We hope you’ve all had a good summer, and we’re sure that you’re all looking forward to next Saturday’s first match of the new season (less than a week away now) as much as we are.

Over the last couple of months, we decided that it was time to look into the idea of possibly moving our home venue from Library Square Public House to somewhere else. We considered several possible venues and eventually it came down to a choice of two. We could stay at Library Square, or we could move to a location that might suit us all just a little bit better. The other location that we finally narrowed it down to was G Sports Bar and Grill, which is at 1208 Granville Street, just south of Davie. Many of you have been there before for a number of games last season. The majority of members mentioned how they thought that it was a better place than Library Square, and so of course that was one of the considerations in deciding if we should make a move.

It’s not easy to make a decision like this, and it took quite a bit of time and discussion with a lot of people. We even considered the possibility of “sharing” where we would somehow split the matches between Library Square and G Sports. But, after thinking about that for a short time, we realised that there was no “fair” way of doing this. It has to be one or the other. So, finally, we decided on G Sports for several very good reasons.

First, we will be able to see every live televised match that begins at 7am or later in the day. That in itself is a huge improvement over last year where we saw very few live matches on Saturdays and Sundays. For the occasional match that kicks off earlier (e.g. Sunderland and Portsmouth coming up at 4:45am on August 25th and September 15th) those will be recorded on DVD for us, if the match is televised and is available, to watch beginning at 7am. There are as many, if not more, channels available at G Sports as anywhere else, which means that we will have more opportunity to get together to see live games than ever before.

Also, breakfast will be available every day beginning at 8am. That’s another huge improvement over last season when we were lucky to have coffee or tea. Of course the bar will open at 9am (under G Sports’ license) and we’re more than welcome to order a drink, or even stay for lunch if we want. Speaking of which, we will be given a 15% discount on the menu price of all meals and non-alcoholic beverages. You may be asked to produce a membership card to get the discount, so make sure you get your membership paid as soon as possible and we’ll get the cards out as soon as we can.

A couple of other considerations also came into the decision. It was considered important for several members to have a place that is exclusively ours, and is not shared with any other club. As you know, there were a few occasions where the Celtic supporters at Library Square took priority over us. Even though we were guaranteed that this would not be a problem for this season, we decided that it would be better to avoid any possible conflicts. We will also be allowed to have some Liverpool gear on permanent display at G Sports, which will start off small and will build up over the season. The best that Library Square was offering us was a joint plaque with the Celtic supporters, such as each club crest on either side of the European Cup.

At the risk of sounding like one of those annoying infomercials, we have to say: “But wait, there’s more!” Yes, there really is more. G Sports has a separate area at the back which can be easily sectioned off for special LFC Vancouver events. We have a few things in mind here, which include a Christmas party, or just the occasional evening get-together with fellow Reds. If we have enough interest from members, we just have to give a few days notice and we can have the room to ourselves with our choice of video on the screens back there. Of course we can also have a meal and a few drinks while we watch a classic match on DVD, or we can host similar events. Give us some suggestions please!

Even with all of this, it wasn’t easy to make a final decision. We’ve had so many great times at Library Square, from the FA Cup final of 2006 to the Champions League matches of last season. Who could ever forget the atmosphere for the win over Barcelona, or the penalty kicks to decide the semi-final over Chelsea? The final was another great occasion of course, even though the result was not what we wanted. Can we even imagine what it would have been like if we’d won? However, as we might say, all good things come to an end. But this is not so much an end as the beginning of a new and better era for LFC Vancouver. We’re looking forward to it and can hardly wait for the season to begin (4 more sleeps to go) and of course we look forward to seeing you all there. Come on you REDS!!

For those of you who are not familiar with G Sports, check their website The G Sport. Come on down and see the place; we’re sure you’ll agree that we’ve made the right choice.

You’ll Never Walk Alone,

Keith, Ste, Kev, Paul, Andy

What do you think? Give us your comments at webmaster [at] lfcvancouver.com.

By LFC Vancouver member Ste Speed, 01 August 07.

Another season is upon us and I make no apologies for spouting a cliché when I say that this year I really am more excited and hopeful than I have been in a very long time. I know I said this last year and a lot of you will be thinking “here he goes again spouting his mouth off”; but this time I really feel that this will be a great season. After years of (let’s be honest) over achieving with a decent but limited squad, I believe that we now have a side capable of being genuine challengers. We have real, solid quality plus strong cover for every position now, except maybe left back. I’m going to examine our squad as it currently stands and where I feel that the quality is in each position. There may still be more decent additions to be made but today I will be identifying who I believe will be the key players this season.

Goalkeeper

Jose Reina has been a big success; whilst prone to the occasional error (in typical Liverpool style) he has been extremely solid in his first two seasons. He beat Ray Clemence’s clean sheet record that stood for many years and after many years of panicking whenever the opposition attacks it’s nice to feel confidant again. His contribution to our success in cup competitions cannot be underestimated, particularly with his performances in penalty shoot-outs. I can put my hand on my heart and honestly say that I wasn’t even slightly nervous during both of the shoot outs we won against West Ham and Chelsea.

Scott Carson is now back in the squad as understudy to Reina. Jerzy Dudek has now gone to Real Madrid so the reliable and talented Carson has been brought back from a one year loan spell at Charlton Athletic. It’s debatable how long he will stay at the club and be happy as second best because he is a tremendous talent with experience at international level with England. For the time being however, it’s nice to know that if anything happens to Reina we have good cover waiting on the bench.

Defence

At left back we have John Arne Riise and Fabio Aurelio. As anybody who has been in my company for any games last season knows, Riise is not a favourite of mine in defence. While he is tremendous going forward I feel that he gets done over by opposition forwards far too often. As frustrating as he can be Riise is actually one of our most consistent defenders with not as many errors leading to goals as I think.

Aurelio has proved that he is a really quality player with some terrific performances last season, especially in the away leg against PSV Eindhoven in the champions League. It was unfortunate for him to suffer the long term injury just as he seemed to be looking the business. Hopefully when he returns to the side he will continue where he left off.

Jamie Carragher and Daniel Agger have built up a really great partnership in central defence with the still superb Sami Hyypia there to give either player a break when required. Carragher’s ability and quality goes without saying, we all know how amazing he is and that really doesn’t need to be analysed by me here. At the start of last season I thought Agger was a talent for the future but he stepped in and made himself virtually undroppable. He was one of the real stars in the side last season with consistently good performances game after game. He reminds me of Alan Hansen in a way because he isn’t afraid to come forward with the ball and I never feel worried that he will give away possession. He also pops up with his share of goals too and can often be in the right place at the right time, the second leg of the Chelsea semi final for example. Hyypia may have lost some pace but this isn’t really that important because his game never relied heavily on pace anyway. There still aren’t many players who can read the game as well as him and his aerial ability is quality too.

At right back we have my personal choice for player of the season last year, Steve Finnan. I was over the moon when he signed a contract extension recently. He may not be a big superstar but Liverpool fans understand just how vital he is to the team. He rarely makes mistakes in defence and going forward his crossing ability is sublime, he is really is a superb player. Alvaro Arbeloa was brought into the side during the transfer window and he can play at either left or right back. I saw enough of him last season to realise his quality and would feel confident if he is put into the side at any stage this season.

Midfield

On the wings we have some exciting talent who like beating players and have the ability to put in decent crosses. On the left we have Harry Kewell and Ryan Babel. On his day when he is fit Kewell is as good as anyone. He has been terribly unlucky with injuries but has shown on occasions that he can still be an important player for Liverpool. At the moment he is fit and he looked great at the end of last season, considering he’d been injured for almost one year. If he can come out flying this season he may just get a run in the side. Waiting alongside him is our new signing from Ajax, Ryan Babel. I’ve only seen glimpses of him in pre-season but what I’ve seen so far has impressed me. I must confess I’d never seen him play before we bought him but the reports of his ability are extremely encouraging.

On the right we have the constantly improving Jermaine Pennant and new signing Yossi Benayoun. Pennant had a slow start last season but from January onwards he was tremendous. He seemed to improve with every game culminating in a world class performance in Athens in the Champions League Final. How he doesn’t make the England team is quite beyond me. In pre-season he seems to have continued where he left off and looks really confidant and that is so good to see. Benayoun is a terrific player who was very consistent for his previous club West Ham. He was one of their best players in the 2006 FA Cup Final. In pre-season games he seems to have settled into the club seamlessly and I’m sure he will make his mark in the side this season.

In the centre of midfield we are extremely spoiled and I’m not exaggerating when I say that we have three of the best midfield players in Europe, if not the world in Steven Gerrard, Xabi Alonso and Javier Macherano. If we get the Stevie G from 2 seasons ago then we will take a lot of stopping. We certainly aren’t a one man team like certain people in the media might have us think, but it’s definitely true that when Gerrard plays at his best the team is elevated to a different level. Mascherano was a revelation when he came on loan last season. If he had been with us from day one I definitely don’t think we would have lost so many games away from home in the first few months of last season. What an amazing player he is. Alonso has shown signs in pre-season that he is very much back to his best dictating the play from deep positions and making some of the most accurate passes you’ll see. As if that wasn’t good enough we also have Momo Sissoko and Luca leiva. Sissoko was far from his best in the second half of last season when he came back from injury and in pre-season he has been working hard but still giving the ball away sloppily. Leiva is the Brazil under20’s captain and an amazing prospect for the future.

Strikers

This is another position in which we are oozing quality this season. Only Peter Crouch and Dirk Kuyt remain from last season after Craig Bellamy was sold to West Ham Utd and Robbie Fowler was released to Cardiff City on a free transfer. I’m a really big fan of Crouch and he defied his critics by having a great season in 2006/07. He was our overall top scorer and scored some fantastic goals. Two overhead kicks and a hat-trick against Arsenal combined with a great run of goals in the Champions League gave him a terrific season. Dirk Kuyt also had a good season, he fitted in immediately from his first touch on his debut against West Ham. He was our top scorer in the Premiership and I don’t think any other player worked harder or covered more of the opponents half of the pitch. Joining those guys will be our record 20 million pound signing Fernando Torres and Ukrainian Andriy Voronin who arrived on a free transfer from Bayer Leverkusen. Due to an ankle injury and permit issues we haven’t seen too much of Torres so far in pre-season but we’ve seen is extremely encouraging. He appears to have an understanding with Kuyt and some of their moves together have been breathtaking. Torres is able to get into great positions and get shots on goal when they don’t look possible. For me the biggest surprise and biggest enjoyment of the pre-season games has been the performances of Voronin. I will confess that I wasn’t expecting much from him and anticipated him being nothing more than a squad player. However he has been man of the match in the majority of pre-season games I’ve watched and he really has been sensational. The goals he scored were terrific and his movement on the pitch and his teamwork have been superb. I believe he’s definitely given Rafa a real headache now in a good way when it comes to team selection. I still expect Voronin to play mostly in the domestic cup competitions but don’t be surprised if he makes his mark if he gets a chance in any games he plays in.

Is this the best squad we’ve had in years? I think the answer has to be a definite yes. I don’t see any weak links in a variety of starting elevens. With the excellent business Rafa has done in the transfer market as well as the resigning of the key players we already had, we have the best chance of winning number 19 since Kenny Dalglish resigned sixteen years ago. I’m trying not to get carried away but it’s really hard. The opening game against Aston Villa just can’t come soon enough for me and I have a feeling it’s going to be another exciting year for Liverpool fans.

What do you think? Give Ste your comments at steSpeed [at] lfcvancouver.com.

By LFC Vancouver member Keith Perkins, 06 August 07.

Forgive me if I don’t join in the euphoria generated over the signing of Fernando Torres, at least not just yet. Of course I’m happy to see a player who is expected to make an immediate impact and with such promise for the future, but you won’t see me doing cartwheels in celebration or dancing in the streets over this - yet. It’s a significant move by Rafa to bring in the quality of players that he believes that he needs, and it’s encouraging to know that the new owners have backed Rafa’s big spending as they said they would. But, what worries me is the terrible feeling of having seen it all before, and hoping against hope that this is not one of those transfers that we’ll be laughed at for in years to come.

Liverpool have never been a poor club in my supporting lifetime, in the sense that we are generally able to buy players with surplus cash, rather than having to sell players to raise cash. But, the whole economics of the League changed when the Premiership came into being, and now the gap between the haves and the have-nots gets wider and wider every year. The new television deal promises to bring in millions more, for even the lower placed clubs, and of course the increase in sponsorship and merchandising deals has made a huge difference on the balance sheets – once again, especially for the bigger clubs. What we can expect from this is more ridiculous contracts for players, and previously unheard of transfer fees. Of course, clubs like Chelsea with their billionaire owner never worried about such petty distractions as money, which in turn has raised the stakes for all of the Premier League clubs as they all compete for the same players.

