Liverpool – Champagne Magnum…
It’s difficult to explain now just how great Liverpool were in the Seventies and Eighties, especially to today’s kids who might simply see them merely as a club near the top of the Premier League’s second quartile…
You could start with the eye-boggling row of numbers that represents the silverware amassed: League Championship 1972-73, 75-76, 76-77, 78-79, 79-80, 81-82, 82-83, 83-84, 85-86, 87-88; European Cup 1977, 1978, 1981, 1984; UEFA Cup 1973, 1976; FA Cup 1974, 1986, 1989…
But the stats alone don’t portray the awesome sight of Liverpool at Anfield, attacking the Kop with all the insistence of waves crashing on the shore. For a furiously back-pedalling Wolves or Spurs or Norwich, you knew it was only a matter of time. It wasn’t if the Reds would score, but when.
As for how and why, Liverpool’s overpowering period of success was at least partly due to their magnificent line-up of moustaches.
What bare-lipped opposition wouldn’t feel a little bit intimidated by such a manly array of facial furniture: Bruce Grobbelaar’s ‘Fu Manchu’; Mark Lawrenson’s ‘Sergeant Pepper’; Graeme Souness’s ‘Magnum’, Terry McDermott’s ‘McDermott’.
Backed up by Ian Rush, John Aldridge, Alan Kennedy, Jimmy Case, David Johnson, and with Steve Heighway’s ‘Mexican Bandit’ on the bench, they had a yard-and-a-half of bristles between them in a team look that could have been planned to steal trophies.
So come on, all you current crop. If you want to return to the top of Division One and get your hands on that Premier League trophy, you know what you have to do…
If you have recently considered growing a moustache you should probably own a copy of retro-footy-grumble-fest ‘Got, Not Got’ … you can get it from branches of WH Smith and Waterstones or online here…
