Forget all the hype about this summer’s transfer saga with Gareth Barry, forget the newspaper stories about the relationship between the manager and the owners and forget about that performance in Liege in midweek – I honestly believe this could be Liverpool’s year.
The manager, Rafa Benitez, arrived in England at the same time as I did and is beginning his fifth year at the club. I always said that my Chelsea team would not be at their best until I had five years with them, and the same should be true at Liverpool. It has been the same group of players and the same management structure for the past four years. Weaknesses are exposed in that time frame and dealt with.
Of course, Liverpool supporters have enjoyed a lot of success in recent years – they won the Champions League. But, as all football supporters know, a championship-winning side is so very different from one that can win the Champions League. Teams are separated in finals and semi-finals by details – details such as disputed goals and penalties. To win a championship is about more than details.
It is impossible to win the championship without a world-class goalkeeper and a world-class striker – and Liverpool have both. Last season, when the club bought Fernando Torres, the spine of the team was completed: Pepe Reina, Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard and Torres.
Reina underlined his importance to the team again on Wednesday night with his penalty save against Liege – and I know from first-hand experience that his penalty saves are no flukes – while I think everyone knows the respect I have for Gerrard. It just seems incredible to me that he has gone this long without winning a league title.
As for Torres? Benitez should take enormous credit for not only bringing Spain’s superstar to Anfield, but making him a better player, too. You saw him grow last season and at Euro 2008. He will score at least 20 goals again. With Robbie Keane at his side, maybe he can even break 30 in the league.
On top of all of that, Liverpool also have Anfield on their side – and they must use that to their advantage soon to win a title before they move grounds. It is an incredible stadium – I have so many emotional memories of taking my Chelsea team there and I quickly learnt what a tough, tough ground it is to visit. My happiest memory was a 4-1 league win there in 2005. It was the season after our first Champions League semi-final defeat there. My team were fantastic that day.
Of course, Benitez, being in his fifth year, hardly compares with Arsene Wenger in his 12th at Arsenal or Sir Alex Ferguson in his 22nd at Manchester United – that is serious continuity. And of course they will be serious challengers for the title again. People think that these two managers may have some problems this season because of a couple of player issues – but I cannot see the problem.
Yes, Arsenal have lost a couple of very important players again, but Wenger knows how to cope with that. He has had to deal with losing Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry in recent seasons and he has always rebuilt his team with youth, and they play in a very attractive way. Now they have lost Mathieu Flamini, who I look forward to coming up against in Serie A this season. But Wenger has brought in Samir Nasri, who can be a big star this season. People expected a lot from him at Euro 2008, but France were so poor that it was difficult for him.
I always tell my clubs that we do not buy players on the back of one tournament because a player who is special for 15 days is not necessarily going to be the same over a long league season – but Wenger had Nasri in his sights well before the tournament and knows a lot more than most about how special he can be. We must also wait until Aug 31 to see what else Arsenal will do. You never know what secrets clubs have in their offices.
One story that has not been so secret this summer has been that Real Madrid wanted to buy Cristiano Ronaldo. All along I thought that if there is one man in football who is strong enough and has the right mentality to deal with it and keep the player, it is Sir Alex Ferguson. His experience, knowledge and power at his club meant it was never going to be a problem. So long as the player returns from injury with the same motivation for the club and can produce something like the form he showed last season, then any supporters who are thinking of giving him a hard time will not. It is as simple as that. Sir Alex knows what he is doing and they must trust that.
Of course, my battles with Sir Alex are one of the things that I am going to miss the most. For three years it was just the two of us challenging for honours, and for two of those seasons my team were just too strong in the league. We beat record after record, were unbeatable at home and we also did so many important things, like scoring lots of our goals in the first five minutes of games.
But Sir Alex was able to raise his game and he rebuilt his team with the right blend of youth and experience to get back to the very top. I would like to think that perhaps we had something to do with that. He came back to win consecutive titles and then the Champions League last season. Yes, they needed penalties to win the final against Chelsea, but they had already got past Barcelona, which was a great achievement. I like Sir Alex because even if there was a word or a little fight before the game, then afterwards everything was over.
I see that Chelsea are at home against Portsmouth, which is very interesting for me – I have not followed Phil Scolari’s pre-season at all, but I am sure he is feeling no more pressure with his new club than he did taking Portugal or Brazil into major international tournaments.
But he will find it a difficult opening game against Harry Redknapp’s side.
Harry is a manager I like very much – he teaches his players so much more than just football. I bought Sulley Muntari from Portsmouth to Inter Milan this summer and when he spoke about Harry to me he used the phrase “father figure”. That is exactly what I think Harry is – and how I think a good manager should be. His teams always play with a smile on their faces and that is all down to him. He sees the bigger picture and in that respect he reminds me a little of Sir Bobby Robson.
Sir Bobby has been a winner all his life because he could see the bigger picture. I had the great honour of working with him at Barcelona and he would speak a lot about the pressures of his job as England manager. I really didn’t know what he was talking about until I arrived in England. I realised then just how difficult it must have been to be the national team manager for eight years.
To put up with all that he put up with, he deserved to take England to a World Cup final. But he didn’t have that bit of luck. Losing on penalties in a World Cup semi-final, a little like losing on penalties in a Champions League semi-final, these are details that can make a difference to a career. But Sir Bobby had a beautiful career.