In the last few years, it has come down to two clubs with the spending power to out-distance all of the others. Manchester United spent £30million on Rio Ferdinand in 2002, another £30million on Wayne Rooney in 2004, and more recently around £20million for Owen Hargreaves. Meanwhile, Chelsea had no hesitation in spending £24million for Didier Drogba, another £24million for Michael Essien, £21million for Shaun Wright-Phillips, and then went beyond that with a reported £50million fee to bring in Andriy Shevchenko. How can any club, including Liverpool, compete with that kind of spending power?

The list of transfers for those two clubs puts our spending of £20million on Fernando Torres somewhat into perspective. It’s not such an outrageous fee by comparison, and in fact if Torres becomes the player that we all hope he will then we’ll probably look back at the deal and think of it as a relative bargain. But that’s only if he becomes that great player that we need. Liverpool have not been afraid to spend big in the past on players who were supposedly the answer to our problems, and in many cases set new records for transfer fees. But, there have been so many in the past that were supposed to be “that player”, and unfortunately so few that actually were.

Tony Hately was the first of those big name players who were supposed to make a huge impact on the club, and Bill Shankly confidently spent a club record £96,000 to bring him in from Chelsea in the summer of 1967. Actually, Chelsea lost money on the deal having paid £100,000 for him a year earlier. Shankly envisioned his new signing to be a strike partner for Roger Hunt, with the two of them mounting a two pronged assault as “The H Bombers.” Hately’s strength was in timing his run into the box as the cross was delivered, getting to the right place at the right time to power it home. He was rated as the best of his era for his aerial ability, and so of course it was expected that the League championship would be ours without question. But it didn’t happen, and even though he scored 28 goals in that season, his style was not considered suited to the rest of the team and he was soon on his way to Coventry.

As Roger Hunt was nearing the end of his career, Alun Evans was brought in for £110,000 which was also a club record and also made him the League’s most expensive teenager. He had a fantastic early start but could not maintain his form, and so was off to Aston Villa in January 1972. Meanwhile, Kevin Keegan had been signed from Scunthorpe for a ridiculously low fee of £35,000.

The next big signing to be considered is of course Kenny Dalglish, who was bought from Celtic for a British record fee of £440,000 in the summer of 1977. That was an easy transaction to make as Liverpool had £500,000 to spend from the transfer of Kevin Keegan to Hamburg at the end of the 1976-77 season. There’s no question that this is the most significant signing in Liverpool’s history. Can we imagine any other player having the same success as King Kenny?

Ian Rush arrived from Chester at the age of 19, for a new record fee for a teenager of £300,000 which is almost triple the fee paid for Alun Evans more than ten years earlier. His Liverpool career was the opposite of Evans as he made a very slow start, and was close to being released by the club, but then found his form and kept it for the next dozen years or so to become the club’s all time top scorer. That doesn’t include his one year hiatus with Juventus, where he made 29 appearances and scored a very disappointing (for him) 7 goals.

When Ian Rush announced his desire to move to Italy, Liverpool player-manager Kenny Dalglish moved quickly to bring in reinforcements. John Aldridge was already at the club, having signed for £750,000 from Oxford earlier that year, John Barnes was signed from Watford for £900,000, and then Peter Beardsley signed from Newcastle for a new English record transfer fee of £1.9 million. Actually, this was one more occasion when Liverpool came out with cash left over. Barnes and Beardsley cost a couple of hundred thousand less than the £3million received from Juventus for Rush.

After Kenny Dalglish suddenly left in the spring of 1991, the manager’s position was filled by his former Liverpool and Scotland team-mate Graeme Souness. As is often the case with new managers, Souness sent players out and brought in replacements to suit his style of play. Beardsley was off to Everton for £1million, and was replaced by Dean Saunders for yet another new English record fee of £2.9million. A year later, Saunders was sold to Aston Villa for £2.5million.

Souness’s transfer dealings, and lack of success, were a sore point with both the club board and the supporters. His Liverpool management career came to an end in January of 1994 when he was replaced by Roy Evans. That may have been the end of Souey’s style, but it was not the end of the big money transfers. Evans paid a new British record fee of £8.5million for Stan Collymore. His partnership with local lad Robbie Fowler was superb in his first season, but then after only two seasons he was sold to Aston Villa.

