Around 20 years ago, and through the naughties, Liverpool FC was one of the formidable “top-four” clubs of the English Premier League, regarded as one of the best football leagues in the world. Around the same time, back home, urban Indian fans deciding which of the four giants they would
pledge their allegiance to – for every football conversation for the next few years, at least. There were the Manchester United fans, the perfectionists who couldn’t handle a single loss; the Arsenal fans, mild-tempered and passionate (also most likely to get the club logo tattooed on themselves); the Chelsea fans, who only cared about the club enough to buy all its merchandise; and the Liverpool fans, whose teachers always told them they had the potential to do better if only they “applied themselves”. There was always, of course, the odd West Ham or Tottenham fan, but back then you could tell they had no stake in the game, apart from throwing a contrarian opinion every now and then, and were usually left out of the more serious “top-four” discussions. This little ecosystem of football fans of my school (which is now grown to almost 160 million people across the country) had their own version of banter as well. When football was involved no one’s parents were off limits, and no amount of wishing death upon professional world-class footballers was frowned upon. When Manchester United clashed with Liverpool, it was the football fan’s version India-Pakistan. I had a friend who used to look me right in the eye as he twisted the head of a Steven Gerrard bobblehead in his hand, every single time we would watch the match together. With absolutely no regard for the doll’s friends and family even. To say that things would get heated is to put it very lightly. Back then, the fans of other clubs had a slight advantage over Liverpool. While the other three clubs that made up the erstwhile “top-four” had at least one Premier League title to their name, Liverpool FC hadn’t – and still hasn’t – won a single title since the league was officially formed in 1992. Even Blackburn has one league title to its credit. Still, you don’t see too many Indian Blackburn supporters at live screenings, and that fact alone should give you an idea of how relevant Liverpool has been through the years. Despite constantly throwing up world-class performances, with players like Xabi Alonso, Fernando Torres, and Luiz Suarez to name a few, the club hasn’t managed to lift that elusive trophy.Even real-life Santa Claus Jurgen Klopp couldn’t get Liverpool their first title Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images
