History of Liverpool F.C.

Liverpool Football Club, the most successful club in English football, have a long and detailed history.

Early history

In 1891 Everton won the Football League Championship. Soon after John Houlding, the leaseholder, purchased the Anfield Road ground and proposed to increase the rent from £100 to £250 a year. The Everton members left Anfield for Goodison Park (where they play to this day), with just 3 players remaining. John Houlding was left with an empty ground with no team to play in it and there for found his own football club and on March 15, 1892 Liverpool Football Club was born (oddly enough at the time there was already a rugby club named Liverpool Football Club which had been in existence since 1858). John McKenna was appointed director, went to Scotland and signed 13 professionals, unsurprisingly the team was labelled "the team of the Macs."

An ambitious application to join the Football League was rejected. After a 7-1 home friendly match victory on 1st September 1892 against Rotherham Town, Liverpool kicked off life in the Lancashire League with an 8-0 win at Anfield against Higher Walton. Malcolm McVean scored the first competitive goal. Ending the first season as champions and beating Everton 1-0 in the first Merseyside derby, the 1893 Liverpool Senior Cup final at Bootle F.C., Liverpool were elected to the Football League alongside Woolwich Arsenal.

McVean scored the club’s first league goal in a 2-0 win over Middlesbrough Ironopolis and ended the season unbeaten and Second Division Champions, winning a test match 2-0 against Newton Heath (soon to be renamed Manchester United) and promotion to the First Division.

Manager Tom Watson, a 3-time-championship-winner at Sunderland arrived, the strip changed from blue and white quarters to the famous red and white, and in 1901 Scottish international Alex Raisbeck was the first Liverpool captain to collect the Football League championship. League champions again in 1906, when Everton also won the FA Cup, the ground capacity was increased with the building of a huge cinder bank behind the south end goal. It was christened the Spion Kop after a Boer War battle of 1900 when over 300 men of the Lancashire Regiment died, many from Liverpool.

Liverpool played their first FA Cup final, the last at Crystal Palace, and the first attended by the reigning monarch, George V, losing 1-0 to Burnley in 1914. In 1921-2 and again in 1922-3, captained by England full-back Ephraim Longworth, Liverpool were champions.

In 1946-7, the first season after World War 2, Liverpool were surprise League champions. In 1950 the club lost its second FA Cup final, 2-0 to Arsenal at Wembley.

Goalkeepers

The club has had more than it's fair share of notable goalkeepers. Matt McQueen, one of the original ‘team of the Macs’ who played in Liverpool's very first game, appeared in every position including goalkeeper and managed the club from 1923-8. Scotsman Ted Doig signed from Sunderland in 1904, and is still the club's oldest debutant at 37 years 11 months. Sam Hardy acquired from Chesterfield in 1905 played 219 games and became an England international. In 1912 he was replaced by Scottish international Kenny Campbell who played in the 1914 FA Cup final and in March 1920 the opposing keepers in an international at Celtic Park were Liverpool’s Kenny Campbell (Scotland) and Elisha Scott (Ireland).

The great Elisha Scott kept goal in 402 league games from 1913 until 1934. A Belfast man he was known for his distinctive long johns and knee pads, his agility, command of the penalty area and his profanity. This often led to admonishment from skipper Jimmy "Parson" Jackson, a devout Presbyterian and later an ordained minister.

Tommy Younger captained Scotland at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden.

Shankly's fellow Scot Tommy Lawrence, christened "the flying pig", was the first of the "keeper sweepers".

Ray Clemence, 3 times a European Cup winner, and twice a UEFA Cup winner, was one of the finest English goalkeepers of all time.

