As the final whistle blew at Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon, it was not coincidence that Gary Neville and Wayne Rooney were the first to jump off the bench to jump on the backs of their team-mates. The two team-mates were born ten years apart, in 1975 and 1985, but, growing up as rabid supporters of Manchester United and Everton respectively, they longed for this day, the day that every Liverpool supporter had come to dread.
They still have their five European Cups to United’s three — it might well be 5-4 by a week on Wednesday — but, when news reached Liverpool’s supporters on Saturday that their proud record of 18 league titles had finally been equalled by their fiercest rivals, it was if an almighty tremor had gone through their world.
A season that brought their most convincing title challenge of the Premier League era has ended with Liverpool joined on English football’s pedestal and the concern now is that, unless they can overcome the odds next season, they are in danger of being left behind by United as the battle for the nineteenth title gets under way. Perhaps it is why Jamie Carragher’s emotions were running so high yesterday, as he clashed with Álvaro Arbeloa, his team-mate, in the closing stages of a largely routine 2-0 victory over West Bromwich Albion. Perhaps it is why Rafael Benítez has been highlighting the poverty gap and the desperate need to build a new stadium that will allow Liverpool to compete financially with the rivals.
This was a moment that a Liverpool shareholder foretold during a testy annual meeting at Anfield almost a decade ago, daring to state the unspoken truth that United, having trailed by 18 titles to seven until 1993, were on course to catch up by the end of this decade.
Some have ventured in recent days that Benítez, having spent heavily since his arrival at Anfield in 2004 and having bemoaned the absences of Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres for large chunks of this season, has only himself to blame for Liverpool’s failure to widen the gap, in title terms, on United. It is a lazy assessment that ignores the fact that Benítez, like Ferguson when he arrived at Old Trafford in 1986, inherited a lousy squad that he has improved year by year.
Benítez has spent heavily in recent years, often with mixed results, but so has Ferguson. United’s latest success has had rather less to do with those players bought in the past two years — Dimitar Berbatov, Anderson, Nani, Owen Hargreaves, Carlos Tévez, signed at a projected outlay of almost £100 million — than previous signings, such as Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick, Patrice Evra, Nemanja Vidic, Cristiano Ronaldo and Rooney, and those who were brought through the ranks, such as Neville, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, John O’Shea and Darren Fletcher.
The same might easily be said of Liverpool this season. They have been far better served by their established players than by last summer’s intake — Andrea Dossena, Albert Riera or Robbie Keane (remember him?) — none of whom remotely threatened to be the elusive last piece in the Anfield jigsaw. When one of Benítez’s signings does not cut the mustard, such as Keane, he gets rid, often with indecent haste. Ferguson, faced with the same situation, as he may be with Berbatov as well as the disappointing Nani, indulges his player for as long as possible, partly because it is in his nature and partly because he can afford to.
Benítez will revive his bid to sign Gareth Barry from Aston Villa in the coming weeks — surely he will not make the mistake of selling Xabi Alonso, who has been arguably his most impressive performer this season — and he will also look to sign a central defender, but far more intriguing is his bid to capture Tévez from United or, to be more precise, from the companies that own the Argentina forward’s economic rights.
Tévez would give Liverpool a little of what they have been missing — a quality centre forward who would ease the goalscoring burden on Torres — but he would also bring a much-needed sense of devilment. It has come to that for Liverpool. Over the 19 years since their last league title, the tables have turned. It is not Benítez’s fault, but, as the battle for the nineteenth title begins, it is most certainly his problem.
