Original subtitles

This was a moment 30 years in the making.

For Liverpool, the wait..

...is over!

Champions of England again!

Liverpool had been relentless in their quest to return to the top

of the English game.

Firmino. Brilliant!

Salah. That is simply awesome!

And masterminding their return —

a brilliant manager in a mould all of his own.

I'm the normal one, maybe if you want this.

I couldn't be more proud

on the way we did it.

Being so patient for 30 years.

Roberto Firmino!

Mane!

The style of footballjurgen Klopp has implemented

has been breathtaking.

Salah charges towards him...

...and scores!

I always said from the first interview, I want to win

the Premier League with this club.

They were saying crazy but, yeah, we did it.

For three long decades,

Liverpool fans have watched on in agony as others

took their perch and revelled in it.

And despite winning ten cups in that time, it was always

the league that mattered most.

Even when you win the Champions League there were people

that told us winning the league would have meant more.

You don't find a club where you will hear that, actually,

apart from Liverpool.

It mattered because, alongside the highs of the '70s and '80s,

there were also tragedies,

dark days, which created a unique bond between the club and its fans.

The people have got special strength about them

to overcome the bad events.

The passion that you saw on the field is a direct result

of who our supporters are.

I think the personality of this team is a never—say—die attitude,

who are willing to fight for each other right until the very end.

This is the story of Liverpool's long road back

to the summit of English football...

You ask there and I look there.

...told by the people who helped shape the club we see today.

OK, ready?

It's ready.

SNAP!

CHEERING AND CHANTING

REPORTER: Liverpool are the champions

and the gladiators applaud the crowd.

I'm not going to tell you why they're going to win,

because they're going to win because they're the greatest.

Champions! Champions!

I don't think Liverpool would be where we are today,

except for Bill Shankly.

As soon as he opens his mouth,

it's pure heaven.

Well, I think that if a manager is honest,

he can't go into the field with the players.

He can convey it to the players.

He's with them and they're with him, and they'll be successful.

There was something about this guy that clicked with Liverpool.

And the cup belongs to Liverpool!

Shankly created a famous boot room culture which not only brought

success, but also a template for succession.

It's the people that make it, really, there's no magic.

No, there's no magic.

When Shanks retired, Bob Paisley took over.

Bob was a bit of a mumbler.

He's a bit hard to understand, I would think, in team meetings

and the like, isn't he? Pardon?

He's a bit hard... LAUGHTER

The Kop's spilling onto the pitch to celebrate

the victory and the championship.

Have you any more ambitions left in this game?

Yeah. Win it next year.

The teams of the '70s and the '80s

were absolutely phenomenal.

They were like a machine. They were winning everything.

Liverpool have retained the Football League championship.

42 league games, that's what it's all about.

Cup competitions — one-off things, really, aren't they?

But win the league, that's what football's all about.

Liverpool are European champions!

KLOPP: You can mention the word Europeanite, and I think

90% of football supporters in the world would think Liverpool.

REPORTER: It's business as usual for Liverpool,

the most successful club in the history of British football.

Joe Fagan had the drop. Your first year in charge,

and two trophies on the shelf already.

Incredible. I don't know how it's happened.

Don't ask me.

The sheer scale of Liverpool's dominance dwarfed anything

that had been seen previously in England.

Liverpool were the powerhouse of English football, winning 11

league titles in 18 years, as well as conquering Europe four times.

# Welcome to the Pleasuredome! #

It was in pursuit of a fifth European Cup that Liverpool endured

one of its darkest days.

For the last 50 minutes,

the Heysel Stadium in Brussels,

the capital of Belgium,

has been a sickening and bewildering sight.

We go on the pitch and they're throwing missiles at us,

the Juventus supporters.

So I picked one up, and I remember saying to Alan Kennedy,

"Nobody brings that into the stadium."

And he says, "That is the stadium."

REPORTER: Some Liverpool supporters moved into the Juventus area.

You can see the Juventus supporters trying to get over the wall

to our right and down towards the running track.

And it was the pressure of movement down towards the running track

which resulted in the wall giving way.

The first thing that needs to be said is that Liverpool fans

need to accept the blame for a lot of what happened that day.

There were many reasons for Heysel —

the stadium was shambles, the police were completely inept.

I was watching it on the television and thinking...

...this can't be happening.

And the terrible feeling of...

...responsibility.

REPORTER: And Liverpool's run of success in European Cup finals

comes to an end.

But this is not a night when football will be remembered.

There were no guidelines on how to recover

from such a disaster.

This was football's latest hooligan incident and it led to all English

clubs being banned from Europe.

It was a sad end for retiring manager joe Fagan.

The club needed a lift, so Fagan's successor wasn't from the boot room,

as was tradition, but the dressing room.

It was Liverpool's star player...

...Kenny Dalglish.

MUSIC: Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel

COMMENTATOR: He is through!

Kenny Dalglish!

That is absolutely outstanding finishing!

Kenny came in and, all of a sudden,

we started to do a little bit about team shape.

We did a little bit about with the ball, without the ball.

Kenny, by that time, was, as he is now,

forever part of the fabric of this place.

And he knew what people wanted.

He knew what the people expected of the players.

And he just changed it because that's what he believed in.

But it wasn't a massive change.

In many ways, it was a good change

because it kind of changed with the times.

In his first season as player-manager,

Kenny led Liverpool to the double, even scoring the goal

that sealed the title.

And Dalglish is in here!

Yes!

The player-manager scores the goal

that may edge Liverpool nearer to their 16th championship!

# Feel the heat... #

I'd been at Watford for six years.

Lovely skill.

What a magnificent goal!

I was playing for England.

I was doing well. But Graham Taylor said to me, at a very young age,

I'll tell you when it's time to go and I'll tell you

where you should be going.

So when Liverpool came in, he said to me, "Liverpool have come in,

"that's the club for you. You're going to Liverpool."

# Get funky now... #

It's been made very easy for myself, Peter Beardsley, Ray Houghton.

Any of the new players who have come in, it's just been made easy for us.

MUSIC: Enola Gay by ELO

john Barnes joined Peter Beardsley and john Aldridge in Liverpool's

new front line for the '87-'88 season.

They played scintillating football.

Oh, look at Barnes here!

They're waiting for the full-back, Beardsley!

0h!

Aldridge is there! Aldridge!

I mean, the wonder of watching John Barnes.

He was just extraordinary.

Oh, Barnes has won it.

He won it from Brock.

He's got Beardsley going to his left, it's still Barnes!

That's a fabulous indefensible goal!

The biggest figure in the culture of the city was John Barnes,

a proud black man from Jamaica.

It broke down a load of barriers.

Those few years were just amazing.

Yeah, we were very spoilt.

Liverpool cruised to the title, winning it by nine points.

Both on and off the pitch,

the team were really on-song.

# Liverpool FC is as hard as hell

# United, Tottenham, Arsenal

# Watched my lips and I will spell

# Cos they don't just play but they can rap as well! #

Every time there was a cup final,

there was a song, and we wanted to do something different,

so we used it as an excuse to go to a nightclub

called Quadrant Park dressed up as rappers.

Is this the real john Barnes we're seeing? This is the real

John Barnes. I was a bit conservative when I first came

to Liverpool but this is me now.

So we're there from 12 o'clock.

And by the time we're just about finishing it, it was opening

to the public because it's a rave club. So because we're dressed

like that, we said we might as well stay and enjoy ourselves.

So we stayed and, you know, some people went home, some people

stayed at the club. And, of course, with all the alcohol there,

we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

Even Kenny was on the video.

He just went, "Oh, as if," and the song wasn't great.

It stunk. And that's all you could get Kenny to do.

We wanted Kenny to be involved. But Kenny was going,

"No, I'm not going there."

I think they should stick to playing football. Terrible!

What do you think, Kenny?

Oh, yeah!

Liverpool had wrapped up the title and rapped their way

to chart success.

Now they just needed an FA Cup to create a unique treble.

Sanchez was in there! And that's a goal for Wimbledon!

The Crazy Gang have beaten the Culture Club!

As giant killings go, this was a big one, but the following season,

Liverpool did what they always did —

dusted themselves down and started again.

It was the season no-one will ever forget.

One that changed Liverpool — both club and city — forever.

In the history of Liverpool...

...Hillsborough...

...is unfortunately an important date.

That day, 96 people die.

People from Liverpool suffered,

they were hurt.

It's difficult to explain to people.

You go out and you go to a football match and it's supposed to be...

It's supposed to be fun.

The first inclination I got was two guys come on the pitch

and I go to them.

I say, "You'll get us in trouble here,"

and the guy looked at me, and he says...

You could tell the sadness in his eyes —

he wasn't making it up. He says, "Al, there's people dying in there."

And there are fans on the pitch here in the six-yard area.

The referee's going to have to stop the game.

There's an overflow behind the goal.

And the police inspector's on the pitch.

The only time I was aware there was a problem,

I've seen people pushed up against the fence and they looked

so uncomfortable and I was, like, that doesn't look right.

Memories, of, you know, trying to pull people up to the other layer,

and fans putting bodies onto hoardings

and running across the pitch with them.

Just.“

...transfixed, really, by the horror of it all.

It's been a black day for football on a sunny afternoon

at Hillsborough, Sheffield.

No fewer than 93 football supporters died.

On a day of such momentous tragedy,

our sympathies go to the families of those concerned.

My son, who died at Hillsborough,

he was a keen Liverpool supporter.

It's the worst kind of grief that anyone can go through,

is to lose a child.

We all thought about, what's the point?

What's the point of going to a football match if things

like that are going to happen?

A lot of us thought about possibly packing up, doing something else.

I think it had an enormous effect on the club and on individuals —

particularly on Kenny, I think.

Kenny's face was...

I can always see it, just the grief

in his face. And he's carried that responsibility.

I think he went to every funeral.

He had to be like a social worker.

He wasn't trained for that.

For Kenny, personally, we owe a great debt...

...because he was so comforting to all the families.

It was quite a scary moment when you know that these people whose loved

ones had gone to a football match and are now dead — and this is,

I don't know, two weeks later, probably not even that,

where they're going to come. Cos if that was me,

I wouldn't want to go to a football stadium.

I thought... I still get emotional thinking of it.

I thought it wasn't my place to meet Kenny.

It was my son's place to have met Kenny.

It wasn't my...my place.

I didn't go to the football.

James did.

And I just felt very guilty.

I just wanted my son to have met Kenny.

And so many of them were coming into the players' lounge

and they were going,

"| can't believe that I'm here with Kenny Dalglish and John Barnes,"

and, whoever they lost, "If they could see me now in the lounge

"with my heroes, they would just be loving it."

And that showed how much their club means to them.

That really made a huge impression on my understanding,

which I already had after a year,

of the relationship between the club and the fans.

I often wonder, what support did THEY get?

They were giving it to us, but what support did THEY get?

I went to the cup final just shortly afterwards and it seemed so right

that we were playing Everton.

COMMENTATOR: Obviously it is a cup final, but no doubt the players,

too, are keenly aware of the circumstances of this

particular match, which they're now walking out to play.

It was fitting that it was a Merseyside cup final,

because, don't forget, Evertonians would have lost brothers and cousins

and loved ones in that, as well.

What was great about it is it was a coming together of the city.

It was a very, very emotional day.

PA: In memory of the victims of the Hillsborough disaster...

There was a minute's silence before the game

and I couldn't handle it.

I went downstairs and basically stood in the toilets.

I'd rather do my crying there than upstairs.

McMahon. Barnes.

Rush!

Goa“.

3-2, Liverpool.

Ian Rush gets his second.

And this now becomes one of the most

dramatic FA Cup finals of recent times.

So much emotion, joy and sorrow.

I mean, just...an extraordinary day.

And Liverpool have won the FA Cup, the first leg of the double

and perhaps softened the pain that

so many of their supports have been through recently.

And in a fine, dramatic final, surely lifted the spirits

of a whole city... and of the game of football.

I always believed that that should have been the year

that the FA Cup wasn't played for.

I thought it'd be nice as a legacy for the 96,

but now I think back and reflect on it all,

yeah, it was good for the fans, maybe.

Good for the city.

Just six days after having won the cup, Liverpool played Arsenal

at Anfield, hoping to win the double.

All they needed to do was avoid losing by more than one goal.

And Thomas goes inside Nicol!

And Thomas is there!

And Thomas has scored for Arsenal!

And Arsenal have won the Championship here at Anfield.

On the Kop that night, when it went in, there was shock and then

someone — a voice further back — just said,

"You know what? Worse things happen."

It was one of those strange things.

It was a moment that broke the misery,

broke the depth of misery.

CROWD: # ..with hope in your heart

# And you'll never walk alone... #

It had been the most turbulent of seasons, but the supporters now

had a bigger battle to deal with —

the truth of what happened at Hillsborough had yet to be told.

It was a fight that would last decades.

It's not unusual

in the history of Liverpool for its people to become

folk devils, for the media to exaggerate and, frankly,

lie about their behaviour.

Well, we all know it was a...

SHE CLEARS HER THROAT

There's a certain newspaper that we'll never forgive

and to have them headlines that your fans urinated on the dead,

robbed the dead, kicked the police

when they were trying to give CPR.

People believed this,

and...this has haunted us ever since.

And for the families of the dead, for the survivors,

for the witnesses, it's been an extra layer of...

HE EXHALES

...misery.

And that really, really got to me,

and I thought... At that time, straight away, I thought,

"We've got a fight on our hands."

Both club and supporters were united in this fight.

The players knew that creating memories on the pitch might help.

The next season, they regrouped and challenged for the title again.

And that could mean that the championship goes to Anfield

for the 18th time.

Well, there are scenes of delight all around Anfield.

The Kop alive with passion and emotion.

I remember the presentation ceremony in 1990 and looking

down at Alan Hansen, who was struggling to get comfy.

He couldn't stand or kneel for the photographs.

In the end, he went and got behind somebody and leaned on him.

His knees had gone.

I knew that was literally the end of an era

in more ways than one.

They were mentally worn down.

And I think that sense of not coming to terms

with your experiences and the mental burdens that come

with that...| think were apparent that year.

Every experience leaves its mark.

Having been a focal point for not just the club,

but at times what felt like the entire city,

Kenny — King Kenny — decided he could reign no more.

The biggest problem was...

...was the pressure...

...| was putting myself under...

...because of my desire to be successful.

Hillsborough took its toll on Kenny.

I mean, if you look at the picture of Kenny the day he retired,

and he goes to Florida, comes back six weeks later,

it's a different man.

It's a different — totally different — man.

See ya, Ken. Ta—ra, lads.

So the realisation later on that what he was suffering with was...

...kind of the same thing...

...that I personally — and lots of others like me — were suffering.

Grief is the only way I can describe it.

I was quite devastated, actually, because you always wonder,

who's going to be the next manager? Will they understand how we feel?

But at the same time, we understood it.

We understood why he had...he resigned.

It couldn't have been predicted at the time, but Dalglish leaving

was the end of an era.

His departure led to the Great Red Drought.

The club continued their tried and trusted method.

When the manager left, the successor was always one of their own.

You're Graeme Souness, aren't ya?

Yeah.

You look like me.

Oh. aye'?

Now it was the turn of Graeme Souness,

who'd left the club as a player a year before

the Heysel tragedy, and had success as Rangers manager.

Well, of course, everybody was delighted when Graeme Souness came

because it was a Liverpool promotion.

Souness!

Souness plays the gap behind the defence.

And gets in!

He was distanced from the disaster.

He'd come in and restore a sense of perspective.

