A new dynasty

THE CHAMPAGNE is on ice at Anfield. Gallons of the stuff, in fact, as Liverpool gear up for the mother of all parties.

Fair enough really. Considering Nelson Mandela had only just been released from prison the last time the Reds were crowned English champions, few can begrudge them what promise to be long and wild celebrations. Jurgen Klopp’s unstoppable side have been a revelation in the last 18 months and will be deserving title winners for the first time in three long decades.

It will be a defining moment in the lives of many supporters who have never seen their team win the Premier League. It will also be a defining moment in the career of Klopp.

The freedom of the city will be his. There will be talk of a statue. He will never have to buy food or drink in the red half of Liverpool again.

But ridding the club of the monkey that has clung to its back with a vice-like grip should not be Klopp’s footballing nirvana, it should be just the start of the challenge.

Once you’ve reached the top in life there is only one way to go – and it’s down. So the test for Klopp will be how long he can keep his side at the summit of English football.

The legacies of managerial greats like Bob Paisley and Bill Shankly provide the foundations on which the entire club is built.

Paisley won 20 major trophies in less than a decade at Anfield, including three

European Cups, while Shankly got the ball rolling before him with nine.

Now the stage is set for

Klopp to go on and cement his place alongside these legends, because he has all the tools in place to keep on winning.

As well as overcoming the major psychological barrier of ending the hoodoo, as well as proving they are better than Manchester City, the German knows he is building a side to last. One for now, but also one for the future.

Alisson is just 27 and Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez, Andrew Robertson and Divock Origi are all 25 or under. As neighbours Everton will testify, a new generation of talented teenagers are also emerging off the conveyor belt, while Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mane, Mo Salah and Roberto Firmino are still in their late twenties and have not reached their peak yet.

Even Jordan Henderson is still only 29 – and with an engine like his, who knows when he will eventually run out of fuel?

In the recent past some of the club’s superstar names have been lured away: Philippe Coutinho, Fernando

Torres and Luis Suarez.

But times have changed.

No longer are clubs like Barcelona and Real

Madrid more appealing than Liverpool.

More players will be signed than sold and the scene is now set for the sort of domination the Merseysiders used to take for granted in the

1970s and 80s.