Roy Evans was effectively replaced by Gerard Houllier (even though it was supposed to be a joint management arrangement) and the new manager had no hesitation in moving players in and out. His strategy was different, in that he did not have the backing of a large transfer budget. This was somewhat overcome by bringing in lesser known players from Europe, for what can be considered inexpensive fees. These players definitely made a difference and Liverpool went on to climb back up the table and win trophies. That was especially true in 2001 with the treble, and followed by the Charity Shield and the UEFA Super Cup. Now that the board had confidence in Houllier, and the success had brought the balance sheet up, he was soon off to sign some more expensive players who would supposedly take us that final step to winning the Premier League. £10million went for El Hadji Diouf, £5million for Salif Diao, and £4million for Bruno Cheyrou.

Of course we already had Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen in the summer of 2000, but Houllier decided that he should buy Emile Heskey for a new club record fee of £11million from Leicester. Fowler was seen as surplus to requirements not long after the treble success, and was sold to Leeds for £11million. Houllier then made an approach for Djibril Cissé, who finally arrived just after Houllier’s departure in 2004 for yet another club record fee of £14million. Cissé was twice the top scorer in the French Ligue 1, and was obviously very highly rated by Houllier and many others. But, with new manager Rafa Benitez taking over, there were more changes to come.

Michael Owen chose to move to Real Madrid, Emile Heskey left for Birmingham, and Liverpool were left short with only Milan Baros to partner new signing Cissé. Of course we also had Florent Sinama Pongolle, Anthony Le Tallec, and other youngsters such as Neil Mellor, but they were not considered to be ready to take the place of the missing players. With the extensive injury list that season, and the need for new players, it was seen as a huge relief when Real Madrid agreed to release Fernando Morientes in January 2005. What was so strange in this case was that he was the top scorer in the Champions League while on loan for the previous season to Monaco, and was named as the European Striker of the year for 2004. How could Real Madrid let him leave? His transfer for £6.3million should have been a bargain for a player of his calibre, but as with so many players before him, it just didn’t work out the way that it was expected to. He could not find his form with Liverpool and so decided to return to Spain with a transfer to Valencia after less than two seasons. He regained his form immediately and went on to establish a powerful partnership with David Villa.

This more or less brings us up to date and back to the signing of Fernando Torres. If we think back through all of the above transfer deals, is there a way to tell which ones would obviously become Liverpool legends, and which ones would be disappointments? I wish I could say that there’s a pattern to it, but there isn’t. Some of our most valuable players have come into the club for nothing. Owen, Fowler, Gerrard, McManaman, and Carragher, have all come through the Academy and the youth teams. Keegan, Heighway, Clemence, Neal, Hughes, were all undoubted bargains from the glory days of the past. Aldridge, Barnes, and Rush, were all relatively inexpensive and went on to become legends. But what about the most expensive ones on the list? How would you have predicted the performance of Dalglish, Beardsley, Saunders, Collymore, Heskey, Diouf, and Cissé? What about Morientes? It’s impossible to have predicted the performance of these players, which underlines the feeling of the transfer market being so much of a lottery. It would be comforting to know that paying more money would give a greater guarantee of success, but we know that just isn’t true. To think that Liverpool were at one time able to set records with transfer fees of £100,000, and now we are not even close to the top of the heap at £20million (200 times as much!). The mind boggles at just what it would take to bring in players like Dalglish or Beardsley in today’s market, and I have the horrible feeling that we wouldn’t be the ones competing for their signatures.

The one thing that keeps me optimistic in spite of all the past mistakes is knowing that Rafa has a history of success in transfers. Not every player that he has signed has been ideal; we only have to think of his first season signings of Nunez, Josemi, and Pellegrino, to see how easy it can be to get it wrong. But, the same season saw Luis Garcia and Xabi Alonso, also brought in from the Spanish League, who were excellent buys. Next season it was some weird choices like Peter Crouch, and some pleasant surprises like Reina, Agger, Sissoko, along with some disappointments like Kromkamp (who was acquired in a swap for Josemi). Last season saw the arrival of Kuyt, Pennant, Aurelio, Arbeloa, and Mascherano, who were all successful, while we also had Bellamy, and Gonzalez, who were less so and have since been released. If there’s any pattern to be seen from these, it’s that the transfers have generally become more successful each season, and that has to be reason for optimism.

