JURGEN IS WIDE AWAKE

FROM BACK PAGE can finally stop living on past glories and become a European powerhouse once more.

The German said: “We are ready for the Champions League. Records like winning the competition five times are a problem when people keep talking about them. That ‘five’ is a number, nothing else.

“We are not the same team that won those trophies, we only have the same name.

“A lot of teams have won the Champions League and then had no chance for the next five or ten years. Things change.”

The Kop boss, whose team tonight take on Spartak Moscow, is journeying into the unknown having never before taken a team to the Russian capital. But he loves the challenges such trips pose.

“It is exciting,” he said. “It is a bit like international football, an adventure. You land, it’s dark, you see all the policemen and all that stuff.

“It’s really exciting and it keeps you awake. That’s good.”