Once more into the mystic...

THE response to the various fundraising projects for Sean Cox has been tremendous, and it has confirmed this deep connection between so many Irish people and Liverpool Football Club.

There are obvious and practical reasons for this due to the amount of citizens in Liverpool who are from Ireland originally, but there is also some sort of mystical element to it.

Football can do that, it can make you form deep attachments which make complete emotional sense to you, while those who are more literal-minded can be heard cribbing about the illogicality of supporting “11 millionaires running

around a field in a foreign country”.

Today our 11 millionaires face Chelsea’s 11 millionaires — and frankly given their efforts on our behalf of late, we are concerned only that Virgil van Dijk or Roberto Firmino or Mo Salah are not being paid nearly enough.

We are in a very strange place, we Liverpool fans, because with five games left in the league we know no peace — and yet we are also profoundly happy at the way these outstanding men have put us in a position to compete for the title.

Our days are filled with anxiety, but it is the best anxiety we have known since the last time it happened — in 2014, when we were done out of it by what can only be described as... Chelsea.

I would not mention this today, except I think that you would agree that it is better to speak of one’s worst imaginings — and to note that in 2014 we were also done out of it by Crystal Palace, and that our rivals Manchester City are today playing what can only be described as... Crystal Palace.

There will be more days like this, for the multitudes in Ireland and in many lands, until there are no more days, and the truth will be apparent to all.

A nation holds its breath.