[FortressAnfield]

It is depressing (one of the Mancs in the office came in gloating on Monday), but I think most of the posts here are right. In other words, there are a load of reasons. Heysel kept us out of Europe for a year longer than the rest, and we (all English clubs, but we had a longer plan) struggled to get the best players. I think Hillsborough took far more out of Kenny than we'll ever know (maybe it changed him like Ged's heart problems seemed to change him: compare his pre-89 buys with the post-89 buys. Souness's autobiography makes the point that Kenny played with a lot of his players, and found it difficult to replace. Souness got rid of players far too quickly. I think a combination of circumstances hit us just as the Premier League (and new format Eurpean Cup - the CL) started, and by the time we were stabilising the Mancs had hoovered up so much talent and dosh that we were always playing catch-up. A Wenger could have sorted us out; Roy Evans couldn't.