I’m also confident that Rafa knows exactly what he’s doing. If you look down the squad list for this season, see how many you can find that are remnants of the squad that he inherited three years ago: Finnan, Riise, Hyypia, Kewell, Gerrard, and Carragher. Rafa has praised all of these players for their value to the team, and was determined to sign them to long-term contracts. As for the rest of the squad from the summer of 2004, they’ve all been moved out one by one. For this season, Rafa has also brought in a surprise with Voronin, as well as some proven quality players in Babel and Benayoun. They’ve all looked good so far in pre-season, and I expect that we’ll see lots more to impress us in the months to come. With all of this, I can’t believe that Torres won’t fit in with the rest and be exactly what Rafa expects of him.

This is definitely now taking the form of “Rafa’s Team” just as previous managers like Shankly, Paisley, and Dalglish had built their own teams in the past. There can be no more excuses; this is where we have to look forward to the future from and expect to see success – and soon. The pressure on both Benitez and Torres to succeed must be immense, but it’s no more than what anyone would expect at a club like Liverpool. All of us ache inside for number nineteen, and surely it can’t be far away now. I don’t know if Torres is the answer, or if he is the missing piece of the puzzle that Rafa has been looking for. What I do know is that Rafa has rated him very highly and was clearly thrilled to have signed him, and that should be good enough reason to be extremely optimistic. I think I’ll start to practice doing some cartwheels and street dancing now - just in case.

What do you think? Give Keith your comments at keith [at] lfcvancouver.com.

By LFC Vancouver member Ste Speed, 31 July 07.

Roy Evans served Liverpool for almost 35 years in a number of different roles, starting as a youth team player in the sixties and finally becoming first team manager in the nineties.

Roy was signed by Bill Shankly in January 1964 when he was fifteen years old, on a ‘B Form’ which was the precursor to apprentice forms. This was a great year to be a Scouser as Liverpool led the way in the world of football and entertainment. ‘Merseybeat’ was topping the charts around the world led by The Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers and in the mid sixties they had two great football teams too. Roy’s first season at Liverpool culminated with a first F.A Cup victory and was followed the next season by the First Division championship.

Roy was an accomplished player at left back and he was a regular in the England schoolboy teams. What a lot of people don’t know is that as a teenager, Roy was also an excellent cricketer. He was a bit of an all rounder and played regularly at local level for Bootle and at county level for Lancashire in their schoolboy sides. Roy was selected for a Lancashire summer cricket tour in 1965 but as it would have coincided with pre-season training, Shankly told Roy that he had to stop playing cricket if he wanted to make it in football. As much as he loved cricket there was no doubt in his mind what to do and that was the end of his career on the crease. As Roy later said, “If Shankly said something, you listened.”

Roy spent the vast majority of his playing career at Liverpool in the B team and the reserves. He made his first team debut in 1969 but his time in the first team was restricted to only eleven appearances in five seasons. The superb Alec Lindsay made the left back spot virtually his own which kept Roy out of the side. During this period he was a valued member of the reserve side helping them to five Central League titles between 1968 and 1974.

In 1973 Roy went over to America to spend the summer season playing for the Philadelphia Atoms in the NASL. Roy played nineteen games and scored two goals, helping Philadelphia to win the NASL championship. He was a popular player in America and even made the all star team. Roy was asked to go back for a second season in 1974 but he had to turn it down when Shankly named him in the squad for the F.A Cup Final against Newcastle.

When Bill Shankly retired in July 1974, the new manager Bob Paisley asked Roy to become the reserve team manager. He pondered the request for six weeks as he wasn’t sure if he was ready to hang up his boots at the age of 25. However Ronnie Moran and Tommy Smith worked on him and convinced him that he was still young enough to go back to playing if it didn’t work out. It’s strange to think what may have happened if Roy had been able to accept the offer to go to Philadelphia that summer because if he had he may not have been asked to join the coaching staff and join the ‘boot room boys’. John Smith, the Chairman at the time, predicted: "We have not made an appointment for the present but for the future. One day Roy Evans will be our manager."

Roy was a revelation as reserve team manager, leading them to seven Central League titles in nine seasons. In the sixteen seasons running from 1967/68 to 1982/83, Roy won twelve Central League titles, five as a player and seven as manager. At that time new players would be placed in the reserves until they were deemed ready for the first team and some of the players he nurtured as youngsters were amongst the greatest of all time. Players such as Ian Rush and Alan Hansen were helped by Roy as well as some other great players who went on to good careers at other clubs, such as Kevin Sheedy (Everton) and Steve Orgrizovic (Coventry City).

