When Joe Fagan was appointed Liverpool’s manager in 1983, one reporter described Fagan’s job as “the most daunting in English football”.
His challenge, the reporter said, “is as terrifying as it is tempting”. Another said that “Fagan’s task is even more awesome than that which faced his predecessor in the summer of 1974”.
In his diary, which appeared in the authorised biography written by his grandson Andrew Fagan and Mark Platt, Fagan noted the challenge ahead and how it would have to met with a squad he needed to improve. “We have numbers,” he wrote, “but not quality.”
In 1983, Liverpool had just won their sixth league title in seven years, but Fagan went into the new season with plenty of concerns. “The storm clouds are gathering – so I must keep a clear head and not panic.”
Renewal was central to all Liverpool did during the years when their anxiety could centre on the fact that they hadn’t won the title as convincingly as they might have the previous season.
When they lost the Charity Shield to Manchester United, Fagan accused certain players in the team “of going through the motions”. Liverpool would never rest.
Fagan may have been determined not to panic, but the ruthlessness at the club was driven by a fear of failure, and it is that ruthlessness which will be needed by Jürgen Klopp as he plans for the future after this week’s Europa League final.
The titles they gathered with regularity in the 1980s remain the benchmark for every Liverpool manager, no matter how unrealistic that may be in the modern era.
If Liverpool are to come close to a title next season, and there is little to fear from any of the contenders who finished above them this year, then Klopp will have to be ruthless with his squad, even if they finish the season with a European trophy.
Jurgen's gotta get that boom, boom, BOOM! #Liverpool @LFC pic.twitter.com/VqvWGNIQMq
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) March 3, 2016
Renewal will be the dominant theme of Klopp’s first summer as manager, no matter what happens against Sevilla in Basel on Wednesday night.
Few would suggest that this task isn’t daunting, especially as expectations at Liverpool have been raised by the manner in which Klopp’s side have reached the final.
Their Premier League form – Liverpool finished eighth with 60 points, their lowest points total since 2012 – should provide a reality check, but when Liverpool embark on a European run that consists of improbable events, there is a tendency to look upon reality as another negotiable part of the deal, another factor that can be swayed by the persuasive power of emotion.
But reality will usually have a say in a club’s league form and the league is what Liverpool demands, even after more great European nights.
The most obvious parallels are with the 2005 side that won the Champions League under Rafa Benitez. A few years after that success, Benitez studied a picture of that team and, while remembering the details of the game fondly, he commented that they had been a hard side to break up. This wasn’t due to any emotional attachment. The players were hard to move on as so few potential buyers could be persuaded to look beyond the squad’s weaknesses simply because they had won the European Cup.
In 2005, Liverpool finished the Premier League season with 58 points. They could dismiss a few defeats as a consequence of concentrating on Europe at a certain point, but not so many that a manager has clear-eyed as Benitez could ignore what needed to be done.
Heroes from Istanbul were among those Benitez knew had to go, even if the manner in which he did – as well as the fact he was doing it at all – angered some like Jerzy Dudek.
Dudek was replaced by Pepe Reina in the summer of 2005, but it took time for the squad to be revitalised. A year later, only three players who hadn’t been involved in Istanbul started the FA Cup final against West Ham, but by the time Liverpool reached another European Cup final in 2007, only five of the starting eleven had been part of things two years earlier.
Klopp may have a different manner – the build-up to the final has been taken up with players praising his human qualities – but he has never hidden his ruthless side.
When he took over at Dortmund, he moved Mladen Petric, and then Alexander Frei, out of the club, despite their popularity with supporters.
Few of the current squad at Liverpool could be said to be safe, certainly based on their league form.
Emre Can and Roberto Firmino have done enough to suggest they will be central to the team next season, but even the abundantly talented like Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho could decide that the time is right to move on.
Sturridge is the most gifted striker available to Klopp and his talents are such that, once he plays, it is very easy to forget how difficult getting him on the field can be.
The manager may find it harder to forget those difficulties, especially as so much of what he wants to achieve depends on an intensity and fitness which Liverpool have only be able to produce sporadically this season.
Klopp’s build up to the final included releasing details of Liverpool’s pre-season schedule which will include triple training sessions beginning at 7am.
If his side have managed to demonstrate the required energy during European ties, they have failed too often in the league.
If many have been disappointed by Klopp’s failure to get more from the players – perhaps including the manager himself who might have felt he could challenge for top four at least this season – then next season, he will have a squad whose readiness for the physical demands is not in doubt.
There have been reports that among those who could leave are Jordan Henderson and Adam Lallana, who have both been linked with Tottenham.
This wouldn’t exactly be Alex Ferguson letting Ince, Kanchelskis and Hughes go in 1995, but it would be a reminder that Klopp will not be influenced by a player’s standing or too bothered by an improvement in form if he feels he can attract better players.
Victory on Wednesday would, of course, make that a lot easier. If Liverpool could offer Champions League football, players might be more prepared to overlook the disappointing league form
Expectations will rise if Sevilla are defeated, but every Liverpool manager eventually has to come to terms with the rise of hope and ambition.
Klopp has also learned this season that the belief among the supporters can be brittle. Before the second leg of the semi-final, many felt that Liverpool had too much to do, but Villarreal were swept aside when the anxiety was replaced by the extraordinary emotion of matchday.
WATCH: The scenes outside Anfield welcoming the Liverpool team bus are just sensational https://t.co/ts41x7yXEE #LFC
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) May 5, 2016
But maybe that has always formed part of the tapestry too. Before the 1983-84 season began, one supporter expressed his anxiety about Liverpool team, which had won the title by eleven points the previous year, in a letter to the Liverpool Echo.
“There are already signs that Liverpool’s dominance of the English game is about to end…Don’t be surprised to find Liverpool ‘languishing’ in third or fourth place come May. I forecast a poor season for Liverpool by their standards.”
Come May, Liverpool had won the League Cup, the League and the European Cup.
“By our standards, we didn’t deserve to win the league this year,” Graeme Souness said at the time. “But by everybody else’s, we did.”
The standards might have changed at Anfield, but the ambitions remain the same. If Klopp is to meet them, ruthlessness will be necessary once again.