Bruce Grobbelaar, a showman and an eccentric Zimbabwean, made hair-raising dashes from his penalty area, not always successfully. His finest moment was the penalty shoot-out of the 1984 European Cup final in Rome. His wobbly legs antics distracted the Roma players, 2 of whom missed. He was also implicated in allegations of "match fixing" which led to two criminal trials which failed to convict him, and a libel trial against The Sun newspaper where the Appeal Court overturned a jury verdict in his favour and reduced a damages' award from £85,000 to £1 and left Grobbelaar liable for £500,000 in legal costs which bankrupted him.

The Bill Shankly era

(Honours won: UEFA Cup (1973), Football League Championship (1964, 1966, 1973), FA Cup (1965, 1974))

Bill Shankly was appointed manager of Liverpool in December 1959. The 45-year-old former Preston North End and Scotland player took charge of the Anfield side when they were languishing in the Football League Second Division, despite having won the Football League Championship five times in the past.

Promotion to the Football League First Division was achieved in 1962 when Liverpool won the Second Division Championship. In that season, centre forward Roger Hunt scored 41 league goals - a club record which remains to this day. Liverpool won the Football League Championship in 1964 and regained it two years later, winning their first FA Cup in the intervening season. In 1973 Liverpool won their first European trophy, the UEFA Cup, along with another League Championship. After leading Liverpool to the 1974 FA Cup, Shankly shocked the football world by announcing his retirement. He watched Liverpool play as a spectator from The Kop and attended games at local rivals Everton until his death from a heart attack in 1981 at the age of 67. He has a stand named after him at Preston's Deepdale Stadium.

The Bob Paisley era

(Honours won: UEFA European Cup (1977, 1978, 1981), UEFA Cup (1976), Football League Championship (1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983), Football League Cup (1981, 1982, 1983))

Shankly's 55-year-old assistant, was promoted to the position of manager for the 1974-75 season after failing to persuade his predecessor to carry on. By the time he retired at the end of the 1982-83 season, Bob Paisley was the most successful manager in the history of Liverpool Football Club - and, until 2001, the most successful manager in English football.

Liverpool won six Football League Championships in nine seasons while Paisley was manager, as well as lifting three European Cups, one UEFA Cup, three successive League Cups, one European Super Cup and three Charity Shields - a total of 21 trophies..

Bob Paisley bowed out of management in May, 1983 after guiding Liverpool to their second successive Football League Championship/League Cup double. He died on February 14, 1996 at the age of 77. After his death, he was honoured by the club with the opening of the Paisley Gates at one of the entrances to Anfield, complementing the existing Shankly Gates.

The Joe Fagan era

(Honours won: UEFA European Cup (1984), Football League Championship (1984), Football League Cup (1984))

Joe Fagan, who became Liverpool manager at the age of 63 after Bob Paisley's retirement, was the second to be promoted from the coaching staff into the manager's seat. He remained in charge for just two seasons before handing in his retirement, but his first season (1983-84) saw Liverpool set some of the most impressive records in English football. They won their fourth successive League Cup and their third successive League Championship as well as winning the European Cup for the fourth time in eight seasons, thanks to the efforts of Fagan and his high quality squad which was mostly made up of players from the Bob Paisley era. A significant breakthrough star in the Liverpool team was young striker Ian Rush, who had been signed from Chester in 1980 and after a couple of seasons in the reserves had broken into the first team and established himself as a prolific goalscorer.

In Fagan's second and final season as manager, Liverpool lost out on the league title to local rivals Everton - with four matches to spare. They reached the European Cup final to face Italian champions Juventus at the decrepit Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium. Before kick-off, a violent rampage by Liverpool supporters resulted in the death of 39 people who were crushed to death when a wall collapsed. The shockwaves from this reverberated round European football and lead to UEFA banning all English teams from European competitions until 1990.

Fagan retired after the Heysel Disaster and handed over the reins to former Liverpool striker Kenny Dalglish, who was given the role of player-manager. He died at the age of 80 in July 2001 after a long illness.

