We've been here before - by John Brennan

I was out Christmas shopping last week (yes, I do get into the festive spirit, despite my Grinch-like tendencies – hey, you try living in France for 12 years) and I bought a “1000 dot-to-dot” book (call it a mid-life crisis). Yesterday evening, as I started the first of the cityscape puzzles, I thought of Liverpool. Not because of the different cityscapes I’m bound to “draw” and their relation to the Club, (even though two of the first three, namely “Amsterdam” and “Barcelona” reminded me of...Little L...Little Lu...Little Lui...nah, still can’t write it...) but because of the distance we have to travel to complete the puzzle.

I hadn’t really thought about the scale of the job facing Klopp (oh, calling him by his surname already, are we?) in post-Roy terms until I read a piece by Steven Kelly in his ‘Examiner’ column and then listened to Carragher on the Monday night after the Watford abomination. I was no doubt partially sucked in by the “poetry in motion” against City, Chelsea and Southampton, games that rather than being the norm, now seem more like a blip in a sea of mediocrity, a classic case of being able to and – more importantly – wanting to turn it on for the big day. There I was, after years of false dawns, finally thinking that we were on to something with this guy. I think we might still be, but we’re just going to have to wait a while and do it with at least a dozen players who haven’t even arrived yet.

Klopp should essentially get a free pass for the next two years. Much the same as GH did when he came in and we were in transition (that would be GH’s first “transition period” – do they all get two of those?). Except that 1998 is a lot different to 2015. Football is different. Fans are different. The owners are different, n’est-ce pas, Mister Honorary Life President? And so it boils down to two things which go hand in hand: patience and faith. If faith in GH was, by necessity, blind (who knew that much about him when he arrived?), our faith in Klopp can be based on a pretty impressive domestic (two League titles) and European record. Our ability to attract big-name coaches (GH, Rafa, Klopp) has been pretty decent in the last 20 years and even the exception to that (Rodgers) nearly delivered. 

So, how comparable are the two situations? Well, when GH arrived in the summer of 1998, we had finished 4^th, 3^rd, 4^th and 3^rd in Roy’s four full seasons. That was deemed unsatisfactory (imagine how such consistency would be rewarded nowadays?!) and Roy paid with his job. Well, not quite. The Board just brought in some help. For such a great Club servant, it was supposed to be a dignified way of keeping him on, but it could never have worked. So the parenthesis from the end of the 1997-1998 season to November 1998 just meant lost time, with “re-building” put back a few months. 

Given the current owners’ mercilessness with the Club’s greatest ever servant, Kenny, it’s amazing to consider now that they didn’t make their move last May, after the Stoke defeat (particularly) and last season’s performances (generally). The minds boggles as to what our 1998 joint managers “solution” would have thrown up (literally). Joint press conferences with Brendan and Klopp. Laurel and Hardy. Morecambe and Wise. “Character” with Gegenpressing! Impassive touchline demeanour set off by Teutonic cheerleading. You get the picture. It would have been entertaining, which, in fairness, would be a change from what we’re used to on the pitch. So, again, the Board’s hesitancy has cost us time. In L4, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

But we’ve got our man now. Rodgers was sacked after 8 games, Roy after 12. But 8 games in, Roy’s team had 12 points, like Brendan’s. Eerie. What about the squads both inherited? Well, GH changed things, but it was a slow enough process...only two players left during his first season, McAteer and Harkness. Oh Roy was castigated, but check out the team photo in the summer of 1998 and you’ll see Carragher, Fowler, Owen, McManaman, Murphy, Berger... some serious raw materials with which to work. Granted, there was a stack of deadwood – Staunton, Riedle, Ince, the Norwegian trio, McAteer and Babb – and that’s where GH’s true worth came to the fore. You can’t win anything with 5 or 6 good players and that season’s finishing position (7^th) and points total (54) was nothing unexpected. If we break 60 this season, it will be an achievement. 

