The return of king, Kenny Dalglish, Britain's most expensive striker in the ranks and a trophy already in the cabinet for the season. Not bad on paper but in truth the reputation of Liverpool football club has gone way down in many peoples eyes from the 'scouser for a night' mentality of seeing the red's perform one of the biggest and best comeback's in champions league history to win the trophy in 2005.
Ever since that magic night in Istanbul the tide has turned swiftly against the Merseysider's with American investment that went horribly wrong, to a manager who's skill's stretched little further than knockout footballing competitions. Indeed Rafa Benitez did bring home the European crown and see Liverpool advance to two champions league final's during his time at Anfield but failure to land the domestic title from Manchester United's stronghold proved the Spaniard unpopular amongst the clubs support and swift change followed.
Roy 'woy' Hodgson inherited a squad packed with latino talent which Benitez had been slowly building yet failed to bring the best out of them and was relieved of his duties paving the way for the return of the king. Dalglish's impact was instantanious, on a caretaker basis with the club in turmoil, Kenny showed no signs of rust having been away from the game for 11 years having last managed Celtic, another of his previous clubs as a player, leading Liverpool to a 6th place finish in the Premiership.
The sale of Fernando Torres to Chelsea followed by the eyebrow-raising fee of £35m paid for Newcastle youngster Andy Carroll in a move regarded as one of the more extreme panic-buy's in footballing history did little to fill the supporters with optimism and it was clear to see Liverpool were fast becoming the joke of the English game. Jordan Henderson followed for a cool £20m and Stewart Downing for a similar amount completing Liverpool's policy of overspending on quite average talent. Another of the more recent additions Luis Suarez was soon putting Liverpool's already battered reputation into further depths by racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra resulting in an 8-match ban for Suarez and incredibly Liverpool's and Kenny Dalglish defending the strikers behaviour even after the verdict.
The memories of Istanbul are ever more fading into insignificance as Liverpool continue to disgrace themselves. With tickets for most matches toppling the £40 pound mark and the club falling further off the pace of the top four, Liverpudlians must be wondering just what exactly are they getting for their hard earned after seeing £35m of it sat on the bench most weeks. Proof if you like that even though the golden boy has returned, the good times have not. The expectation after Istanbul and Athens was massive, Liverpool were once again kings of Europe yet not champions in their own country, will they ever be as big as the two Manchester sides? Unlikely in the coming years one would predict.
Liverpool have this cunning knack of spending a heap of money on distinctly average players yet at the same time producing outstanding talent through their academy, Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler and Steven Gerrard of today have all passed through the ranks of the great Liverpool academy yet what motivation is there for the current strikers such as Nathan Ecclestone when the club are willing to blow their transfer budget in one fell swoop just to prove they still can spend it like city (or indeed Chelsea).
With the Premier league's elite leaving Liverpool panting at the rear it looks like tough times ahead for the Anfield faithful, magnificent supporters supporting a side that has let them down time and again and until Liverpool change their philosophy not even the king could prevent a collapse of epic proportions.
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