The Kenny Dalglish era

(Honours won: Football League Championship (1986, 1988, 1990), FA Cup (1986, 1989) - None of Dalglish's Liverpool sides were eligible for European competition)

Kenny Dalglish began his management career in style by winning the Football League Championship/FA Cup double in the 1985-86 season. The club finished top of the First Division ahead of neighbours Everton, and to round it all off Liverpool defeated Everton 3-1 in the FA Cup final.Dalglish was still a top striker despite his advancing years, and his partnership with Ian Rush was the most prolific in the English league.

Liverpool ended the 1986-87 season trophyless and despondent as they lost the Football League First Division to Everton and the League Cup to Arsenal. Pundits were predicting further disappointment for the following season when star striker Ian Rush was sold to Juventus. Dalglish responded by adding Peter Beardsley, John Barnes and John Aldridge to Liverpool's forward line. Liverpool won the First Division Championship by nine points from runners-up Manchester United and suffered just two league defeats all season. As ever, there was a downside to Liverpool's season, which came with a shocking 1-0 FA Cup final defeat against Wimbledon, who had been in the Football League for just eleven seasons and had just completed only their second season of top division football.

Ian Rush returned to Liverpool for the 1988-89 season, after an unsuccessful spell at Juventus, and was crucial in getting the club to their third FA Cup final in four years. They narrowly beat Everton 3-2 but the triumph was overshadowed by tragedy in the FA Cup semi final against Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough.

Before the FA Cup semi-final could kick off, 96 Liverpool supporters were crushed to death and around 766 others injured in the single worst disaster in British sport. Between 2.00pm and 2.45pm there was a considerable build up of fans in the small area outside the turnstiles at the Leppings Lane End, all eager to enter the stadium before the match started. A bottleneck developed with more fans arriving than entering the stadium. With an estimated 5,000 fans trying to get through the turnstiles and an increasingly dangerous situation, the police decided to open a second set of gates which did not have turnstiles (Gate C). The resulting inpouring of hundreds, or possibly thousands, of fans through a narrow tunnel at the rear of the terrace and into the already overcrowded central two pens caused a crush at the front where people were pressed against the fencing. The people entering were unaware of the problems being experienced at the fence and for some time the problem was not noticed by anybody (other than those affected), it was not until 3:06pm that the referee stopped the game. By this time a small gate in the fencing had been opened and some fans escaped the crush by this route — others climbed over the fencing, and further fans were pulled up by fellow fans into the upper tier above the Leppings Lane terrace.

The Taylor Report later ruled that the main reasons for the disaster were overcrowding due to a failure of police control.

After the FA Cup final victory, Liverpool played their final league game of the season - a home fixture against their nearest challengers Arsenal, who were three points behind them and had scored two goals fewer. Liverpool went 1-0 down but still looked set to win the league until the last minute of the game, when a goal from Arsenal midfielder Michael Thomas deprived Liverpool of the chance to repeat the double for the second season running.

In 1989-90, Dalglish guided Liverpool to their third league title in five seasons. Although the 5 year ban on English clubs in European competition was lifted for the following season, Liverpool had to serve an extra year and were unable to compete in the 1990-91 European Cup.

On February 22, 1991, with Liverpool halfway through a two-horse race with Arsenal for the league title and the day after an epic 4-4 FA Cup clash with Everton (a game which saw their rivals come back from a goal down 4 times), Kenny Dalglish dropped a bombshell by handing in his resignation as manager, claiming he could no longer cope with the pressure of managing the club. First-team coach Ronnie Moran took charge of team affairs for several weeks before Graeme Souness was named as the club's new manager. By that stage, Liverpool were slipping behind in the title race and finished runners-up to Arsenal who completed the season with just one defeat from 38 games.