One of the big differences between the summer of 1998 and that of 2015 was the transfer dealings...We only got one Song (literally) that year while this year we gave Brendan, a man who the Board had surely considered firing, £67,300,000...VIDIPRINTER ALERT (sixty-seven million three hundred thousand pounds). It’s too early to judge these signings (although Klopp seems pretty decided on Benteke) but that’s not the point: the previous manager should not have been backed so heavily this summer. 

GH’s first season, then, in 1998-1999 was much like Klopp’s, both taking charge ten or so games into the season. And using the season to assess their squad. GH quickly understood (and I imagine this is the stage Klopp is at now) that any professional relationship is built on one thing: trust. And he couldn’t trust what he had. Why don’t we trust people? Because they cheat us. Just like some of this bunch we have will do time and again, like against Stoke and Watford. It’s Klopp’s duty to see who they are and get rid. His success or failure will depend on him doing it as effectively as GH.

Check out that 1999-2000 team photo and you see a whole new era emerging. GH’s policy was twofold: get in trustworthy players but, more importantly, get rid of the frauds. Hence James, Ince, Kvarme, Leonhardsen and Dundee, amongst others, were shown the door. And Westerveld, Hyypia, Henchoz, Hamman, Vladi and Heskey were brought in. These players, added to what was already there – Robbie, Gerrard, Carragher, Owen, Danny – would form the spine of teams which would go on to win League Cups, FA Cups, a UEFA Cup and a European Cup! 

Look where GH strengthened – new keeper, two new centre-halves, holding midfielder, creative player and strong centre-forward. The similarities with today are striking: apart from the creative player (Coutinho) and the centre-forward (if Sturridge can stay fit), we need a complete change of thinking down the spine of the team. Do you trust our keeper? Our centre-halves? Our midfield? I don’t. I texted a mate after Watford and said to him, “Barnes and Souness in the studio. Something I'd like to change in the sentence.” That kind of performance should never happen. It’s insulting and is a sign of a deep malaise within the squad, akin to 1998 where the players looked like they didn’t care.

The trick for Klopp is to find pearls like Sami, Steph and Didi and to keep them on the field. Sami played 38 games that season, Steph and Didi 29 and 28 respectively. In the former years, we relied on GH’s knowledge of the European market and we have to hope that Klopp’s got a few tricks up his sleeve. We’ve been buying poor players for 25 years and as long as that continues, things won’t change. Klopp needs to find the new Sami and Steph, the new Hamman. What he doesn’t have (through no fault of his own) are those once-in-a-generation homegrown players like Gerrard, Carra, Robbie and Owen. And that’s where this whole thing could fall down...

In GH’s first full season, then, we finished fourth on 67 points, the defeat at Bradford on the last day ironically paving the way for UEFA Cup football and one of our greatest seasons in recent times. The re-building (and destruction!) of the summer of 1999 would continue at the end of the season. Out went Bjornebye, Babb, Matteo, Little Thommo followed by Friedel, Song, Staunton, Mad Erik and Titi, amongst others, early in the season. In came the likes of Gary Mac, Markus, Barmby (“The Six Worst Words”), all of whom would contribute greatly – along with the previous summer’s signings – to that fantastic period from February to May 2001.

Despite the numerous potential similarities, there is one major difference that worries me – our place in the manager’s “career plan”. When GH arrived, he was 51, Klopp is 48. But Houllier had “history” with us, having worked in Liverpool and probably saw us as the pinnacle of his career, even having managed his national team beforehand. I’m not sure this is Klopp’s mindset. He’s young, he’s (too?) media-friendly and he’s likely to be coveted by Europe’s top brass. If he’s in it for the long haul (5 years or more), then we have a chance. But if he sees us as a stepping-stone to bigger things, then a long period in the wilderness awaits. Cash, for so long, the difference between the best and the rest, is now trickling down.

There are no longer any “have-nots”, just “haves”. Clubs which shouldn’t be mentioned in the same breath as ours – Palace, Spurs, Leicester, etc. – are catching us and even passing us out. We’ll have 10000 new seats next year. Why should the supporters turn up if the players don’t?

Happy New Year.

PS, I finished the puzzle...

John Brennan