THE MAN WHO CAME CLOSE

Finished second with Liverpool in 2001-02

I DON’T think we truly believed we could win it. We said the right things, we were confident but we lacked that real belief in our hearts to get over the line.

We never felt under that much pressure. There wasn’t much expectation around us. We hadn’t been in the situation before so didn’t chat too much about winning it. We just got on with it.

The pressure of being in a title race wasn’t as intense as it is now. There wasn’t the relentless coverage. There wasn’t the social media, all the podcasts, the constant chat analysing every step of the way. There weren’t the same outside influences. It would be much harder to switch off from it now.

I still loved watching the other games and looking at the fixture lists. I was still engrossed in it all. I loved watching Arsenal and Manchester United play and hoping they would lose.

Of course we wanted to win it but we also felt, if we didn’t, that we were still moving in the right direction. If we didn’t win it this season, we’d just win it next season.

We had to deal with losing our manager Gerard Houllier to ill health for a chunk of the season too. Phil Thompson never gets enough credit for the job he did during that spell to keep us on track. We started the season poorly with defeats by Bolton and Aston Villa and, in the end, that cost us. We also felt aggrieved only getting a point at Arsenal in January but we still went toe-to-toe with them even if we were playing catch-up.

What killed us was losing at Tottenham with three games to go. We blew it at White Hart Lane. We knew coming off the pitch that we messed it up. We had a bad day and Spurs played well. The dressing room was filled with disappointment. It was so quiet. I remember the feeling of acceptance. It was done. It was gone.

If we’d got a result there we could have put real pressure on Arsenal who had to go to Old Trafford. A different result there and it might have gone to the final day. As it was, the reality kicked in that the dream was over.

The same could happen this season. It’s so tight. There are going to be moments when Arsenal, Liverpool or Man City could feel they have blown it.

And like us, it could be Spurs who have a huge say. They still have all three to play and have shown already they can cause them problems. They’ve taken points off all three this season. Unlike for us, though, the pressure is on.