I have a confession to make. I actually took greater pleasure watching Liverpool fail last season than I did watching my own team (Chelsea) achieve their first ever league and FA Cup double.
I didn’t even know I was doing it at first – but by the New Year I realized I was checking Liverpool’s scores first and cheering hardest when they conceded a goal or stumbled to another awkward defeat.
And let’s face it, it was a fantastic season for the Liverpool-loather. That beach ball incident against Sunderland, followed by their elimination from first the Champions League, then the Europa League and then the indignity of a 7th place finish.
I’m embarrassed now to say it, but I was in ecstasy.
It hasn’t always been this way. For most of my life Chelsea haven’t been fortunate enough to count Liverpool among its rivals. My vendetta against Liverpool stems from the relatively-recent UEFA-imposed rivalry between the two teams.
We had the misfortune off being knocked out of the Champions League semi-finals by Liverpool twice in just three seasons. And it hurt.
In 2005 we went into the competition with high hopes. And victories over Barcelona and Bayern Munich en route to a semi-final against Liverpool only served to bolster my confidence. The reds were struggling to re-qualify for the Champions League while we were cruising to our first ever Premier League title under Jose Mourinho.
And then they knocked us out - beaten by 1 goal across 2 games. ‘That Luis Garcia goal’.
But it was the 2006-2007 campaign, two years later, that broke my Champions League heart.
When I realized we were destined for another semi-final head-to-head with Liverpool, I told myself ‘It’s OK. They won it last time, we’ll win this time. That’s how it works.’ We even won the first leg 1-0. So when a Liverpool-supporting friend invited me to watch the 2nd leg with him in a pub in central London, I ambled along with an air of cockiness. Two-and-a-half hours and one ‘famous Anfield European night’ later I stumbled onto the streets of Leicester Square a broken man.
Is it a coincidence that five months later I hopped on a one-way flight and emigrated to America? Probably, but it adds to the dramatic effect.
Of course, that isn’t the end of the story.
In fact a shift of power followed.
In the post-Mourinho-era, the Blues from London trumped their northern rivals in the coveted Champions league. Twice.
We, predictably, drew them again in the 2008 semi-final and this time we won – even after a brief moment of self-destruct. Chelsea lost the final to Man Utd in particularly distressing circumstances, but the Liverpool hoodoo was no more!
2009? Liverpool in the quarter finals? Easy. And it was – relatively.
We’d been drawn with Liverpool in an incredible 5 successive Champions League campaigns. Four of them in knock-out rounds. And although honours were ( effectively) even Chelsea were now very much on top.
(If I’d have known me leaving the country was the missing ingredient, I’d have done it years before).
Chelsea’s dominance in the Champions League (I know, we still haven’t won it… yet) has coincided with the Reds’ slow slide from Champions of Europe to midtable Premier League mediocrity.
And last season they reached rock bottom.
When Benitez was relieved of his duties over the summer if felt as if someone had taken a shovel to Liverpool and put the club out of its misery. Roy Hodgson (Rafa’s replacement) may not win anything this season. He may not even get Liverpool into the Champions League, or keep the job for very long. But his appointment instantly made them more likable.
And he has one significant thing going for him:
He’s not Benitez.
The goateed Spaniard may still be worshiped by certain factions of the Anfield support, but can we all now agree:
1) He made some horrendous signings. If there’s anything the Premier League DIDN’T need, it was dozens of overpaid European no-marks.
2) His team selections and substitutions last year were, at times, ridiculous.
After his achievements at Fulham last year, Roy alone, increases Liverpool’s likability factor by 50%.
And that was before he dispatched of a bunch of Benitez-era mercenaries (Mascherano and assorted Spaniards/Brazilians you can never remember the names of) and brought in a few wholly more likable faces (Cole + Konchesky) and an honest seasoned-pro in Poulson (how can you dislike a Scandinavian?).
Liverpool’s troubles are by no means over. They have the small matter of a $400 million debt and a pair of unpopular American owners to tussle with. Hodgson also has to build a new team with next-to-no-cash around an injury-prone superstar striker (Torres) and a down-on-his luck Steven Gerrard.
But they’ll have a better season than last year – and they won’t have to worry about me willing them to defeat twice a week.
I’m not going to be rooting for Roy’s Liverpool this season, but I won’t be rooting for their opponents.
And I only need them to have 2 miserable games, not 38.
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