Wednesday, 21 February 2007

Lots of success followed by a lot of relative failure

So just who is England's most successful football club? For those readers in their twenties, the answer might surprise you because contrary to widely perceived opinion it's not the Red Devils (as a Liverpool supporter, it's not proper for their name to feature on the page - like oil and water, we don't mix) despite their monopoly on success during the 90s. Another apocryphal perception is that Michael Jordan is the NBAs top scorer. His Airness may be the best ever player in the NBA, but the distinction of NBA top scorer goes to........(drum roll please), Kareem Abdul Jabar. Infact, Michael Jordan's is only third in the NBA scoring charts. Second place goes to Karl "the Mailman" Malone (what can I say, I LOVE and KNOW my sports!). Anyway, as I was saying, the club that has won 18 league titles, 5 European Cups, 7 FA cups 7 league cups and 3 UEFA cups is........(another drum roll) Liverpool FC. (eat your heart out Chelski!!)

I have supported Liverpool for 27 years and finally made my pilgrimage to Anfield in 2002 - it was akin to a religious experience (well as I've never had one of those, I'm speculating here) as we walked around the museum that houses Liverpool's not inconsiderable trophy haul. We toured the dressing rooms and touched the Liverpool shield that all Liverpool players touch before they walk out on to the pitch. The pitch is immaculate, worthy of a club with such an illustrious pedigree - we weren't allowed on it, so we sat in the home dugout and lost ourselves in the moment.

The greatest irony is that Liverpool's success was borne out of their failure to ground share with Liverpool's other team (again, for obvious reasons, that name can't appear on this page).


****STOP THE PRESS - Barca are on the ropes, having taken a series of punishing body shots, the knockout punch will duly be delivered at Anfield****
****You read it here first, Liverpool to end Barca's reign as European Champions****

No comments: