‘Liverpool FC – The Premier League Years’ – intro to the first chapter

1992-93

“Least said, Souness mended.”

If the 1991-92 campaign had been largely miserable, Liverpool’s fortunes were about to plummet further, because the inaugural Premier League season was utterly abject. It was a season of three below-par goalkeepers and atrocious defending. A season when a Liverpool striker entered footballing folklore, guilty of one of the worst misses of all time. A season of nightmares against Chesterfield, Spartak Moscow, Coventry and Bolton. Another season blighted by injuries and another season of Graeme Souness in the manager’s chair. In choosing a moment to sum up Liverpool’s 1992-93 season, I can do little worse than quote a story from Ronnie Whelan’s autobiography, which detailed a post-match dressing-room scene after a heavy defeat at Blackburn, who just happened to be managed by Kenny Dalglish. “Souey went ballistic,” Whelan recalled. “[He] started ranting about the older players. He didn’t name us but was referring to me, Nicol, Barnes and Rush. He’d raised it as an issue several times in the months before. I was fuming inside because, number one, there was no acknowledgement from him that he might be at fault too. And, number two, it wasn’t true. I said to Souey, ‘Look it’s not as simple as that. You try talking to them [the younger players] and they tell you to fuck off.’ That only made him worse. ‘Who? Who tells you that?’ I just shrugged my shoulders. ‘Tell me who they are and I’ll back you up.’ And I said, ‘Just like you’re backing me up now?’ He flipped after that, and started screaming, ‘You tell me!’ And I wouldn’t reply. It just descended into a shouting match. I snapped back at him, ‘Just fuck off and leave me alone!’”
            Liverpool made two signings as they geared up for the new Premier League era. They paid Watford £1 million for David James, who was pitched in at the deep end when Bruce Grobbelaar put country before club. He was far from ready to be Liverpool’s first-choice keeper. Paul Stewart, who signed for £2.3 million from Spurs, was battling personal demons which eventually came to light in 2016. He had been sexually abused by a football coach for four years from the age of 11. He spent much of his Anfield career at the mercy of alcohol, cocaine and ecstasy and was a shadow of the player who had been man of the match in the 1991 FA Cup Final.
            The performances of these two were to be a microcosm of the season ahead. Fault lines ran right through the heart of the club. The 39-year-old Souness was despised by many for selling the story of his heart operation to the reviled Sun newspaper on the third anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster. The paper has been boycotted on Merseyside ever since the monstrous lies they told about the 1989 tragedy. And, although far less serious, his public congratulating of John Major and the Conservative Party upon winning the 1992 General Election in April went down badly in Britain’s most socialist city.
            From a footballing viewpoint, Souness had been a failure since his April 1991 appointment. He may have won the FA Cup in 1992, but five of Liverpool’s six opponents had been from the lower divisions. Of those, Bristol Rovers, Ipswich Town and Portsmouth had come alarmingly close to eliminating the Reds. A sixth-place finish in Division One was Liverpool’s worst since 1965. His transfer strategy can be summed up no better than the fact that he chose not to sign Peter Schmeichel and Eric Cantona. He later claimed he turned down the Frenchman because he was trying to get rid of older, troublesome players, not sign them. His only successful purchase was Rob Jones from Crewe. Most of the Scot’s other signings were flops. Not only had the brilliant Peter Beardsley been sold for a measly £1 million, he was replaced by the vastly inferior Dean Saunders, who cost nearly three times more. The Welshman was a number 9, whereas Beardsley played deeper, creating for others. That position wasn’t filled until the acquisition of Nigel Clough a year later – and he was even worse than Saunders.
            Mark Wright had come to Liverpool to stiffen a defensive line which had lost its impregnability since the days of Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson. Although he was quickly named captain, the England international was accident-prone and defended too deep. Any game plan based on the defence maintaining a high line was impossible to implement with Wright. He would later play his best football in a three-man central defence when Roy Evans was in charge. Under Souness, he was regularly one of the worst performers and had the captaincy taken off him during the autumn of 1992. Two more defenders – Torben Piechnik, fresh from winning the European Championship with Denmark, and Stig Inge Bjornebye – would be signed during the season. Souness will remember neither with any fondness, although, like Wright, Bjornebye would go on to flourish under Evans in a different system.
            Michael Thomas had replaced Steve McMahon in midfield halfway through 1991-92. He missed most of the rest of Souness’s reign with injury but did score a wonderful goal at Wembley. Istvan Kozma was miles off Liverpool standard. Unlike the departing Ray Houghton, Mark Walters was wildly inconsistent but had at least provided Anfield with its two most celebrated moments in the 1991-92 season – the winner against Auxerre in the UEFA Cup and the clincher against Manchester United, which handed the title to Leeds, meaning that United had gone a quarter of a century without winning the league. Perhaps Liverpool supporters overdosed on their rivals’ misery on that sunny Sunday afternoon in April 1992. As the Kop gloated mercilessly, who could have guessed that Liverpool would have to wait even longer to land England’s biggest prize again?

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New Rugby League Book!

Hello all,
I have a new rugby league book coming out in July. It’s called Rugby League: On This Day which is 366 random stories from the sport’s history, ranging from 1866 to the current day.
The price is £12 which includes first-class postage.
More info soon….

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Liverpool FC – The Premier League Years [BUY NOW]

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Liverpool FC – The Premier League Years

Coming at the end of August…….

…..My new book: ‘Liverpool FC – The Premier League Years’.

At 452 pages (A5) and nearly 250,000 words, the book examines each of the 1,492 matches LFC have played from the start of the 1992-93 season until July 2020.

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