A lot was changing in terms of the food, the diets,

the nutrition, which was all coming into football anyway.

Liverpool were renowned as the biggest drinkers in the league.

They said, "You live your life how you want to live your life.

"If you've got to be hungover, you be hungover,

"but you train properly."

And having been part of it — and there were still players

who knew he was part of it there — he wanted to change it and stop it.

Stop them getting blind drunk every night.

They didn't like it.

I think it was actually probably too early in his managerial career

because he came to Liverpool and he let one or two players

go too early.

When I was a player, there was only one club to play for, and when

someone comes to me and says, "Well, I'd rather be somewhere else,"

that was it. It was back them out. It was finished. Let's go.

Let's get them out the door as quickly as possible.

That was the big mistake I made.

One of the things Liverpool did really well over the years,

they'd always buy from a position of strength.

They'd always bring in new players when they were successful.

After Hillsborough, they lost their way in that area as well.

And it got to the stage whereby the only two senior players left

who had been there were me and Rushy,

so you had a lot of young players and a lot of new players coming in,

so the Liverpool way wasn't there any more.

Performances on the pitch began to suffer.

Liverpool were no longer title contenders, though they did

win the FA Cup in 1992.

Thomas through the middle again.

Michael Thomas.

Rush!

2-0, Liverpool.

Liverpool win the FA Cup for the fifth time —

and in their centenary year, as well.

The priorities, as always, for Liverpool Football Club

will be the First Division championship next season

and, from that point of view, they'd a bad season this season.

They finished sixth.

What struck me was, yes, OK, we're losing games — and from a winning

mentality point of view — but, more importantly, things that were

happening in training.

And that was a problem at Liverpool — the way we were preparing

Monday to Friday.

And in many respects, to be fair to Graeme, a lot of it then became

if we lost, who's going to get the blame?

His commitment and his passion for Liverpool is unbelievable,

but because he's committed and passionate about Liverpool,

it doesn't mean he's the right guy to run the team.

He said he loves Liverpool, OK?

So if he does, he should go.

It wasn't a nice atmosphere towards the end.

It was a very conflicting and confrontational atmosphere.

By tradition, Liverpool had always stood by their managers, but poor

league performances, compounded with an FA Cup defeat

to Division One side Bristol City, put an end to all that.

Great delight for them, but you just wonder what this might have done

to Liverpool's season.

I am extremely sorry to have to announce that Graeme Souness

has offered his resignation from the post of team manager.

The results in the league and the domestic European Cup

competitions have been well below what is expected by the club

and the supporters.

The dawn of the Premier League in 1992 heralded a glitzy, modern,

more brand-aware world for football.

It's a chance, really, to get the structure of professional

football right for the next hundred years.

We'll never have another opportunity like this.

I think, in some ways, Liverpool got left behind off the pitch.

With the riches that came into the Premier League,

Manchester United, for example, ended up as a listed company,

just when there was a bit of a revolution off the pitch,

and maybe Liverpool got caught a little bit napping in that sense.

Bruce! Yes!

Not only were United stealing a march off the pitch,

they were miles ahead on it.

Their Great Red Drought was being washed away by a crop

of talented youngsters and a very modest Frenchman.

They won trophy after trophy, and it was all masterminded

by their own Scottish alchemist, Sir Alex Ferguson.

Liverpool's strategy to combat all of this change was to do exactly

what they'd always done.

They promoted Roy Evans from assistant to manager.

Good morning.

So I suppose it's, erm... We're back to basics, I suppose, in a way.

But maybe that's the way we should be going.

I think it would be silly to say,

"Well, I've take the job and now be afraid of it."

I think it's nice to have your own destiny in your own hands.

And then I went home and I thought,

"Cor, blimey, I've just said I want to be the manager of Liverpool.

"At the end of the day, everything now is down to me, I suppose."

For the first week or so you think,

"Oh, God, what's this going to be like?"

OK? All right.

And don't start off with anything about "Liverpool are on fire".

No, no, no. LAUGHTER

Evans inherited Liverpool's own crop of brilliant young players.

Steve McManaman, jamie Redknapp and a superstar local striker.

It's Robbie Fowler. It's three.

I loved him as a manager.

The belief he instilled into the players,

I think was quite frightening.

McManaman. Fowler.

McManaman.

It's a glorious goal!

No qualms at all with Roy Evans.

We got on really well and, of course, he gave me my debut,

put a lot of faith in me.

Evans reinstated the Liverpool tradition

of having fun off the pitch.

Socially, them clays, the players could go out occasionally,

have a drink.

I had no problem with that.

I didn't really take much notice of, you know, what the press were saying

about, you know, they go out drinking and things like that.

It was like, "Come on, we're having a lads' day out.

"We're all going to the races."

And you had to go. It wasn't sort of...an option.

CHEERING

The Spice Boys, they certainly never packed away the sort of

number of pints that the predecessors did,

but they were into a different sort of lifestyle.

We obviously went out and we enjoyed ourselves, but we went out

and enjoyed ourselves at the right time.

I think the fact is that we never won the league but, you know,

it wasn't through the lack of trying or the want of trying.

We were just a little bit unfortunate that there was another

team just down the road who were probably slightly better than us.

Nice suits, those, aren't they?

See the pockets? Look at the back of...

I mean, I won't throw the blame on anyone but,

you know, at the time, David James was a model for Armani.

I don't think we were the first team who's ever wore dodgy suits.

I'm in my 30s, I think,

"Well, I'd like a nice little blue Armani suit

"because I'm going to retire

"and if I have an Armani suit, I can wear it till I'm 50."

Watch out for your pens, please,

because you can see the white suit...

Move that pen.

Uh-uh. No.

But, of course, I got outvoted.

Scholes in the six—yard area.

Five behind.

James gets there, just first.

Cantona!

Massively disappointed in terms of how it turned out.

If I was to go back in my career and I could change one result,

I think that would be the one.

Dodgy suits aside, Liverpool did manage to turn on the style

the following season, but they just

missed out on a Champions League place.

With only one League Cup in Roy's trophy cabinet,

the media spotlight began to focus on the man in charge.

How would you describe yourself, Roy? What sort of a man are you?

They've always called me Steady Eddie

and I suppose that's about right, really.

I don't go too far from the middle line.

Come out if you want. Come out if you want!

Roy did a really, really good job.

He just couldn't quite, you know, win the big one.

It always seemed to have eluded him.

And I think, if anything, with him, he was — and I hate this phrase,

but I'm going to use it — he was too nice.

Stand up, Robbie, stand up, Robbie.

Well done, well done.

No, I disagree with this, to be honest.

Regardless of what anyone says about Roy,

I always thought he was a tough manager.

You know, there's loads of different ways to skin a cat

and Roy Evans was absolutely... very, very good manager,

and Liverpool could have won the league under his tutelage.

Get it, Macca, get it, Macca, get it, Macca, get it, Macca.

Good tackle, there.

LAUGHTER

In '98, we felt that we were going to have to make a tough decision,

make a change, because top of the table is where we wanted to be

and...that's when the decision was taken to bring

in Gerard Houllier.

That was my idea initially because I thought that Roy Evans had done

a good job and I thought it was unfair,

so I said we can have some kind of joint management.

A big decision taken together.

Sometimes it's just minor things.

Either Roy or...

We won't be doing this every week together —

some weeks I'll do it, some weeks Gerard will do it —

but there's got to be some benefits to it somewhere!

It was a bold step for Liverpool to take.

Maybe it was a case of, can we minimise the risk

by having a degree of compromise?

It might have been a bold move to begin with, but as soon as results

started dropping off, there was a sense that, as far as managers go,

it is better to walk alone.

You've got to have one man making the decisions —

whether it's substitutions, team selection,

leaving people out or whatever — so one man should be in charge.

You can't do it by committee? No.

If you call people joint managers...

...then...from that start then, you're going to have a problem.