The Graeme Souness era

(Honours won: FA Cup (1992))

Graeme Souness had a reasonable start to his career as Liverpool manager. His first season saw the club win the FA Cup with a 2-0 win over Sunderland at Wembley, a success which ensured they would be competing in the European Cup Winners Cup for the 1992-93 season. He spent recklessly on many new players who did not all prove to be successful, especially compared to younger players like Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman and Jamie Redknapp. The veteran striker Ian Rush meanwhile, was still scoring goals as freely as ever despite being in his thirties. Long-serving goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar was often being kept out of the team by promising young shot-stopper David James.

Liverpool finished sixth in the first-ever FA Premier League and never looked like title challengers at any stage during the season. The 1993-94 season was no different and Souness resigned in January 1994 after Liverpool suffered a shock defeat against Bristol City in the FA Cup.

During his tenure as Liverpool manager, Graeme Souness suffered from heart problems. This indirectly led to him falling out of favour with Liverpool fans as he sold the story of his recovery to The Sun. The Sun has long been boycotted by people from Merseyside (regardless of footballing allegiance) due to its reporting of the Hillsborough disaster.

The Roy Evans era

(Honours won: Football League Cup (1995))

Roy Evans, a boot room veteran who had been on the club's pay roll since the late 1950s, was promoted to the position of manager following the dismissal of Graeme Souness. He guided Liverpool to an eighth place finish in the 1993-94 Premier League campaign, young striker Robbie Fowler scoring 29 goals in all competitions which led to him being voted PFA Young Player of the Year. Liverpool made big progress during the 1994-95 season, finishing fourth in the Premiership and beating Bolton Wanderers 2-1 in the League Cup final.

In the summer of 1995, Liverpool paid Nottingham Forest a British record fee of £8.5 million for striker Stan Collymore. Fowler and Collymore formed an impressive partnership for the 1995-96 season which saw veteran striker Ian Rush relegated to the substitute bench for much of the season before his departure on a free transfer to Leeds United. Liverpool finished third in the Premiership and reached the FA Cup final, where they were defeated by Manchester United.

Liverpool finished fourth in the 1996-97 season and were defeated by Paris St. Germain in the semi finals of the European Cup Winners Cup.

1997-98 saw the emergence of a world class young player at Liverpool: Michael Owen. The 18-year-old Chester-born centre forward was a regular player in the first team almost all season, relegating German striker Karlheinz Riedle to the bench. He became the youngest-ever full England international in February 1998 and was voted PFA Young Player of the Year. Liverpool had an outside chance of winning the Premiership title for much of the 1997-98 season but were unable to catch champions Arsenal and finished third.

The Gérard Houllier era

(Honours won: UEFA Cup (2001), FA Cup (2001), Football League Cup (2001, 2003))

Gérard Houllier, the former French national coach, was drafted into the Liverpool management team for the 1998-99 season to work alongside Roy Evans. But Evans found that the partnership did not suit him and he quit during the season, at the end of which Liverpool finished a disappointing seventh - not even enough for a UEFA Cup place.

Liverpool had their best season for years in 2000-01 when they won a unique treble of the League Cup (beating Birmingham City on penalties after a 1-1 draw), FA Cup (beating Arsenal 2-1 with two goals from Michael Owen in the last ten minutes) and UEFA Cup (beating Alavés 5-4 in extra time), becoming the first club in English football to achieve two 'trebles' of any kind.

By now, Liverpool's side contained a new set of players including goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek, defender and captain Sami Hyypiä, young midfielder Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen's strike partner Emile Heskey.

2001-02 saw Liverpool progress even further. They ended the season without a major trophy, but finished league runners-up for the first time since 1991, ahead of Manchester United however many of Houllier's foreign imports such as El Hadj Diouf and Salif Diao failed to establish themselves in the team. 2001 was also dramatic for Houllier personally as he suffered a major heart problem which kept him away from the club for part of the season.

