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Luke Traynor has been following Liverpool for the past 30 years. His first major recollection is staying up way past his bedtime as a six-year-old to watch Alan Kennedy caress the ball into the net against Roma to record a fourth European Cup. Here he reflects on the highs and lows of the current Anfield order. |
IF one player splits opinion among Reds fans, it's Xabi Alonso.
After a mediocre season from the Spaniard, speculation has increased about a possible Anfield exit.
For some supporters that would be transfer suicide; to others it would be a sound piece of football business.
WHO are you supporting in Moscow?
That's the agonising conundrum a fellow Red in the office put to me yesterday which pretty much left me defeated whichever way I thought about it.
Ok, so neither is the obvious answer, but most of us will probably be watching the final and I'm sure we'll be secretly half-siding with one of the horrible lot, if only to pile the misery on the other.
So who do we pick?
We've faxed through a £10m bid for Gareth Barry.
It's good to see that Rafa is deciding to get into the transfer market early, as we always leave our summertime wheeling and dealing far too late.
But I'm not convinced that, as good as Barry is, he is what we need.
THE dream is over.
We won't be going to a third Champions League final in four years.
But we went pretty damn close.
REMEMBER when Liverpool paraded around Wembley dressed in those ridiculous white suits before serving up that inept FA Cup final performance in 1996?
Sorry to remind you all.
I think we'd all agree that those days of a guffawing Ruddock in suit and shades trying to look like an Armani model are best left in the past.
However, it looks like that if our new Swiss signing has anything to do with it, the souped up glamour could worryingly be heading back to Anfield.
AS time rumbles on until the day of reckoning, Rafa has a few selection headaches on his hands.
That last minute blunder at Anfield suddenly changed the Spaniard's thinking for the second leg, and ultimately, how the Reds might now line up.
FOOTBALL can be the cruellest of games sometimes.
For 94 minutes the Reds bossed the game against a bullied Chelsea side and looked superior in every department.
Yet somehow, we didn’t get the 2-0 that would have been easily deserved.
I GENUINELY believe that Liverpool are only a few top class players short of a title-winning squad.
As the summer break lurches into view (admittedly we've got some huge games before that) our thoughts naturally turn to the kind of talent that could be brought into Anfield to bring that consistency in the Premiership that we all crave.
DESPITE the continuing tensions in the Anfield boardroom following more damaging revelations over the weekend, the side are still performing out on the pitch.
After a turgid first half, the Reds, or Steven Gerrard to put it more accurately, stepped up to put a Blackburn side to the sword who hardly threatened.
ANOTHER sedate European tie at Anfield last night.
Quite what they put in the water in L4 just before big Euro kick-offs is anyone's guess.
Differences aside, both Liverpool and Arsenal should both be applauded for giving the competition one of the most thrilling matches the Champions League has seen for years.