Emlyn Hughes, Phil Thompson, Graeme Souness, Steven Gerrard and Jordan Henderson. On Saturday night Jordan Henderson took Liverpool back to the top table of world football as he cemented his place alongside an elite list of Liverpool legends.
Jordan Henderson – European Cup winning captain, sounds great doesn’t it. Not bad for a lad who was nearly thrown out the door 7 years ago to make way for Clint Dempsey.
7 years on he becomes only the 5th Captain to lead Liverpool to European Cup Glory.
It’s been nearly a week since he got his hands on the most sought after trophy in club football, lifting big ears high into Madrid’s red skyline and securing eternal greatness for the current group of players.
To be quite honest with you, it still doesn’t feel real. I’m waiting for someone to wake me up from this dream that Jurgen Klopp has taken us on this season. Saturday night was just the beginning for this group of players.
June 1st 2019 will go down in history as one of Liverpool Football Clubs greatest ever nights, 14 years after the 5th European Cup, Klopp finally reunited the love affair between this great club and Europe’s most pristine trophy.
The journey to Liverpool’s 6th European Cup started all the way back in October 2015. October 8th 2015 to be precise. The day Klopp finally took the Anfield reigns, and got us all onboard emotional roller-coaster.
It’s been an exhilarating journey but like with anything in life for every highlight there is a low point, there have been heartbreaking moments along the way; Basel, Kiev and this years Premier League title to name a few.
But one of the many lessons we have learnt along on this breathtaking journey is that quitting isn’t an option and these boys have personified that throughout the journey. To recover from the depths of despair in Kiev to dust themselves down and go one further 12 months later is a testament to the character of each individual who has pulled on the famous red shirt this season.
The lesson to never give up is not just isolated to football, it’s something we can all take and use in our everyday lives wherever we are in the world, whatever we are doing, we are all in control of our own fate at the end of the day.
Nothing worth having in life ever came easy.
Take Andy Robertson, Kop hero, the best left-back in Europe this season, his journey to the top was far from easy. Released from his boyhood club Celtic at 16 and being told he want good enough. Having no job at the age of 18. He never gave up.
7 years later he is a Champions League winner.
Since coming out of the ground on Saturday night I have been on cloud nine, people will tell you that there is more to life than football, those people who don’t get the journey we are on, or have been on. Nights like Saturday make you wonder whether there is more to life than football or is football just our life?
The traveling, the time, the money and the sacrifices people make every week to follow this great club and people have done it for generations. All for moments like Saturday night, moments you couldn’t put a price on. If you could ever bottle up a feeling and give it to those who don’t understand why we do it.
The overriding emotion that left bodies when that trophy was lifted high into the sky, and that isn’t just from the fans but the players alike too. That has been the running theme through the club for the best 18 months or so, the unity created between the players and fans has taken us to this moment.
The Synergy created will give us many more moments like this in the near future. It feels like everything we have been working towards has led to this moment, but that isn’t true because this is by no means the end. This is only the very start.
The let off was something else. it’s almost impossible to describe to someone who doesn’t understand it, whatever words you use will never do that moment in time justice.
The looks on faces on Saturday night when the full time whistle went is something that will stay with me forever, grown men and women breaking down, overcome with emotion. Strangers embracing one another like family, tears flooding down faces as we realised what we had achieved, Something we had all worked for so long, Players and fans as one.
Years of pain, heartbreak and mockery. Saturday was the moment that everyone had feared. We had got back to our perch. They knew that Liverpool Football Club was back.
We have been through the tough times, the heartbreaks and the storms.
But at the end of each storm is a golden sky.
This is our time to write our own history.
