Reds on the road to recovery

Their weekend defeat at Chelsea is merely a blip on an otherwise upward graph, and it came only after a lengthy unbeaten spell. Houllier took control of Liverpool last season after a curious power-sharing arrangement with Roy Evans that obviously didn’t work out. He had a job on his hands: Restoring the legacy of arguably the most successful British club. To understand what he was up against, and to appreciate how much he has achieved, a little background reading is recommended.

The Liverpool era began in the sixties, under the legendary Bill Shankly (the man who gave us the unforgettable `football isn’t just a matter of life and death’.) `Shanks’ built a great team, and a near-iconic status for himself, but retired when the team were on the cusp of greatness.

His successor, Bob Paisley, masterminded Liverpool’s phenomenal streak in the late 70s and early 80s: They won the old First Division five-odd times and — the stamp of class — the Europen Cup three times. The team had stars: Kenny Dalglish, Alan Hansen, Ian Rush, Bruce Grobbelaar — but, more importantly, a spirit that helped them play for each other and to never, ever, lay down and die.

When Paisley retired, the mantle passed on to Dalglish; in his first season as coach, the club won the League and FA Cup. Eventually, their domination faded, set in motion by a last-minute from Michael Thomas that gave Arsenal the league title, on goal difference, in the last match of the 1988-89 season. That was the last time Liverpool won the league.

Now, it seems, they are ready to roll again. The team is not short of talent — they have Owen, Fowler, Hyppia, Camara — and has that same essentially Liverpool team spirit. It hasn’t come easy to Houllier, but it seems the wholesale changes he effected at the start of this season are working for him.

Can they end Man United’s domination? They would have the support of all Merseyside, and possible of all non-United fans, in that exercise but it would take a tad more than that. With Houllier at the helm, though, the Kop should soon have something to sing about.

KEANE, ALL RIGHT!: Better late than never for Roy Keane. The feisty Irishman has won both the Football Writers’ Footballer of the Year and the PFA Player of the Year awards. He should have won both last year, when he propelled, in his inimitable style, Manchester United to the Treble; he lost out, inexplicably, to Tottenham’s David Ginola.

Keane is Ferguson’s alter ego on the field, someone who shares fully his boss’s ideals of playing football with heart and soul. This has been a less successful year for the club than the last, but to Keano goes the credit of motivating his fellow players match after match. He’s now at Old Trafford till the end of his career, and he’s even being spoken of as a possible successor to Ferguson.

Jayaditya Gupta can be contacted at: joygupta@express2.indexp.co.in