The manager, Rafa Benitez, arrived in England at the same time as I did and is beginning his fifth year at the club. I always said that my Chelsea team would not be at their best until I had five years with them, and the same should be true at Liverpool. It has been the same group of players and the same management structure for the past four years. Weaknesses are exposed in that time frame and dealt with.
Of course, Liverpool supporters have enjoyed a lot of success in recent years – they won the Champions League. But, as all football supporters know, a championship-winning side is so very different from one that can win the Champions League. Teams are separated in finals and semi-finals by details – details such as disputed goals and penalties. To win a championship is about more than details.
It is impossible to win the championship without a world-class goalkeeper and a world-class striker – and Liverpool have both. Last season, when the club bought Fernando Torres, the spine of the team was completed: Pepe Reina, Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard and Torres.
Reina underlined his importance to the team again on Wednesday night with his penalty save against Liege – and I know from first-hand experience that his penalty saves are no flukes – while I think everyone knows the respect I have for Gerrard. It just seems incredible to me that he has gone this long without winning a league title.
As for Torres? Benitez should take enormous credit for not only bringing Spain’s superstar to Anfield, but making him a better player, too. You saw him grow last season and at Euro 2008. He will score at least 20 goals again. With Robbie Keane at his side, maybe he can even break 30 in the league.
On top of all of that, Liverpool also have Anfield on their side – and they must use that to their advantage soon to win a title before they move grounds. It is an incredible stadium – I have so many emotional memories of taking my Chelsea team there and I quickly learnt what a tough, tough ground it is to visit. My happiest memory was a 4-1 league win there in 2005. It was the season after our first Champions League semi-final defeat there. My team were fantastic that day.
Of course, Benitez, being in his fifth year, hardly compares with Arsene Wenger in his 12th at Arsenal or Sir Alex Ferguson in his 22nd at Manchester United – that is serious continuity. And of course they will be serious challengers for the title again. People think that these two managers may have some problems this season because of a couple of player issues – but I cannot see the problem.
Yes, Arsenal have lost a couple of very important players again, but Wenger knows how to cope with that. He has had to deal with losing Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry in recent seasons and he has always rebuilt his team with youth, and they play in a very attractive way. Now they have lost Mathieu Flamini, who I look forward to coming up against in Serie A this season. But Wenger has brought in Samir Nasri, who can be a big star this season. People expected a lot from him at Euro 2008, but France were so poor that it was difficult for him.
I always tell my clubs that we do not buy players on the back of one tournament because a player who is special for 15 days is not necessarily going to be the same over a long league season – but Wenger had Nasri in his sights well before the tournament and knows a lot more than most about how special he can be. We must also wait until Aug 31 to see what else Arsenal will do. You never know what secrets clubs have in their offices.
One story that has not been so secret this summer has been that Real Madrid wanted to buy Cristiano Ronaldo. All along I thought that if there is one man in football who is strong enough and has the right mentality to deal with it and keep the player, it is Sir Alex Ferguson. His experience, knowledge and power at his club meant it was never going to be a problem. So long as the player returns from injury with the same motivation for the club and can produce something like the form he showed last season, then any supporters who are thinking of giving him a hard time will not. It is as simple as that. Sir Alex knows what he is doing and they must trust that.
Of course, my battles with Sir Alex are one of the things that I am going to miss the most. For three years it was just the two of us challenging for honours, and for two of those seasons my team were just too strong in the league. We beat record after record, were unbeatable at home and we also did so many important things, like scoring lots of our goals in the first five minutes of games.
But Sir Alex was able to raise his game and he rebuilt his team with the right blend of youth and experience to get back to the very top. I would like to think that perhaps we had something to do with that. He came back to win consecutive titles and then the Champions League last season. Yes, they needed penalties to win the final against Chelsea, but they had already got past Barcelona, which was a great achievement. I like Sir Alex because even if there was a word or a little fight before the game, then afterwards everything was over.
I see that Chelsea are at home against Portsmouth, which is very interesting for me – I have not followed Phil Scolari’s pre-season at all, but I am sure he is feeling no more pressure with his new club than he did taking Portugal or Brazil into major international tournaments.
But he will find it a difficult opening game against Harry Redknapp’s side.
Harry is a manager I like very much – he teaches his players so much more than just football. I bought Sulley Muntari from Portsmouth to Inter Milan this summer and when he spoke about Harry to me he used the phrase “father figure”. That is exactly what I think Harry is – and how I think a good manager should be. His teams always play with a smile on their faces and that is all down to him. He sees the bigger picture and in that respect he reminds me a little of Sir Bobby Robson.
Sir Bobby has been a winner all his life because he could see the bigger picture. I had the great honour of working with him at Barcelona and he would speak a lot about the pressures of his job as England manager. I really didn’t know what he was talking about until I arrived in England. I realised then just how difficult it must have been to be the national team manager for eight years.
To put up with all that he put up with, he deserved to take England to a World Cup final. But he didn’t have that bit of luck. Losing on penalties in a World Cup semi-final, a little like losing on penalties in a Champions League semi-final, these are details that can make a difference to a career. But Sir Bobby had a beautiful career.
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