It's not a matter of personality

between Roy and myself.

I think he's a very nice man, very nice person.

Obviously he's not my favourite man in the whole world,

but that's...that's...that's life.

But I don't blame him in any shape or form.

"Today is a sad day for Liverpool Football Club and for me personally

"as I have to inform you that we have agreed, by mutual consent,

"that Roy Evans and his assistant, Doug Livermore,

"are to leave the club."

He's not somebody who would knife you in the back, you know, he's...

Really, it's because the situation doesn't fit.

I love the bones of this place.

It's been everything to me and I've been delighted to work here

and I appreciate all the help I've had.

In football, sometimes it's a ruthless business.

Sometimes you have to look after yourself

and, possibly, he was better at doing that than me.

The board was very good to me.

They said, "We don't have all the qualities in the world.

"There's one virtue that we have — we are patient.

"Take your time. Do what you have to do.

"We'll back you."

I came back to my staff and I said, "Now I know we're going to win."

I think there was an acceptance that the culture of the club needed to

change by the players.

The players who had resisted were largely got rid of

and you could see the development of players like Michael Owen,

you know, Steven, Carragher.

For Liverpool, number 28 is Steven Gerard.

In an under—19 game,

Steve Heighway asked me to go and see...

...a player playing on the right.

The guy who caught my eye that day was Steven Gerrard.

And he was in the middle of the park going from box to box, tackling,

shouting, showing some leadership quality despite his young age,

so I decided to take him with me the next day.

Birmingham City and Liverpool!

2001 was, I think, a tremendous year.

It started with the League Cup.

The Scouse captain of Liverpool scores an absolutely stunning goal.

I think that was the most difficult final!

Andy Johnson, right foot.

It's saved by Westerveld!

And Liverpool have won the Worthington Cup!

That trophy was very important.

It took some pressure off the team, you know — we'd won something.

Growing up, if you'd given me one game to score the winner in,

it would have been FA Cup final.

And I was so confident going into the game,

but for 85 minutes I just hadn't had a sniff of a chance.

Pushing and shoving.

And there's the shot.

And there's the equaliser!

Michael Owen!

I just knew once I scored that goal,

j0gging past Arsenal players,

seeing how slumped they were,

and then just looking at the clock thinking,

"Right — have I got enough time now

"to finish them off or am I going to have to do it in extra time?"

This is Berger.

And Robbie Fowler looks sprightly now. Watched the ball, played early,

but so does Owen!

And he's getting the other side of Dixon.

Michael Owen for Liverpool...

Yes! Oh, he's done it!

What an incredible goal for Michael Owen!

Unbelievable stuff.

I've possibly scored more famous goals, but give me one day again

and I'd relive that day.

Come on, boys, come on.

One good ball in.

COMMENTATOR: Five Liverpool players to attack the wall.

Oh, it's an own goal!

YEAH! YEAHHH!

That was an own goal, wasn't it?

Was that an own goal?!

A smile on the face of Gerard Houllier at the end.

After so many years without trophies,

suddenly Liverpool couldn't stop winning them.

And before long, they added two more

by winning the Super Cup and the Charity Shield.

Crucially, Liverpool also won qualification

to the Champions League for the first time.

After so long without success,

it felt as if the club were back on top,

although their treble was mocked by their rivals down the M62.

We won every competition that we entered in terms of cups,

So, you know, if that's Mickey Mouse, then...| mean,

God knows what everything else is, because I think for us

to achieve that, I think it's quite extraordinary. It really is.

Winning those five trophies with Liverpool,

which was the club of my heart, it's different, yeah.

And when I say the club of my heart,

my heart, you know, practically fail after that!

Come on, now. Come on, Stevie G!

We were really looking forward to the 2001—2002 season.

Let this be the one where we win the league.

I felt ill in the half-time of the game against Leeds.

I don't want to go back out there. I'm sorry.

NEWS REPORT: Gerard Houllier underwent a dissection of the aorta,

the main vessel carrying blood to the heart.

He's now on a ventilator in intensive care.

Puts life into perspective, puts football into perspective.

Obviously our thoughts are very much with Gerard

and particularly with Isabelle at this time,

and we just wish him a very speedy recovery.

As might be expected after an operation

of this nature and complexity,

recovery is inevitably a slow and gradual process.

It almost felt as if the doctors were trying to keep him away,

but he was adamant he wanted to be back and it felt like

he came back in far quicker time than he was supposed to.

I remember that day,

because when I came on the pitch,

Capello was there. When he saw me, he hugged me.

It went through the crowd gradually that I was in the stadium

and I was back.

CHEERING

Special day. Special night.

I think Gerard came back too soon.

And he might disagree.

I don't think he was the same person.

It's easy to have regrets.

All I can say is that I was far too early

and I probably paid it afterwards.

With Houllier back in the hot seat,

Liverpool ended the season in second place —

their highest Premier League finish.

But the team could not reach the same heights

in the following two seasons.

The pressure was mounting on the boss.

If people decide, you know, that I'm not the right man

for the right place, so what? I mean, I'm not important.

I'm not here for myself. I'm here for the club.

We were...hugely...

...concerned about his health.

We were very concerned that he'd nearly given his life for the club.

So if the club thinks, "Well, Houllier shouldn't stay,"

so, I mean, the people in command, in charge, have to decide that.

By then we wanted to be winning.

We wanted to be contenders.

We really needed to be contenders for the title. We weren't.

But as far as I'm concerned, I know where we're going.

I know it's been a rocky year, but we'll get there.

And it was a sad day when we decided that we had to make a change.

I don't know. Maybe my health played a part.

People ask me, you know, "Well, what is your contribution?"

I say my contribution is nothing,

apart from the fact that the team finished fourth

and they were allowed to play Champions League.

I heard and I read that they want to go back to the '60s

and the '70s culture.

Well, fair enough, but not with me.

My first night with my wife in Liverpool was, er...

...raining cats and dogs or dogs and cats, how you say?

Cats and dogs.

Raining cats and dogs. It was a big storm. And we said,

"Oh, we are coming from Valencia and then we come here. 00f."

Rafa was an exciting appointment for us.

It was very much a case of, the key credential for us

is we need somebody who's won one of the major European leagues.

The former Valencia boss Rafael Benitez

has been the favourite for the job ever since he quit the Spanish club.

Valencia, we didn't have too much money at this time.

We were... I'm not sure how you say in English this.

"Punching above your weight" or something like that.

We chose him rather than Mourinho.

We thought Rafa was much more Liverpool's style.

He had a bit more humility and...

...was a bit more down—to—earth.

I'm European champion, so I'm not one of...of the bottle.

I think I'm a special one.

Famously, he walks into a bar full of Liverpool fans

and has a drink, and everyone said, you know, "That's great."

You know, man of the people and all that.

Well, he'd gone through the wrong door.

He thought he was going into his hotel.

But once he's there...

"They're all Liverpool fans, I'm not just going to walk out."

So he, almost by accident, got the city

and got a sense of what it was about.

Very quickly, Benitez also learnt

about the internal tensions at the club.

Literally the first day Rafa arrived,

I had to tell him that Steven Gerrard had decided

that he wanted to go.

I haven't been really happy with the progression of the club

over the last two years. For the first time in my career,

I've really thought about the possibility of moving on.

I think during the Euros, Steven pretty much decided

he wanted to go to Chelsea. The mistake Chelsea made was

letting Steven come back to Liverpool after the Euros.

They should have kept him on Abramovich's boat.

After coming home from Euro 2000, sitting down with my family,

I've decided that I'm staying on at Liverpool Football Club.

In the end, what I told him, if you go to another side,

maybe you can win some trophies, but you will be one more.

Here you are Stevie G, the captain, the legend,

and everybody will remember you like that.

Benitez set about changing the direction of the team,

bringing in Spanish playmaker Xabi Alonzo

to create a fabulous midfield duo.

