea FC | 42 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 51:54 | -3 | 56 |
| 12 |  |
Wimbledon FC | 42 | 14 | 12 | 16 | 56:55 | 1 | 54 |
| 13 |  |
Everton FC | 42 | 15 | 8 | 19 | 53:55 | -2 | 53 |
| 14 |  |
Sheffield United | 42 | 14 | 10 | 18 | 54:53 | 1 | 52 |
| 15 |  |
Coventry City | 42 | 13 | 13 | 16 | 52:57 | -5 | 52 |
| 16 |  |
Ipswich Town | 42 | 12 | 16 | 14 | 50:55 | -5 | 52 |
| 17 |  |
Leeds United | 42 | 12 | 15 | 15 | 57:62 | -5 | 51 |
| 18 |  |
Southampton FC | 42 | 13 | 11 | 18 | 54:61 | -7 | 50 |
| 19 |  |
Oldham Athletic | 42 | 13 | 10 | 19 | 63:74 | -11 | 49 |
| 20 |  |
Crystal Palace | 42 | 11 | 16 | 15 | 48:61 | -13 | 49 |
| 21 |  |
Middlesbrough FC | 42 | 11 | 11 | 20 | 54:75 | -21 | 44 |
| 22 |  |
Nottingham Forest | 42 | 10 | 10 | 22 | 41:62 | -21 | 40 |
Transfers In:
| Player | Current Money Purchase Price | Age @ transfer |
| Stewart P | £62,798,251 | 27 |
| James D | £27,303,587 | 21 |
| Piechnik T | £13,651,794 | 29 |
| Bjornebye S | £13,651,794 | 22 |
Transfers Out:
| Player | Sales CTPP |
| Houghton R | N/A |
| Venison B | N/A |
| Saunders D | N/A |
Player stats for the season
| Player | Starts | Sub Apps | Goals |
| Ian Rush | 41 | 1 | 22 |
| David Burrows | 39 | 1 | 2 |
| Steve Nicol | 39 | 0 | |
| Jamie Redknapp | 38 | 2 | 3 |
| Mark Wright | 38 | 3 | 4 |
| Don Hutchison | 36 | 6 | 10 |
| Rob Jones | 36 | 1 | |
| Steve McManaman | 36 | 4 | 7 |
| Mark Walters | 36 | 8 | 13 |
| Mike Marsh | 35 | 6 | 4 |
| David James | 31 | 0 | |
| John Barnes | 30 | 1 | 5 |
| Paul Stewart | 28 | 3 | 3 |
| Torben Piechnik | 22 | 1 | |
| Ronny Rosenthal | 20 | 16 | 7 |
| Ronnie Whelan | 18 | 0 | 1 |
| Mike Hooper | 14 | 1 | |
| Stig Inge Bjornebye | 13 | 0 | |
| Jan Molby | 11 | 2 | 3 |
| Michael Thomas | 11 | 2 | 1 |
| Bruce Grobbelaar | 10 | 0 | |
| Steve Harkness | 10 | 2 | |
| Dean Saunders | 7 | 0 | 2 |
| Nick Tanner | 5 | 5 | |
| Phil Charnock | 1 | 1 | |
| Istvan Kozma | 0 | 3 |
Season summary
So our second-worst PL season ever preceded the worst, by one season! If it felt bad at the time, there was a reason why. Of course being so soon after the last league title and all that went before it, we were still existing on the starlight from a dying star, we just didn’t realise it yet. Now I’d like to think of it as Man Utd syndrome – as they undoubtedly did about us at the time, with their inexorable rise and extended dynasty corresponding almost freakishly with our own exit from centre stage.
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