Liverpool

Texto por Denise Freitas and Pedro Silveira

4/5

It all began at Everton

The club was established in 1892, when a disagreement between John Houlding and the other Everton directors, regarding the club’s future, led to a division inside the “blues”, which ended with Everton moving to Goodison Park, breaking all the connections with Anfield Road and leaving Houlding behind, with an empty stadium.

Therefore, with a stadium but without a team, Houlding was not left with many solutions. After talks with friends and players, he found the perfect way out: to found a new team whose home was the Anfield Road stadium. And that was how Liverpool Football Club was created.

The Reds were born, but wearing blue

Their first match was played on September 1, with a comprehensive victory over Rotherham Town (7-1), in which Liverpool curiously did not name any English players in their squad, but fielded a side from the other United Kingdom nations instead, as they became the first English team to play without English players.

The founder John Houlding and the Liverpool squad, in one of the first ever images of the history of the club.

Their first victories and the Houlding fortune led the club to request for a direct entrance to the Premier League, but such a suggestion was refused outright by the FA officials, forcing the Reds to play in the Lancashire league, a regional championship that took place in the city of ##Liverpool.

In the first game of the Lancashire competition, Liverpool hammered their opponents, 8-0, with an exclusively Scottish starting XI.

After beating Everton by 1-0, in the first ever Merseyside derby, Liverpool managed to conquer the Lancashire league title and, together with Woolwich Arsenal, they were allowed to join the English League. Therefore, the following season, they took part in the second Division, recording an unbeaten run throughout the entire term.

Tom Watson and, finally, the Reds

With the arrival of manager Tom Watson, the Anfield Road side abandoned their first blue kit, switching to a red shirt, instead, as they quickly gained the Reds nickname.

With the new century came the first Premier League title, which was repeated five years later, in 1906, when the southern top of the Anfield stadium was named the Kop.

In 1914, months before the beginning of the World War I, Liverpool played in their first FA Cup final, against Burnley at the Crystal Palace, in London, which was honoured with the presence of the Royal family.

The two Great Wars

Unfortunately, for the Reds, the FA Cup was handed to Burnley by King George V, as they won the final 1-0. The bad news continued the following season, when the club saw four of their players being expelled from the competition for being part of a gambling scandal.

Liverpool entered a less prolific stage, as they fell to the second league, at the end of the Great World War. Furthermore, the 20’s and the 30’s marked an even more shadowed period for the Anfield Road side.

The statue of Bill Shankly, one of Liverpool's heroes and symbolic manager of the team

With the Second World War, British football was suspended, with no games and no championships being disputed, and Liverpool only returned to winning titles after the war, when they won the domestic league in 1947, and reached the FA Cup final, in 1950, being beaten, once again, but this time by Arsenal at Wembley, 0-2.

Bill Shankly’s arrival

But the history of Liverpool changed dramatically in December 1959, when Bill Shankly took over command of the Reds.

Shankly reunited some special powers, releasing 24 players at once, and keeping just Roger Hunt and defender Gerry Byrne, who were joined by their Scottish compatriots Ian Saint John and Ron Yeats.

The success was immediate and the team won the Second division championship, ascending back to the Premier League, and from then on, they never finished below eighth-place in the table.

At the beginning of the 1960’s, Liverpool was the most popular team, on and off the pitch, especially since four boys from the city were amazing England and the entire world with their songs: John, Paul, George and Ringo: the Beatles, with whom Liverpool still share the status of ex-libris of the city.

At the peak of the Beatlemania, the Reds conquer Britain

In 1964, when their compatriots topped the charts, on the other side of the Atlantic, the Reds won the league title, once again, and began to wear the full red kit.

The following year, even though they failed to win the league title, Liverpool won the FA Cup, for the first time, and entered the Champions Cup competition, where they went as far as the semi-finals, beaten by eventual winners Inter Milan.

Next Stop: Europe

In the year when England was the hosting country of the World Cup, 1966, and in which the Anfield was not chosen as one of the scenarios of the great competition, unlike Everton's Goodison Park, the Reds amazed in Europe, once again, reaching the Supercup finals, which was won by Dortmund.

With the end of the 1960's Shankly brought in fresh faces to the side, including Emlyn Hughes, John Toshack and Kevin Keegan, and the club continued to progress, winning the league title, the UEFA Cup in 1973 and the FA Cup in 1974.

Bob Paisley, Shankly's assistant manager, became the main coach of the team at the beginning of the 1974-75 season.

The Paisley era, or the glory years

Bruce David Grobbelaar, Zimbabwe international originally from South Africa, wore the Liverpool shirt for 14 seasons.

The Paisley era would be the most brilliant period of the history of Liverpool, during his nine years in command of the team, the club became the biggest force both in England and in Europe.