But Chelsea's interest in Gerrard had unsettled Liverpool.

They knew that Mourinho's team were miles ahead in the league.

Everywhere Liverpool looked, it was Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea.

We were in the stairs. That feeling...

Was a very nice conversation, because they were winning.

As soon as we start winning,

things were getting worse in terms of the relationship.

But, OK, that is normal when you are competing,

and it's a style everybody knows.

I tried to be more respectful,

but... OK, each one can decide what he prefers.

We had that huge disappointment of the League Cup,

but the irony of playing against Chelsea

and Steven scoring the own goal after everything that had gone on,

but then in the dressing room straight after the game saying,

"| hope we get them in the Champions League,"

as indeed we then did.

I think it was so good, the team was so strong that

nobody was expecting that we could go through,

and the Luis Garcia goal, and they said, "Oh, it wasn't a goal,"

then could be a red card for Petr Cech

at the beginning of the game.

And I think it was very clear

that it was a goal that we deserved,

because we did what we had to do to score this goal.

You have to give credit to someone like Liverpool at this time —

that, against the best team in the Premier League,

we could do so well

that we could go to the final.

The atmosphere was amazing.

Our fans obviously were there in force,

outnumbering — considerably — the Milan fans.

If you see the team sheet, AC Milan was so good.

Everybody was so excited, and just to go there and try to

enjoy from the first minute until the last minute if it was possible.

COMMENTATOR: In goes the free kick, and the shot goes in,

and it's there! Milan have scored!

Here's Shevchenko. Shevchenko crosses...

It's 2-0.

I was preparing my speech — in my bad English now —

imagine some years ago,

preparing my speech at half—time, losing 2-0,

and then we concede the third goal.

Kaka. Oh, towards Crespo...

Crespo's doing this. It's going to be 3-0...

And it is 5-0!

Come half—time, people are leaving, people are despairing,

and I'm going, "It's not over till the fat lady sings.

"Come on. It's all right. It'll be..."

But it was almost like it wasn't just me that felt it,

because the crowd started to sing.

# You'll never walk... #

You need to explain something in English

and be sure that you use the right words,

and you keep the motivation if you can.

Another opportunity from Riise...

Header! Yes, a goal from Steven Gerrard!

Never forget Stevie coming out...

His arms are going like this,

getting the crowd up.

Man 25 yards out.

Doesn't shoot, but Smicer by!

All the way from Vladimir Smicer!

And I'm not just saying this, honestly, but I just knew

we were going to win that day.

Alonso...misses!

And Alonso puts in the rebound!

And this scoreline is absolutely staggering.

AC Milan 3, Liverpool 3!

Then we had to go through the most nerve-racking extra time.

Dudek made some fantastic saves.

And when we went to the penalties, I was 100% convinced

that we could win.

Shevchenko...

Dudek saves for Liverpool!

It's as rich to me now as if it had happened yesterday.

And still I have a lot of fans telling me,

"Rafa, that is the best night of my life.

"Don't tell my wife."

So they are telling me that all the time.

Liverpool are champions of Europe!

I was in Istanbul.

I went down to the changing room after the game.

A couple of players saw me.

Normally the players say "hi" and that's it.

But they came to me and practically hugged me.

You know, it was really...

And they said, "Boss, it's your team."

And I must say, Rafa was...

...outstanding, because he understood that the players had a sort of a...

...maybe special relationship with me,

and they...you know, we didn't...

I never fell out with the players, so it was all right.

This truly was the miracle of Istanbul.

But one night couldn't hide the fact

that Liverpool weren't set up to compete consistently.

And their rivals knew it.

Over the summer, Chelsea came calling again,

and this time, they were determined to get their man.

We tried everything to talk him round.

The chairman came to see him.

And he had absolutely decided that he was going,

and we announced he was going.

It was ambition. It was restlessness.

It was, oddly, not necessarily feeling he was valued enough.

Fortunately, he came around and signed a deal

and he did say to me, "just do me one favour.

"Don't ever let me do this again."

With Gerrard having put pen to paper,

Liverpool did strengthen the team. But he was restless for a reason.

Despite Liverpool's show of ambition,

the footballing world had moved into a new financial stratosphere.

David Moore was really a good chairman.

I think Rick Parry and him, they were trying to help

and they didn't put us under pressure.

The plan was the same, was in three years' time to compete.

We were already winning. We were in the final of the Carting Cup,

and this year we won the FA Cup also,

and the European Super Cup, so everybody was happy

in the way that the team and the club was progressing.

The only thing is that, economically,

you couldn't compete against the other teams.

David Mo yes had decided in 2004 that he wanted to sell.

He was concerned, I think,

about the resources that Abramovich was bringing to Chelsea.

Interest in the club was high.

Rival offers were received from a consortium

headed by the Shaikh of Dubai

and an American businessman called George Gillett.

The club wanted to sell to Dubai,

but a deal took too long to materialise.

Everyone seemed desperate for the club to be bought out.

Be careful what you wish for,

because what we got was absolute chaos.

2007...

...We ended up with Messrs Hicks and Gillett.

This is truly the largest sport in the world,

the most important sport in the world, and this is

the most important club in the most important sport in the world,

and what a privilege we have to be associated with it,

and we hope that with the good graces of Rick and his team,

that we will be able to enjoy both on—the—pitch success

and economic success.

But we're buying this with no debt on the club.

I think George absolutely wanted success.

I think he got what Liverpool was about.

Tom Hicks I don't think ever got Liverpool.

I remember the week after the deal went through,

he did an interview for The Guardian

saying buying Liverpool is just like buying Weetabix, I think.

Er... No, it definitely isn't.

We are making plans to move forward with the stadium

as quickly as we can.

We need all the revenues we can possibly find

to compete with Manchester.

The beginning was fine,

because I think they promised a lot of things.

Maybe after, I would say, three, four months,

that they lead, you could see that

it was not exactly what you were expecting.

Liverpool faced Milan again in the Champions League final that summer.

But there was to be no repeat of Istanbul.

It looked like Hicks and Gillett had cash

and were prepared to spend it.

Fernando Torres was brought in for a club record transfer fee.

Beats Ben Haim... Torres!

And scores!

His first goal for Liverpool!

But despite promises to the contrary,

they'd borrowed money to fund most of their activity,

in the form of a bank loan from RBS for over £200 million.

Not long after arriving,

we headed into a period where the relationship between Rafa,

between the fans and between the ownership

all kind of started to fall apart.

I had people inside telling me, "Yeah, we don't have the money."

But after, the same people,

they were going outside, telling the press,

"No, we are doing this, we are doing that."

So then you have to cope with expectations that you wanted

to compete for the title,

but at the same time you knew that you couldn't.

NEWS REPORT: The world stock markets are stampeding,

and investors are diving for cover.

TRADERS YELLING

The financial crash made a bad situation much worse.

Hicks had lost more money than Gillett, and wanted to sell.

The pair fell out, and began using everybody in the club as a pawn.

It was meltdown. It was civil war within the club,

and it was civil war between Gillett and Hicks.

Rafa was at odds with Rick Parry, who got sacked by Tom Hicks.

Rick needs to resign from Liverpool Football Club.

You certainly have to have the ability to work

with your general manager,

and I think Rick's proven he just can't do that.

He wrote to me saying I'm fired and I kind of wrote back

and said, "No, I'm not, because you can't do that."

We're trying to get on with the football, which is why

I'm still here. There's a job to be done.

There are big matches to be played. That's where the focus should be.

This is a sideshow.

You look at what's happened under Rick's leadership,

it's been a disaster.

We've fallen so far behind the other top clubs.

I think the mistake he made, which...

...wasn't very smart with hindsight, he used the word "disaster"

on the Hillsborough anniversary.

That was not the wisest word to use.

Despite the infighting off the pitch,

on it, Liverpool were flying.

By the end of 2008,

they were above Manchester United at the top of the league.