When Bob Paisley retired in 1983, Joe Fagan was promoted to become the new manager. In turn Roy was also promoted to join Ronnie Moran as a first team coach. His first season with the first team coincided with one of Liverpools greatest ever as they romped to the treble of First Division champions, European Cup winners and the Milk Cup, beating Everton in replay. The following season was not as successful unfortunately, as it was a rare trophy-less season for the reds with Everton taking the league title and the Heysel disaster sealing a tragic end to lovely Joe Fagans time in charge.

When King Kenny took over as player manager he kept Roy and Ronnie as coaches and Bob Paisley was brought back to the boot room in an advisory role to help out. The glory days continued for another five seasons as we won three league titles, two F.A Cups and a few lesser trophies like the Screen Sport Super Cup. This latter trophy was created by the F.A as a mini competition for teams who had finished the previous season in a European qualification place but were unable to play in European competitions due to the ban on English sides in place at the time.

When Kenny shockingly resigned in February 1991 there was a lot of speculation as to who the new manager would be. Ex players John Toshack, Alan Hansen and Graeme Souness were the bookies favourites with Roy and Ronnie Moran also in the frame after Ronnie took over as interim caretaker manager. It was soon announced that the new boss would be Souey who had been a huge success north of the border with Rangers. I’ve written a number of times in these pages about what a disaster Souness’s reign was (1992 F.A Cup aside) so I don’t need to explain how bad the next few years were for Liverpool F.C.

In 1994 Souness was finally gone after a home defeat in the F.A Cup by lower league side Bristol City. Souness knew it was all over when the night before the Bristol City game he coincidentally happened to be in a hotel room next door to where the Bristol team were being given a team talk. He overheard the team talk and heard Bristol manager Russell Osman tear apart the Liverpool side pointing out individual weaknesses. His main point was that if Liverpool were put under heavy pressure they would quickly throw in the towel and surrender, which is almost exactly what happened. Souness was terribly shocked and upset with this and under extreme pressure he had to resign before he was publically sacked.

Pretty quickly a new manager was announced and it was now time for our man Roy to make good on the prediction that Peter Robinson made twenty years earlier. Roy brought in former Reds midfielder Doug Livermore as his assistant and a new era had begun. This was the era of exciting young players like Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman and Jamie Redknapp playing some of the most creative and exciting attacking football I have ever seen. Unfortunately it was also the era of terrible defending and dodgy goals conceded costing us the league title on more than one occasion. Two players most often blamed were David ‘Calamity’ James and Phil Babb, both were absolutely awful on a number of occasions. Although to be fair to Roy, Babb did look like a real bargain when we first bought him after he’d just had a fantastic World Cup for Ireland in USA 94.

I will always wonder how well Roy would have done if he’d been given the chance when Kenny resigned. I think he would have carried on where Dalglish had left off and not made some of the mistakes that Souness made, especially with getting rid of the senior players far too quickly and replacing them with garbage. Roy’s first full season was 1994/95 which finished with a respectable 4th place in the league (considering the finish in 8th the year before) and a victory in the Coca Cola Cup Final (League Cup) against Bolton Wanderers. Steve McManaman scored two fantastic goals to win Roy his first (and only) trophy as manager. Unfortunately the League Cup victory probably built up too much anticipation from the fans and we were expecting big things the following season, especially when Roy smashed the Liverpool transfer record to sign Stan Collymore for 8.5 million pounds. Whilst Roy’s transfers weren’t always successful there is no denying that he certainly knows how to mould youngsters into world class talents. Fowler, McManaman, Jamie Carragher and Michael Owen are all standout examples of this. Although to be fair Roy was also denied cash in his quest to sign certain players that definitely would have helped us move to the next level. Jari Limanen in his prime, Teddy Sheringham and Marcus Dessailly are three players that Roy wanted to sign but was denied the funds by the board. Litmanen eventually joined a few years later when injuries had spoilt him, I shudder to think how good it would have been to have him playing with Fowler with both in their prime before injuries.

The one word that I would use to describe Roy’s time in charge is inconsistent, we would be absolutely brilliant one week then bloody awful the next. For example; there was the amazing ‘game of the decade’ in 1996 when we beat title rivals Newcastle United 4 – 3 and then followed it up by losing to lowly Coventry City 1 - 0 just days later. We should have won the league that season, but there were too many losses in games we should have won and the defeat to Man Utd after two horrendous clangers from David James basically cost us the title.

