Steven Gerrard is not one of life’s great optimists.
The former Liverpool midfielder does not tend to see the glass half full, or even half empty. He usually sees it shattered on the ground, a hazard to carefree children who might be playing barefoot nearby.
So obviously he is worried about Wednesday night’s Europa League final. Wouldn’t it be great if Liverpool win? Obviously. But he won in 2001 and 2005 and what did that amount to?
“If you’d have told me when I was on the open top bus tour holding our fifth European Cup that in the next 11 years Liverpool would only win the FA Cup and League Cup I would not have believed it,” answers Gerrard in his latest Daily Telegraph column.
The LA Galaxy midfielder remembers that win over Alaves in the 2001 Europa League final in Dortmund and the shocking Istanbul victory over Milan in the 2005 Champions League final, but all Gerrard can see are the missed opportunities.
Champions of Europe but never champions of England.
Where did they slip up (now now)?
Jurgen Klopp will break up this Liverpool team, no matter what happens against Sevilla, writes @dionfanning https://t.co/nSUXRjGgYr
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) May 18, 2016
Well, according to Gerrard it was Gerard Houllier’s signings in the summer of 2002 that nixed Liverpool.
“In 2001 we had a fantastic team that only needed the addition of a couple of top class players but we bought badly and it went wrong.”
At first you think he is referring to the transfer window after the Europa League triumph, but then you see they managed to bring in John Arne Riise, Nicolas Anelka, Chris Kirkland, Jerzy Dudek, Milan Baros and Abel Xavier.
Hardly a disaster.
No, Gerrard is referring to the following summer, the summer of the 2002 World Cup, when Bruno Cheyrou, El Hadji Diouf, Alou Diarra, Patrice Luzi Bernardi and Salif Diao joined.
He may have a point.
Bruno “Next Zidane” Cheyrou hardly pulled up trees. El Hadji Diouf spat at a fan and has been slandering his former team-mates ever since. Alou “just like Vieira” Diarra never kicked a ball in anger for the Reds but did go on to a successful career elsewhere. Patrice Luzi Bernardi played 13 minutes and Salif Diao was stuck in defence.
“In both 2001 and 2005 I came off the pitch saying they would be the catalysts for a new era of success for the club. We were given the perfect platform from which to go on and we never took it, especially after Istanbul,” writes Gerrard.
“I’m not writing off everything that has happened since. We came very close to winning far more than we did, losing finals, semi-finals and going very close to the Premier League title under Rafa Benitez and Brendan Rodgers.
“You look at the teams we were competing against and they were bloody good, assembled with massive wealth. For a long time after 2005 we re-established our name in Europe, reaching number one in the UEFA rankings.”
The pressure is on Klopp to sign the right players (Mario Gotze) and get rid of the wrong ones (Christian Benteke, Mario Balotelli, Martin Skrtel) and get Liverpool back to where they belong.
The top of the UEFA rankings.