But the facts were that the tension was getting to everybody.

People talk about the rant and the interview.

I'm sure that you will ask me about that.

What do you make, though, of Sir Alex Ferguson's comments

when he said Liverpool could choke?

I was surprised,

but I have to talk about facts.

I have my reasons — I can tell you off the record —

but I knew 100% that I needed to do something.

Only Mr Ferguson can talk about the future, can talk

about referees, can talk about all these things,

and nothing happens.

If he'd asked me in advance, did I think it was a good idea,

I think I would've said, "Rafa, I would leave it.

"| wouldn't do it."

He's the only manager in the league,

in the English league that cannot be punished for these things.

And it was always Alex Ferguson this, and Alex Ferguson that.

And he just went on and on!

I am talking about facts.

I am not talking about my impressions. Things that everybody

can see every single week.

And then at the end gave this lovely smile!

100%, I can tell you, check what I said, and everything

what I said was spot-on.

You just imagine this picture of Sir Alex with his feet on his desk

and having a nice glass of red, thinking,

"Yeah, nice bit of work, that."

When we were going to Old Trafford,

there was a father with his son and they have a banner,

"Rafa's cracking up."

And we beat them 1-4, so we were not cracking up.

We were doing well.

But Manchester United, they were doing better.

In a post-fact world, Liverpool were brilliant —

they lost only one game in the New Year.

But the actual fact was that Manchester United

had too many games in hand.

Liverpool missed out on the title again.

The good thing — by 2009, at least we were contenders.

The worst thing of all was getting to January, February and knowing

you couldn't beat United. That...

That... That was awful.

Fans had now had enough of their American owners.

The huge loan repayments were overshadowing everything.

Gillett and Hicks put Liverpool up for sale.

It was chaos. No-one knew what was happening.

And, of course, RBS keep upping the ante by saying,

"The club can go bankrupt, the club can go bankrupt."

I don't think the club was ever in danger of going bankrupt.

Let's face it, if they would've sold Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard,

they could've almost balanced the books.

With the situation deteriorating, Liverpool began

to lose key personnel.

Chief executive Rick Parry had had enough and left.

Now it was time for Benitez to go, by...mutual consent.

No, I don't think that we need to talk

about what they promised to me.

It's just that what they say publicly.

So you could see the new stadium and all these things

that they said, and it's very clear that it's over there.

So you can read the press at this time

and then you will understand,

everybody will understand that what they said

and what they did.

At that time, the organisation was in freefall.

Roy came in, probably during that most difficult period for the club.

In fairness to Roy Hodgson, when he got the job,

the club was in limbo,

and I think he was appointed as a safe pair of hands.

How we looking?

It's a bit disappointing that, on your first day, it's matters

of money which take precedence, really, over football matters,

you know. I took the job because I wanted to be manager

of Liverpool Football Club.

Got him at first base, and the Boston Red Sox can finally say it —

they are champions of the world!

Amidst the chaos came some credibility.

John Henry's Fenway Sports Group had taken the Boston Red Sox

to baseball's World Series for the first time in 86 years.

Now they wanted to extend their franchise to football.

A fan in the States

contacted John Henry to suggest

that the club was an asset

going on the cheap

and he should take a look at it.

There was talk at the time of administration.

There... There... There...

There was a lot of concern for this club.

But from our standpoint, it was a sleeping giant.

CROWD CHANTS

FSG made an offer of £300 million for the club.

The offer was rejected by Gillett and Hicks, who wanted more money.

Hopefully, I'm hoping the deal goes through.

They've had enough time now, Hicks and that.

It's just a joke, what they've done with the club.

As long as, I think, Gillett and Hicks have gone, I think then it's

the start of a new era.

It's pretty understandable, isn't it, that they're going to have one

last throw of the dice and try and find a way of preserving something.

One last throw of the dice just to go down, um...

...leaving an ever more negative legacy.

But the Liverpool board could overrule the American duo.

Now things turned really nasty.

There's some things I can't talk about,

but what I would say is that there were some very, very tough clays,

and not least when we got sued for $1 billion each.

It ended up, sadly, in the court, which, you know, I don't think

achieved anything for anyone, and particularly for such a

longstanding organisation like Liverpool Football Club,

it was quite sad.

It's been a bitter and lengthy battle,

but tonight, Liverpool Football Club is in new hands.

Tonight, amid jubilant scenes, the Liverpool board

got what they wanted — a deal with Henry worth £300 million,

and writing off the club's debts.

I am proud and humbled.

We have a lot of work to do, and I can't tell you how happy I am

that we've finally, finally got to this point.

I've got john Henry's autograph and a picture of him.

What did he say to you?

He said... AMERICAN ACCENT: .."You want to shake hands?"

After a long period of turmoil,

FSG were determined to get Liverpool back on track quickly.

Results under Roy Hodgson had not been good.

Their first task was to remove him from his duties.

In his place came a familiar face.

If there's one person alive today in the history

of Liverpool Football Club who has the talent and the ability

and the personality to stop

that plate spinning and to bring

everybody back together,

Kenny, for me, was the obvious choice.

We were unstable as an organisation,

and the fact is that, from that day forward, he has been — continues

to be — someone that the club rallies around.

I don't think anybody expected him to stay for long.

I think it was perhaps only a stopgap, but it was just...

...because you felt safe. You felt safe with Kenny because his heart

was where your heart was and so, you know, he was welcome.

Kenny got the job for the second time.

It was a good move, because in many ways it appeased the supporters.

There was a League Cup win

at Wembley, as well, which is always good.

After so much difficult and dark clays,

to be back as Liverpool Football Club, winning a trophy and winning

it with, you know, with the King in charge — it doesn't get any better,

to be honest.

The club had begun to heal, but to return to the success

of the past, they were going to have to turn their back

on tradition and rip up the Liverpool rule book.

I don't think that you can win in any sport

unless you attack every avenue

you have, to try to excel.

I was determined to see whether or not it would be possible

to use data analysis to help.

Every aspect of the club went under the microscope.

From diet, to player improvement, to player purchases —

no stone was left unanalysed.

That was about bringing in the right people who started to

develop our own sort of bespoke analysis and scouting systems,

and it was more one of not having a single individual

choosing the players.

The new way of working also applied to managers.

It didn't take a data analyst to figure out that league results

weren't great under Kenny.

Having unified the club, his time came to an end.

Kenny gives me a hard time still about that, but... And that's fine.

It was, of course, results.

And then I think also the ownership wanted a different, you know,

a more... Let's call it a more modern coach

with a more modern view.

I remember saying on the first day Brendan arrived in Liverpool,

saying to him... We were waiting to go to do the press conference.

I remember saying to him, you know, just as somebody who grew up here,

like, don't underestimate the size of this place.

You know, it's been 20 years since they've won the title,

and for sure, and the realism is we might not be ready for the title

now, but the process begins today

and it's a new cycle.

It was such a great learning curve for me, Liverpool.

You understand the size of Liverpool,

but you don't really, truly understand until you're there.

Rodgers may have been a modern manager, but there were early

tensions over transfer policy, which led to a very public fallout

between the new coach and the board.

So this created this...this problem which became one of the most

common headlines of the era.

You know, "Rodgers versus the transfer committee."

And it was interesting, because I don't remember a single time

in that process where we had a player that we brought

to the table in those...in those committee or group meetings

that we didn't all end up agreeing on, mostly.

Despite a tricky start,

Rodgers began to mould a great side.

Steven Gerrard was still there, along with a young Raheem Sterling.

But the player that spearheaded the Rodgers revolution

was a controversial, hungry Uruguayan —

Luis Suarez.

He was a dream to work with because he had that commitment

and drive to be the very, very best, and I think, in the two years

that we worked together, his numbers proved that

we worked very well together.

COMMENTATOR: And Suarez's control is absolutely sublime!

Great to watch.

Great fun.

Till he started biting people, and then it all sort of went shipshape!