Liverpool won another League Cup in 2003 but Houllier had failed to deliver the league title which had eluded Anfield since 1990, although they did qualify for the Champions League three times during his tenure. Fans saw Houllier's ultra-conservative and defensive tactics as sacrificing too much attacking impetus to challenge Arsenal and Manchester United for the top prize. During this period Liverpool had their longest streak of not winning any games in the top flight. Against a background of growing disquiet amongst the Liverpool supporters Houllier and Liverpool parted by mutual consent at the end of the 2003-04 season, his replacement being the Spaniard Rafael Benítez who had just guided Valencia to the Spanish league title and UEFA Cup.

The Rafael Benítez era

(Honours won: UEFA Champions League (2005))

Rafael Benítez has so far guided Liverpool to the Champions League, defeating A.C. Milan in what is widely regarded as one of the greatest games in footballing history after Liverpool fought back from 3-0 down at half-time to draw the match 3-3, eventually winning on penalties. This result made Benítez the third manager (after Bob Paisley and José Mourinho) to win the UEFA Cup and Champions League in consecutive years, but the first to do it for two different clubs. Despite this success, the team stumbled their way to fifth place in the Premiership, lacking consistency throughout the campaign. Liverpool finished 37 points behind runaway winners Chelsea and one place below fierce local rivals Everton.

The Reds in Japan

As the UEFA Champions League 2005 winners, Liverpool earned the right to represent UEFA in the FIFA Club World Championship 2005 held in Japan.

Liverpool joined the competition at the semi-final stage on December 15th, courtesy of a bye. The semi-final was played against Costa Rican side Deportivo Saprissa, which Liverpool won 3-0. Goals coming from Peter Crouch (2) and Steven Gerrard.

Liverpool's final opponents were to be Brazil’s São Paulo on December 18th. São Paulo gained entry into the competition by winning the Copa Libertadores. The game was decided by a single goal scored by São Paulo midfielder Mineiro. Liverpool went on to dominate the remainder of the game. Three disallowed goals for offside and multiple saves from São Paulo's goalkeeper Rogério Ceni prevented Liverpool from winning the only trophy they have never won (apart from the discontinued UEFA Cup WInners' Cup). They had the opportunity on two previous occasions but eventually lost to Brazil's Flamengo and Argentina's Independiente.

Chronological list of trophies won

1901: Football League Championship (manager: T. Watson)
1906: Football League Championship (manager: T. Watson)
1922: Football League Championship (manager: D. Ashworth)
1923: Football League Championship (manager: M. McQueen)
1947: Football League Championship (manager: G. Kay)
1964: Football League Championship (manager: B. Shankly)
1965: FA Cup (manager: B. Shankly)
1966: Football League Championship (manager: B. Shankly)
1973: UEFA Cup, Football League Championship (manager: B. Shankly)
1974: FA Cup (manager: B. Shankly)
1976: UEFA Cup, Football League Championship (manager: B. Paisley)
1977: UEFA European Cup, Football League Championship (manager: B. Paisley)
1978: UEFA European Cup (manager: B. Paisley)
1979: Football League Championship (manager: B. Paisley)
1980: Football League Championship (manager: B. Paisley)
1981: UEFA European Cup, Football League Cup (manager: B. Paisley)
1982: Football League Championship, Football League Cup (manager: B. Paisley)
1983: Football League Championship, Football League Cup (manager: B. Paisley)
1984: UEFA European Cup, Football League Championship, Football League Cup (manager: J. Fagan)
1986: Football League Championship, FA Cup (manager: K. Dalglish)
1988: Football League Championship (manager: K. Dalglish)
1989: FA Cup (manager: K. Dalglish)
1990: Football League Championship (manager: K. Dalglish)
1992: FA Cup (manager: G. Souness)
1995: Football League Cup (manager: R. Evans)
2001: UEFA Cup, FA Cup, Football League Cup (manager: G. Houllier)
2003: Football League Cup (manager: G. Houllier)
2005: UEFA Champions League (manager: R. Benitez)

Sources: The official Liverpool FC website and The Official Liverpool FC Illustrated History by Jeff Anderson with Stephen Done (ISBN 1842226657)