27 years is far too long to go without the title, but we’re getting closer. I have no doubt that Liverpool have strongest team in the league
GUARDING the fireplace like sentries at Buckingham Palace, Terry McDermott gazed at the twin trophies which remind him daily of the time of his life.
In the same season, almost 40 years ago, McDermott was voted Footballer of the Year by his fellow professionals and Fleet Street’s jury in an era when Liverpool were kings of Europe three times in five years.
Today, the “calm-down, calm-down” perm is gone, the Groucho Marx moustache has survived and there is more silver in McDermott’s hair than the Anfield trophy room.
McDermott (in action for Liverpool, right) is a pensioner now, and the last time the Reds won the title he had only just finished playing the game himself.
“How long is it now – 27 years? That’s too long, although we’ve gone very close a couple of times,” said the midfield legend, who used to watch Liverpool as a kid, and went on to live every boy’s dream on the Kop.
“Recently I’ve started doing some work at the club in matchday hospitality. I went to a game against Manchester City three years ago and it took my breath away – it reminded me of Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle team who went close in 1996.
“It was the first time I had been back to Anfield for a few years, and the football was majestic. I thought they were going to do it until Chelsea parked the bus and picked our pockets.
“And for the first half of this season, I had the same feeling. Again, it was like watching Kevin’s team: flair, movement, tempo, goals, entertainment... all the things we used to take for granted at Liverpool. “But now, when I take punters on guided tours of Anfield, I always feel there’s something missing – a Premier League trophy in the cabinet. “That’s the one thing Liverpool fans crave more than any other and, up until Christmas, this season a lot of us thought it was finally going to happen. “We had the team to do it and the football was superb – but we still aren’t quite over the line. “Harry Redknapp reckons Tottenham’s first-choice XI is the best team in the Premier League, but I’ve got no doubt that Liverpool have the strongest team. It’s the strength in depth which isn’t quite there yet. That’s what hurt us in the New Year.
“They managed to cope when Philippe Coutinho was injured but, then Sadio Mane went off to the Africa Cup of Nations, and they went on that horrific run – and unfortunately we fell away.
“This year is the 40th anniversary of Liverpool winning the European Cup for the first time, and it would have been unbelievable to mark it with a major trophy – but Jurgen Klopp is not a million miles away.
“We are back in the leading pack but not yet back on our perch, as Sir Alex Ferguson might say.”
McDermott decorated his Anfield career with goals from an art gallery – an exquisite chip against Everton in the FA Cup semi-final and a dipping volley at Tottenham notable among them.
But he regards the opener against Borussia Moenchengjust
ladbach in Rome’s Olympic stadium 40 years ago as the best of them all because it was on the biggest occasion.
Liverpool manager Bob Paisley, who served with the Royal Artillery in Italy during the Second World War, had told his players not to go out walking in the Eternal City, saying: “There’s nothing to see – because I bombed it all.”
There was plenty to see in Keegan’s final game for the club as he led Berti Vogts a merry dance and McDermott crowned a memorable season in which Manchester United’s FA Cup triumph at Wembley ultimately denied Liverpool an unprecedented Treble.
“When I watch the European Cup final from 1977 now, it’s still there... that feeling when the ball hits the back of the net, and you’ve put it there. It never leaves you,” he says.
McDermott will be back on parade at Anfield on Saturday for the Merseyside derby – where the atmosphere will be tempered by last week’s death of Ronnie Moran, one of the last dukes in Liverpool’s Boot Room dynasty.
As player and coach, Moran served under nine managers over almost half a century and McDermott added: “Ronnie was part of Liverpool’s fabric for 49 years, he was the definition of loyalty. He could be a hard taskmaster, but he had no teacher’s pets and was completely fair.
“If you weren’t doing your job right, he would be the first to let you know, whether you were Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness or a 17-year-old apprentice.
“When we won the title, he would come into the dressing room with the box of medals and say, ‘Well done, lads – now on to the next one. Let’s have another great season’.
“The derby is always special in its own right, but it will be a poignant occasion this time.”