As an outsider looking in, I can't help but feel that the American owners are used as a scapegoat to excuse a slide towards mediocrity that started way back in the Souness era.
During the first thirty years of my life, Liverpool were the undisputed kings of English football and were up there with the greats of European football. It all seemed to come to an abrupt end with the appointment of Souness. In fact, in Souness' last season as manager, Liverpool spent the whole of the season looking as if they were going to swap places with Tranmere Rovers in English football's top flight. With six games of the season to go, Tranmere were top of what is now the Championship, while Liverpool were in the bottom four of what is now the Premiership, but Tranmere managed to lose all but one of their last six, while Liverpool picked up 16/18 points and managed to end up ten points ahead of Crystal Palace who were the last team to be relegated that season.
How do I know this? Well, when you were always used to one team being the elite and the fall from the top was so spectacular, it is something that sticks in the memory.
Liverpool have never really recovered from Souness. Sure, there has been some limited success (including an almost freak European Cup victory in 2005) but the rest of the time they have been looking upwards at the likes of ManU, Arsenal and more recently Chelsea as they disappeared over the horizon.
Sure, the Yanks haven't helped by plunging Liverpool into near bancruptcy, but the rot set in long before they arrived on the scene.
Topic: Liverpool's slump (Read 3202 times)