Going into the second season, February on, when we were starting

to get a run, was first v second when we played Arsenal.

It was just breathtaking football.

COMMENTATOR: Sturridge in on goal for four!

I do feel that Brendan Rodgers was almost the start,

the very start of a consistent mounted challenge

and a consistently good team.

In 2014, you've got three games left.

All you've got to do is stay in front.

The Chelsea game at home,

we were so, so close.

It just felt like inches away.

COMMENTATOR: Oh, Gerrard slipped.

Ba on to it. Ba against Mignolet here for Chelsea,

and Ba scores! Chelsea have the lead!

Steven Gerrard slipping is not why Liverpool didn't win the league.

You can't just blame it on that, but of course people loved it,

that they could turn it on him and use it against him.

How anyone can mention Steven Gerrard and the first thing

that comes to your mind is, "Oh yeah, slipping for the title."

I mean, the things that that lad did for that club

and, I mean, it just... Honestly, it just does my head in, really.

It was unfortunate, obviously, what happened to Steven.

And for me, that was the... That was the defining game, really.

COMMENTATOR: It's all about forgetting the immediate past.

For Liverpool there can be no more stumbles.

They have to win here

and hope Manchester City slip up.

Sterling. Suarez! It's three!

I think we were chasing the goal difference,

and I made the point at half-time in that game specifically that

I felt we were taking too much risk in the game.

Up it goes to Glenn Murray, with the chest on. Here's Gayle!

It's 3—3!

It's all gone wrong, the title is disappearing!

We were great going forward.

We were just that bit inconsistent defending.

I've got no doubt, if we'd Virgil van Dijk in our back four

at that point, we would've won the league.

In two games, the dream has vanished into an unbelievable nightmare.

We were genuinely very, very close to doing it.

But unfortunately, destiny didn't take us there.

We just couldn't quite get over the line.

Despite reaching two semifinals the following season, Liverpool

were well off the pace in the league.

The club, it seemed, was in transition again.

We'd obviously lost Luis, who was a talisman, and really

the team in terms of how we played.

So we spent two seasons in building a model of intensity and aggression

and pressing and being creative.

Without Luis, we never replaced that.

I don't think there was any huge plan to sack Brendan Rodgers

when they did. We played Everton,

and in the press conference, Rodgers said...

We have to build something here again.

So it's going to take time, whether that's me or someone else.

And while he was right, Fenway believed that the players

that they'd brought in after Suarez were capable of winning the league.

At the time, we kind of thought... it seemed a little bit strange

and maybe a little bit harsh, and then you think,

"Ah, yeah, BUT...

"..who came in his place?"

Hello.

We were on a family holiday Lisbon, if I'm right.

I got a call from my agent and he told me

about the interest of Liverpool.

So we had our plans in that time,

that moment, looked completely different, actually,

because we wanted to make more holiday.

And then I told my family and the boys

were immediately like, "Yes!"

And I was looking in Ulla's eyes and she was, "Uh, when?"

When you make such a big promise, like I did after I left Dortmund —

we will have a year just for us —

and after four months, you come around the corner with different

plans and you have to ask, at least.

I remember watching jurgen in Dortmund when I was still

really a student of the game and thinking, "That's the kind

"of football we want to play."

I think they called it "heavy metal football".

When Mike Gordon called me one day and said, "We're going

"to have a chance to meet with jurgen in New York,"

to me that was one most exciting phone calls I've got

during the ten years that we've been with the club.

We met in New York in some law offices and it was as secretive

as it could be.

And for whatever reason, we got away with it, without it making the news.

I was pretty much on fire from the first second —

they didn't have to convince me, really.

Well, I'm a totally normal guy.

I'm the normal one, maybe if you want this.

LAUGHTER

jurgen Klopp the manager is a fantastic manager,

I think one of the best in the world.

Jurgen is a perfect fit.

Leadership is a transfer of emotion,

and he does that well.

Jurgen Klopp the person is what you see on TV.

You know, he's a very open, funny, bubbly guy.

Sometimes he'll go shout about something.

Even when you're scoring goals, he scream.

Obviously he's the boss. That's what he shows as well.

But you can always talk to him and he will be there for you as well.

I think he gets the Scouse humour, if you like.

The next one is...

Givin' it bifters.

I cannot act, the last thing I can do is act, acting.

That's why I admire actors so much, because I've no chance.

SCOUSE ACCENT: Givin' it bifters.

Anyone who spends any time with Jurgen, however you feel when you go

into a room, when you come out of it, you feel better.

I love it. Unless he's shouting at you.

Despite the smiley demeanour, he can be angry.

You wouldn't want to mess with him.

You know, he's always up for the fight.

MUSIC: The Wizard by Black Sabbath

If I would see another person doing what I do, I would think,

"Is he crazy?"

Well, he's fantastic.

I think he's like Shanks in another form.

That relationship that a coach

has with the fans dates back to the Shankly spirit.

Infectious. I think if you ask all of the lads, they would say

the same thing, you know, what he does for us as players,

as people, is incredible.

For me, life is completely about relationships.

I don't want to live alone on a mountain.

I want to inspire people. I want to be inspired by people.

I want to love. I want to be loved.

He's a large man with a large heart and an incredible passion for doing

things the right way.

His charisma and his leadership, and actually his way of working

has been a breath of fresh air.

The best word I can say that will describe this was "boom!"

LAUGHTER

"W00! What was this?" It was really good.

There was now a real buzz around Liverpool.

It was just one part of Klopp's master plan to reenergise the club

and create a proper football culture.

I think he was trying to create a special atmosphere not only

within Melwood but within the whole club.

We played West Brom at home.

We scraped a 2-2 draw. The end of the game,

Klopp went onto the pitch,

he got all the players together and he applauded all the Kop.

And the next day all the journos are going,

"Well, what was all that about?"

He said, "Look, if I cannot convince my supporters, our own supporters,

"that we can score in the last few minutes of a game, what's the point

"of being a manager?"

We could understand it, because he was going on to us every single day

of what he wanted from our mentality and the never giving up.

And I feel as though that West Brom game,

the things that happened within the game, he could see

that that mentality was starting to change.

I didn't think about success — not about the long—term success,

winning the trophy, the title, whatever —

but I thought about, "How can we improve the situation?"

So I had to remind the people maybe that this is a fair business,

if you want. We give all on the pitch and you have to give all

in the stands, as well.

We had a few conversations about that!

Liverpool were fighting again, the Klopp way —

high energy, high press“

The fans loved it.

And jurgen loved the fans.

Klopp epitomises what Scousers like.

They like the fact that, you know, he shows that emotion

and he's connected with them.

Klopp straight away had become a hero to the Liverpool fans,

especially with his antics on the touchline

and the way he carries on.

You know, it's just he's passionate through and through,

which is what the Liverpool fans are looking for.

That's why we're up here now, trying to get a glimpse!

We only come for Klopp.

I metjurgen in his office at Melwood.

I hope he doesn't mind me saying this, that his son came

over and watched a game at Liverpool, went home and told his

dad, he said, "Oh, my gosh, Dad," he said, "the people of

"Liverpool, they're amazing, the way they stick together, the support

"they give the families of Hillsborough."

And he just said, "That was one of the reasons why I came,

"because of the people, the way they believe

"in what I believe in, is fairness, justice."

And I thought that was really nice of him.

The families of the 96 had spent years fighting for the truth.

Inquests and inquiries were held,

but no sense of justice was felt within the city.

In 2016, finally, a second inquiry

returned a conclusion of unlawful killing.

Your loved ones were unlawfully killed.

And, no, the fans were not to blame.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

This was by no means the end, but it was a result

that could in some way start to heal the pain.

On the pitch, Liverpool were now scoring goals for fun...

Mane!

...thanks to a new rock and roll front three. While scoring goals

wasn't a problem, stopping them still was.

