Dubai: The last time Liverpool won the league, Madonna’s ‘Vogue’ was number one, Margaret Thatcher was still in power and a Mars bar cost 27 pence [Dh1.40].
In the past two decades leading up to 1990 however, The Reds had dominated English football winning 10 of their total 18 league titles and four of their total five European Cups.
So what’s happened in the 26 years since? And can their new coach Jurgen Klopp finally end this barren run?
“It’s ridiculous really, if you told anyone in 1990 that this would happen they would probably laugh at you,” said former Liverpool striker John Aldridge, when asked to explain the club’s league title drought on the sidelines of a legends golf event at Emirates Golf Club this week.
“Too many managers have bought too many bad players, players that wouldn’t have even got in our reserve side in the 1980s.
“Mediocre, very average or even worse, since 1990 you can probably name 100 players Liverpool have bought that aren’t good enough. Pro rata, probably one in every five have been half decent, and one in 20 have been top drawer, and you’re not going anywhere if that’s the case,” added Aldridge, who scored 50 goals in 83 appearances for the club from 1987 to 1989.
Dietmar Hamann, who made 191 appearances in midfield for Liverpool between 1999 and 2006, said: “We never had the depth of Arsenal and Manchester United. You need to be consistent over 38 games, that’s why we did better in cup competitions because it was only a five or six game race. We always competed in the league but never had the consistency to go all the way.”
Another former midfielder Jason McAteer, who played 100 times for the Anfield club between 1995 and 1999, added: “Finances play a part as well. You see the influence of Roman Abramovich at Chelsea and the owners of Manchester City. It’s obvious why they win titles, look at Jack Walker when he invested all that money in Blackburn Rovers and they won the title in 1995.
“If you look at the finances of each club it more or less mirrors the league standings. We’ve always been well equipped, but just couldn’t get over the finish line.”
Since 1990 Liverpool have finished second four times, the last being in the 2013/14 season under Brendan Rodgers. But now under Klopp, who replaced Rodgers in October, there appears to be fresh hope, especially considering the German’s record with Borussia Dortmund.
Dortmund are a side that like Liverpool have been overshadowed by their richer rivals, Bayern Munich, but despite this they still went on to win two Bundesliga titles with their bespectacled boss in 2011 and 2012.
“We have to be realistic,” said McAteer. “We’re not in that top bracket of clubs anymore but we are slowly getting back to that. And getting back to that means Champions League football.
“We can’t attract the likes of Ronaldo or Messi, that top bracket is not going to come, we need Champions League football for that and big money to spend.
“But Klopp has got a good record at Dortmund of bringing players through and developing them into top class players. He’s also got a good eye for the market and that’s why he excites me.”
Klopp has won six and lost five in his first 15 league games in charge at Anfield. The club is currently seventh in the league, eight points short of a Champions League spot and they are in next month’s League Cup final against Manchester City after beating Stoke City on penalties midweek.
“It’s not his squad,” said McAteer. “He’s inherited a former manager’s team. There’s been some fantastic performances and some really bad ones.
“It’s about bringing players that fit his philosophy and some are struggling to adapt, that’s why we are seeing the inconsistency. But as soon as he gets a couple of transfer windows under his belt and gets his own players in that can adapt to his system, we will start to see good things come back to the club.”
Aldridge said: “There’s not been much progression, it’s much of a muchness. We’ve just got to give him time to change things around but there’s a lot of work to be done.
“In the transfer window it’s very important we don’t get mediocre players anymore, we have to get top drawer players. The owners have got £140 million in the kitty now from a new media deal and they’ve got to spend the whole lot on four players, then we’ll see a change.”
Hamann added: “I wouldn’t like to put a timescale on when we can get back to the top. Look at Chelsea and Manchester United, they’ve all got problems. There’s no reason to think we can’t finish top four this season.
“I think you’ve got to be in contention for top four every season, I don’t buy into this ‘it will take two years’, because players come and go or get injured. Big clubs are always in transition and we’ve got to compete for top four well before two years.”