By Stephen Collins (@SteColl)
The clock struck 11; Jim White’s larynx breathed a sigh of relief and I put my head in my hands and cursed the fact we’d failed to sign anybody, we signed no one, nothing, zilch, zip, naught, not even Clint Dempsey…Clint fucking Dempsey!
Fast-forward a full 12 months, I’d already written an article over my transfer frustrations and was predicting another disappointing conclusion to the summer, sensing an impending bout of déjà vu?
But when the clock struck 11pm on the 2nd of September 2013 and Jim White bellowed that the transfer window had closed, I was already tucked up in bed, laughing, reading the ‘#MoyesOut’ tweets on Twitter, hoping to get ‘#KeepMoyesIn’ trending….oh Fellaini.
It feels good to be a Liverpool fan again.
A win over United followed by 3 new signings, 2 of which would shore up a defence that hadn’t conceded a goal in the first 3 games and a tasty young attacker with a bagful of potential to compliment a Brazilian magician, a £50 million+ Uruguayan wizard (albeit with a penchant for enjoying a suspension or two and a loose concept of loyalty), and a young English man currently being described as the most lethal striker in the Premiership – summer transfer window 2013 looks like a job well done. Willian who?
It feels good to be a Liverpool fan again.
Down the road the current champions were falling over themselves trying to look like the most shambolically run club in the country, Arsenal had spunked a shed load of money on a player that they don’t even need (even though he’s undeniably world class and will no doubt take the league by storm) whilst ignoring the fact they have an average at best defence and are one injury away from having no recognised strikers, and Tottenham had signed a small countries worth of players who have never been tested in the English game after selling their best player for the last two seasons. Everton had signed a midfielder with the pace of an arthritic OAP with a hip problem and his ‘best’ days behind him, a Scottish midfielder who was last seen in a team getting relegated from the Premiership, to join the four other players who just got relegated who also joined the club, and a striker who….alright, they signed a decent striker, but they’ve still got Gareth Barry!
Optimism is a dangerous thing; get too wrapped up in it and you end up putting a £50 bet on with your mate that Liverpool will finish above Arsenal…for two seasons in a row…then double or quits for a third season…(STOP DOING IT!). Don’t believe in it enough and you sit in your living room watching Napoli on the telly with the contrast turned way down…with the sound off…doing your own commentary… ‘Alonsooooo – and mission impossible is accomplished.’…reminiscing about the good old days!
But the league table doesn’t lie – three games in, three games won, three clean sheets, three 1-0’s, three teams we’d probably have drawn with last season dispatched with relative ease.
There’ll be no trophies handed out in September, there’ll be no open top parades, there’ll be no jaunts over to Rome, or Munich, or Madrid, but there’ll be plenty of red-shirted football fans with a wry smile on their faces already looking forward to the next game, happy with the business done and fearing nobody.
Optimism is a powerful thing.
It feels good to be a Liverpool fan again…let’s hope it lasts.