Liverpool needed an organiser, and they found it in Virgil van Dijk.

Virgil van Dijk on debut!

He made an immediate impact and helped take them back to the final

of the Champions League.

They got to the final, and that gave them a belief that they could get

there and compete. But the next thing you've got to do

is get over the hump and win the trophy.

Salah's gone down. Yeah. That doesn't look too good.

He's got a blow in the face, I think. Shoulder?

I don't know how to describe it, but it's...

It was so sad for me.

It's, like, one of my worst time in football.

Well, he's in tears because of the pain and the agony of knowing

that he's about to leave the Champions League final.

I don't know, I don't want to be getting emotional with that,

but it was really bad.

Klopp never really thought about goalkeepers

in his management career, but he come to Liverpool and he inherited

a problem. So they persisted with Mignolet. Lots of mistakes,

lots of errors. Then they brought Karius in.

Ah! Oh! It's in! Thrown out by Karius, and it's in the net!

A freak goal in the Champions League final.

He cost them a Champions League.

Here's Bale shooting from long range.

What a mistake by Karius.

At that point, Klopp goes, "Enough is enough.

"We need a top-class goalkeeper."

They went and bought Alisson Becker.

It's so hard to get to that point.

And then if you can't, you can't win the final match, particularly

the way I think we lost it, that was hard.

But I rememberjurgen saying at the time, "We'll be back,

"we'll be back,"

and damned if we weren't!

Klopp now had the Premier League in his sights.

The target was to overcome incumbent champions Manchester City,

who'd broken the 100—point barrier

for the first time the previous season.

What ensued was one of the greatest battles in sporting history.

Sterling to Sane...

Sane!

Liverpool lost just one game all season — but it was against City,

who went on to win the league by a single point on the final day.

Manchester City are there. Premier League champions once more!

To finish the end of the season on 97 points and not win the league —

in fact, lose it by one point to Manchester City — is incredible.

Yeah, it was obviously bitterly disappointing. To have such

an incredible season but just to come up short...

...was hard to take.

I enjoyed every bit of it.

And I know that after the Wolves game, our last game of the season,

that I wanted to at least be there again with the same amount

of points, and win the league.

Solace did come in the Champions League.

The big European nights were back,

and now there was one that topped

them all. We came into Anfield in the semifinals against Barcelona

down three to nothing.

To come back was an extraordinary experience.

Oh! It's in! Ohhh, he's put it in!

It's Origi! Liverpool 4 Barcelona O!

The greatest European comeback ever.

Well, we all know that magic happens at Anfield. European nights

are just different at Anfield to any other place.

Everybody was, like, crazy.

That's one of the best games maybe in the history of football.

The final was an all-English affair in Madrid. After the season

they'd had it was almost unthinkable

that Liverpool would finish it empty-handed.

We were having dinner before the game.

Then I think it was me, Dejan, Bobby, Ali and Virge,

some big group, and Gini, and we were talking, like, "We cannot lose

"two finals in a row. It just doesn't work."

If you lost the Champions League, no-one would remember you,

because in the end you won nothing. You didn't win the Premier League,

didn't win the Champions League two years in a row. It was crazy.

It was too much pressure, to be honest.

Origi. Left—footed shot.

He's scored!

Origi makes it 2-0 to Liverpool.

I was never more relaxed in a final than in this one —

OK, maybe because I lost so many, I don't know.

But it was absolutely great, what the boys did that night.

It's been a long wait for jurgen Klopp's Liverpool

to find success, but they've got there in the end,

and they've got there with the biggest trophy of all.

To finally get over the line was an amazing feeling.

Of course, relief was in there, as well.

But the lads deserved it, you know, and it was a matter of time.

Y'know, winning the Champions League is a dream come true,

I think for all of us — for every football player, every young player

that's, you know, out there. I'll never forget Klopp on the bus

for the celebrations.

I thought he was going to throw himself off at some point.

It was wonderful to see just that sheer happiness.

The place was jumping,

but Liverpool stood still.

They made no signings of note.

There was a belief and confidence that the squad was good enough

and consistent enough to end that 30-year wait.

In the beginning of the season, you want to win it so bad.

You want to achieve something for the club, which...the main

target was the Premier League.

Can Liverpool become the champions of England again?

Now, that is becoming an age-old question.

Origi!

4-0.

Robertson. Cracker of a cross.

Brilliant Salah header.

When you beat Man City, it gives you more confidence, as well,

that you beat the champion. We've had the odd game or two

where we've not been brilliant and we're still winning.

The outcome always seems to be the same. Liverpool win.

And this machine that was Liverpool was just rolling

and rolling and rolling. I think by December, the players

knew that they were going to win the league.

Trent Alexander—Arnold! It's four!

I think consistency comes from mentality — when you keep

winning then there's no reason to change.

We have a saying, as well, that we use, that we defend together

and we attack together, and that's the mentality throughout the team.

They are such a good team at the minute.

Salah charges towards him...

...to score!

I was excited after the goal, and the celebration from the fans

was crazy, and it was really special for everybody.

And then we were, like, all these points ahead, easily.

And then...

Coronavirus is the biggest threat this country has faced for decades.

The virus CAN be passed from human to human.

You must stay at home.

Sport has simply never seen anything quite like this. ..event after event

being cancelled the world over.

And ultimately, this season has to be simply abandoned.

People say they're cancelling the league. Some people are saying,

"You cannot play any more."

It was stress somehow and everybody maybe started to panic.

I was home during that time with the family.

They had that time before, so I was using it to enjoy it.

Football fans everywhere felt the pain of lockdown.

But Liverpool's fans and players had the extra anxiety of wondering

if, after all this time, the title was going to be snatched

from their grasp. It would have been awful,

one, to have it void, but it wouldn't have been the same

if people had just said, "Well, you can have it."

It was tough, as well, for you to think after that long season

and after that year

they're going to cancel the Premier League again. That's bad!

30 years of turmoil,

of agony, of underachieving,

of hope and of desperately wondering when — if ever —

it was going to happen again.

Liverpool are almost there. They will be champions

if Manchester City fail to win at Chelsea tomorrow.

The manager obviously organised for us to watch it all together,

which, looking back, was a very good decision.

In the 90th minute, I was still... I was still watching.

I just wanted the whistle to go because I'd been so close

so many times before that you just never know what can happen in

football. So when that final whistle went and we became champions,

it was an incredible feeling, and very emotional for all of us.

Liverpool's 30-year wait comes to an end today.

Come on!

To be with the team—mates in that time is something special.

Liverpool have become the Premier League champions.

They've won their first English top-flight title since 1990.

It's strange, of course, because you can't celebrate it with the fans,

but I think the feeling of looking back and thinking

what I've achieved in my career so far,

you know, I think that feeling would probably be the same,

but the celebration obviously would be totally different.

I cried a lot that night, which I don't do a lot.

But, obviously, I realised in that moment how much it meant

to me, as well, and was big, is big, and will be big forever.

The Premier League is the most difficult league in the world

and the most difficult challenge that I've ever faced.

It's so weird to be lifting the trophy up on 96 points —

a point for every one of them who died.

Some things are just meant to be, and I'm sure every single one of

them were looking over us on that night.

In this moment — for just a moment —

all of the emotions that had built up over the years were set free.

When I come to Liverpool, that was the one trophy I wanted to win.

To finally do it and be a part of it is an incredible feeling,

and I'm incredibly proud to be a part

of this football club and this football team.

Liverpool Football Club were finally League Champions again —

a title 30 years in the making.

I came, but I didn't make a revolution.

I just wanted to have a sort of evolution.

It's really a sense of proud

that you have been part of this massive club.

30 years. It's been a hell of a long time.

We went very close, and I only wish that we could have done it,

but at least they haven't had to wait too long.

As a story in football, it doesn't come any better than that, does it?

Liverpool did it, and that's all because of you, and that's why

we all, together, deserve it this year.