However as inconsistent as we were in the league we did reach Wembley for the second cup final in two years to meet Man Utd in the F.A Cup Final. The game was completely unmemorable and is only remembered for two things, the winning goal from Cantona (another James error) and those white Armani suits. The latter contributed to the media dubbing the young and handsome players ‘the Spice Boys’. A victory in the F.A Cup final could have been a platform to take the club onto great things but unfortunately it just wasn’t to be. Another two inconsistent seasons led to us finishing fourth and third respectively.

Roy’s record in terms of end of season success was pretty consistent, winning one trophy, reaching another final and never finishing below fourth place in the league. For many clubs other than Liverpool this record would probably have been deemed a huge success. In fact if the top four had been enough for Champions League qualification as it is now, Roy may have been given more money to spend and he may have been able to take us onto the next level. Unfortunately back then it was only the top two teams that qualified for the Champions League so we were never able to see how we could have done.

After the 1998 World Cup in France the French F.A’s technical director Gerard Houllier was brought into the club to form a bizarre joint manager role with Roy. Houllier was a bit of a Liverpool fan after having spent time in the city teaching French and attending some big games in the early seventies. Roy now says that at the time when he was asked about it, he’d just returned from a holiday and wasn’t thinking straight. If he had been thinking straight he would never have agreed to the partnership with Houllier. The joint manager role didn’t go well and it seemed like Roy’s nose was being pushed out. Whenever the team did badly Roy would be blamed and when we won Houllier would take the credit. The image being portrayed at the time was that Roy’s ideas and boot room methods were outdated while Houllier was bringing fresh new ideas from the continent. One of the big problems with the joint managers was that the players never knew who the actual boss was. Houllier is well known for avoiding confrontation so Roy (as was Phil Thompson later on) was often made to look the bad guy delivering bad news to players on his own. Houllier and Roy would agree to give players being dropped the bad news together but when the time came Houllier was often nowhere to be found leaving Roy to be the bad guy.

Things came to a head after an away game at Valencia in the UEFA Cup. McManaman, Paul Ince and Valencia’s Carboni were all sent off after a brawl on the touchline. Roy was furious with his players and the officials and was steaming mad at full time after we’d managed to scrape through on away goals. Houllier refused to close ranks with Roy in the dressing room and instead seemed more interested in handing out shirts as gifts to the officials. On the flight home Roy realised fully that the partnership would never work and one of them had to go. Realising that Houllier wasn’t going anywhere, Roy made the ultimate sacrifice for the club he loves so much and resigned a week later in November 1998.

I was never a big fan of Houllier (although the treble season had me fooled briefly) and a lot of the reason for this stems from the way he behaved in the aftermath of Roy’s departure. Houllier showed a great deal of disrespect to Roy and he was very vocal in describing Liverpool as a shambles when he took over and continually spoke about the huge job he had on his hands making Liverpool successful. Liverpool were in third place in the Premiership when Houllier took over sole charge, hardly a team in crisis and the side was in a far healthier position when Roy left than they were when he replaced Souness four years earlier. Roy himself says that while he remains a die hard Liverpool supporter, it took him a number of years to get over the snub he felt from the club after 34 years of loyal service. Roy was never given a proper farewell from the club, he received no proper public thank you or a dinner to commemorate his efforts which was the custom with previous departing club servants. This is something I think they should be ashamed about and really need to correct before too long.

After he left Liverpool Roy took a break from the game, except for a brief stint helping out Karl-Heinze Riedle, one of his former signings, at Fulham. In 2001 Roy became the director of football at Swindon Town although for all extents and purposes he was the manager of the team. After the team became a complete mess behind the scenes with the directors, Roy decided to leave the club when money he was promised for players was unavailable. In December 2004 he joined ex Red John Toshack with the Wales national side and became assistant manager. He currently combines this role with coaching at Wrexham in League Two.

When we talk about Liverpool’s greatest ever servants, Roy Evans belongs right up there with all the great names like Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley. His record as a coach is up there with the best of all time and his managerial record is more than respectable. In the nineties he was easily the most successful English born manager in the Premiership and his legacy as a Liverpool legend will never be in doubt.

What do you think? Give Ste your comments at steSpeed [at] lfcvancouver.com.