During his nine seasons in charge the Reds won an incredible 18 trophies including six top flight titles, three European Cups and one UEFA Cup, as Paisley became one of the most decorated coaches of all time.

Keegan, Dalglish, Souness, Rush, Whelan, Neal, Lee, Clemence, the Kennedy brothers, all turned Liverpool into an European colossus, and their historic supremacy was only surpassed by Real Madrid's achievements, at the end of the 1950's, as well as AC Milan's golden era at the beginning of the 1990's.

The end of the European dream and the Heysel tragedy

In 1984, Joe Fagan replaced Paisley and took charge of the team, with the club continuing to add victories and achievements, becoming the League and Euroepan champions (for the fourth time in their history.)

One year later, Liverpool won the First Division title, but lost the European Cup to Juventus. And that day, in Brussels, the history of the club lived their saddest hour in their history (up to that point), when the supporters provoked a disaster by invading the Italian fans sections of the ground, which resulted in 39 deaths.

Kenny Dalglish was the man who took over the command at Anfield Road, from 1985 to 1991, and during that time the Reds won nine more titles, continuing their English supremacy. But the punishment imposed by UEFA to Liverpool and other English teams kept the team away from all European competitions, punishing the whole of English football to control the phenomenon of Hooliganism.

Hillsborough: the saddest hour

On April 15, 1989, at Hillsborough, Sheffield, before the semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forrest, a new tragedy plagued the name of the Reds team, when the fans, who were outside the stadium flooded into the ground leading to the deaths of 96 fans. The debate has continued to rage over what truly happened that day with the now famous "Justice for the 96" group fighting for the Club to have its's name cleared of blame.

This was a turning point in English football and the beginning of the end of Liverpool's supremacy, as the following year, after they won their 18th title, they began their long trophy drought.

Souness and Roy Evans were the team's following coaches, who between 1991 and 1998 only managed to conquer one FA Cup and one League Cup.

Gerard Houllier, on the other hand, managed to recover some prestige to Liverpool, winning six trophies, but the league title was still just a mirage.

Houllier and Benitez and the return of European glory

Steven Gerrard, the current captain who is already a symbol for Liverpool in the 21st century.

In 2001, the conquer of the UEFA Cup, in a historic 5-4 victory over Spanish side Alavés, relaunched Liverpool in Europe, but the greatest feat happened in Istanbul, where the Anfield side won the Champions League, against AC Milan, overturning a three goal first half lead.

Managed by Benitez, who had arrived at the team the previous year, Liverpool won the final on penalties, after the match finished 3-3 after 90 minutes and extra-time.

After Istanbul, the Spanish man still led the team to achieve three more titles, and reach the Champions League final, against AC Milan, once again, but this time his side lost in a 2-1 defeat.

Without winning the Premier League title, which was the club's priority, Benitez ended up being replaced by Roy Hodgson, but he was also unable to lead the team back to the glory, becoming the first Liverpool manager, since the Second World War to abandon the the team without winning one single trophy.

Brendan Rodgers replaced Hodgson and has completed his first full season at the club leading the club to a seventh placed finish two points behind rivals Everton who finished above Liverpool for two consecutive seasons.

This season saw Jamie Carragher hang up his boots after playing over 700 games for the club with only Ian Callaghan playing more.

O adjunto de Shankly, Bob Pasley, tornou-se treinador principal no inicio da época 1974/75.

A era de Pasley seria a mais brilhante da história do Liverpool. Durante os nove anos do seu reinado, o clube tornou-se na maior potência da Inglaterra e do Continente.

Durante nove épocas, os vermelhos conquistaram dezoito troféus, transformando Pasley num dos mais bem-sucedidos treinadores de um clube inglês de todos os tempos...

Contudo na primeira época o Liverpool não conquistou nada, naquela que seria a exceção à regra durante o reinado de Pasley.

Seis Ligas Inglesas, três Taças dos Campeões, uma Taça UEFA, e a cada época, as vitrinas de Anfield brilhavam ainda mais com cada nova conquista.

Keegan, Dalglish, Souness, Rush, Whelan, Neal, Lee, Clemence, os irmãos Kennedy transformaram o Liverpool num colosso europeu, e o domínio do Liverpool só tem rival com o domínio do Real Madrid no fim dos anos 50 e com o Milão no inicio da década de 90.

Em 1984, Joe Fagan substituía o retirado Pasley, ascendendo a treinador oficial e o clube continuou a conquistar vitórias, sagrando-se campeão inglês e europeu.

Um ano mais tarde voltou a conquistar a Liga, mas a Taça dos Campeões foi perdida para a Juventus.

E nesse fim de tarde em Bruxelas, a história do Liverpool viveria a sua hora mais triste.

Os seus hooligans provocaram um desastre invadindo a bancada onde estavam os adeptos italianos provocando 39 mortes, que transformaram o Heysel num sinónimo de mortandade...