I’D HAVE CALLED FOR THE MEN IN WHITE COATS!
If you’d told me Liverpool would not win the title for 29 years... RAY HOUGHTON, 1990 TITLE WINNER
APRIL 28, 1990 and John Barnes rolls home the winning penalty past QPR’s David Seaman at Anfield to seal Liverpool’s record 18th league championship. Margaret Thatcher is in Downing Street, Buster Douglas rules the boxing world and Liverpool’s domination of English football feels like it could continue for ever. Little did anyone realise that their 11th title in 18 seasons would also be their last for so long.
As former Ireland star Ray Houghton of the Class of ’90 puts it: ‘If you’d told me Liverpool wouldn’t be champions for 29 years, I would’ve called for the men in white coats.
‘Liverpool fans used to give United supporters stick about not winning the league since 1967. Never once did they think they’d have to wait even longer.’
Houghton was an important cog in the last Liverpool championship team with legends Alan Hansen, John Barnes and Ian Rush, managed by Kenny Dalglish.
He did not realise the 1989-90 season would become so significant, particularly as it had started against the traumatic backdrop of the Hillsborough tragedy the previous April.
‘I’d gone to funerals with John Aldridge, who was a local lad, and he was utterly inconsolable. It was still raw when we returned to pre-season training, we still spoke about what had happened,’ says Houghton. ‘All we could do as professionals was go out and try to do well for the fans.’ Liverpool were unbeaten in their opening eight games, including a 9-0 thrashing against Crystal Palace. Following a mid-season wobble, they lost only one league game after November and won the title with two games to spare. ‘The Liverpool way was simple. The management gave players ownership to go out and perform,’ says Houghton. ‘If we had any problems, the dressing room sorted it out themselves. If you made a mistake, you’d know about it. Those players would have excelled today. How much would Alan Hansen be worth? £75million, probably more. He read the game and was strong. ‘Everyone thought he was this nice guy but he’d boot his granny in training if he had to. ‘We had strong characters. Big Al, Rushy and Barnesy ran the dressing room because of what they’d achieved in the game. Ronnie Whelan was our enforcer, different class. Stevie Nicol was brilliant, could play any position. Glenn Hysen was the new signing from Fiorentina. He cut up everyone’s underpants after his first training session. He fitted in straightaway!’
Above all, they had Barnes, that season’s Footballer of the Year. ‘Every year,’ says Houghton. ‘The best I played with — pace, strength, assists, goals. Our job was to give the ball to Barnesy. We nearly won the Double three seasons in a row, largely down to him. Today, he’d be England’s Messi and Ronaldo.’
Added to the skill, Liverpool could also scrap. Houghton played against QPR despite a pelvic injury and stitches in a head wound after being butted in an aerial challenge. ‘I dashed to the medical room to get them put in. I was back on the pitch within five minutes.’
Winning was such a habit, there was not even a special celebration after collecting the trophy after the next home game, against Derby.
‘We all went out but not together as a group. The Southport boys went out there, the Wirral boys stayed together and me and Aldo went out on our own in Woolton,’ says Houghton, with a smile.
‘We didn’t get our medals until the following pre-season. [Coach] Ronnie Moran would bring in this box from the FA and dish them out at training. He’d ask each player if they’d made 10 appearances. If not, he’d say: “Better luck next time”.’
One assumes there will be far greater hysteria should Jurgen Klopp’s side end 29 years of hurt this season. They top the table with 14 games left, starting at West Ham tomorrow night.
Houghton has his own theory on why Liverpool fell away. ‘Kenny leaving [in 1991] meant a change of direction,’ he says. ‘Graeme Souness will tell you he tried to change things too quickly. Pre-season was always light at Liverpool.
‘At my other clubs, it was all about how sick you were going to be. We used to run in Hainault Forest at West Ham, a professional athlete came with us — and got beaten by Billy Bonds!
‘Graeme decided we needed to get fitter at Liverpool but we ended up with five or six players out with an achilles tendon injury. The winners in the dressing room disappeared. Lads came in like Julian Dicks and Nigel Clough who couldn’t get to that level.’
Liverpool have won only one major trophy in 13 years but Klopp has changed the atmosphere. ‘Roy Evans and I spoke at an event called “An evening with Jurgen Klopp” at Anfield. We were the support acts! When Jurgen spoke, he had 400 Liverpool fans eating out of the palm of his hand. He speaks their language in a way Roy Hodgson and Brendan Rodgers couldn’t.
‘I see a manager who can cuddle his players and berate them in equal measure.
‘A lot of managers seem to appease their players but Jurgen is the leader, the players know where they stand. He won’t tell them they are brilliant if they haven’t been. He’ll say they can do better. And when they do, they’ll get the big hug.
‘I remember watching him chase Sadio Mane around an early pre-season game, at Blackpool I think. Sadio was new and Jurgen was pulling him into positions, spelling out what was needed.’
Now 57, Houghton is a respected radio and TV broadcaster on both sides of the Irish Sea. His eyes light up when he talks about Mo Salah.
‘I’d have loved to have played with him. Midfielders dream of lifting their head up and being able to hit a pass to a forward making intelligent runs. That’s what Rushy and Aldo did and Salah too.
‘Virgil van Dijk has surprised me. I’m a Celtic fan and games were far too easy for him up there. I wasn’t sure if he could make it at Liverpool because the pressure is at another level, even compared to Manchester City, because it’s a world club. But Virgil has done it effortlessly.’
Houghton says his house is not a shrine to his career. His 1990 league medal is in the loft. Only three football pictures are on the wall. One is a goal he scored against Coventry because his great pal Cyrille Regis is in the shot. Another is Michael Thomas’ title-winning goal for Arsenal at Anfield in 1989.
‘My mate, who is an Arsenal fan, sends it to me every year!’ says Houghton. ‘It reminds me I should have brought him down. It’s probably the biggest regret of my career.’
In 1989, he and Aldridge went out with Houghton’s Arsenal buddies after they snatched the title in the final seconds. ‘I poured champagne over my pal’s head,’ says Houghton.
The following year, Houghton became part of the last Liverpool team to win the title. He hopes that tag is about to come to an end.