How Pool resemble United’s top sides of past
different way of engendering it. These are different times, when a less confrontational approach is required. Ferguson himself realised that.
Anyone else just has to look at the results for the realisation of other differences.
That United win over Norwich sparked off a seven-game winning streak that secured the first ever Premier League title, and seemed so sensationally commanding at the time. This was what true champions did.
It is a run that now seems almost quaint, especially next to Liverpool’s 20 from 21, as well as last season’s relentless race with Manchester City, to follow on from City’s own 18-game winning streak the previous season.
That itself points to the different contexts of these conquests, especially as regards finance. The vast disparities re-emphasised and reinforced by the new figures in the Deloitte money league this week indicate there is now a minimal threshold of economic power to even compete.
Liverpool have been at the lower end of that, which itself only emphasises the high-class job Klopp and the club have done. This has been a marvel of coaching and intelligence, and a lesson for the rest of the game — not least United. Liverpool put their failures into sharp focus.
But there’s also the feeling that the financial advantage of these super-clubs actually amplifies the impact when they do get it so right. It’s as if there is an exponential effect on their excellence.
How else to explain so many records broken — from best starts to winning runs — across Europe over the last few years, from Juventus to Bayern Munich to Paris Saint-Germain to the Premier League? The vast majority of best seasons have come in the last decade.
When these sides are on it, as Liverpool so brilliantly are, they don’t even suffer the old-fashioned bumps even the best champions used to.
United’s treble season saw a 0-0 to relegate Blackburn Rovers in the penultimate game of the season. Liverpool’s own three-trophy European Cup campaign of 1983-84 saw late slips to