Liverpool FC Forum

Thought this was an enjoyable read.

http://thekop.liverpoolfc.tv/_Just-a-cup-team/blog/5980231/173471.html

Question: who scored the goal in 2005-06 that secured their team fourth spot in the Premier League?

Give up?

It was Thierry Henry. A hat-trick for Arsenal against Wigan on the final day as Tottenham – food-poisoned Spurs – lost to West Ham.

Now try this one: which player lifted the FA Cup in the same year?

Too easy, I know.

It was Steven Gerrard, after the most engrossing domestic showpiece of the modern era.

The point being that the Champions League may be football's El Dorado, but nobody remembers a triumphant march to fourth spot.

Financially, entry into Europe's premier club competition is important – of course it is. But why do we follow football? Is it to brag about our team's bank balance, or is it to enjoy days like May 13, 2006?

That's why it irks when the media dispatches the tired smear that Liverpool 'are just a cup team'.

Arsenal have qualified for the Champions League every season since Henry's treble, but what has it led to other than healthy finances?

People talk about attracting top players, but a lack of Champions League football did not deter Luis Suarez, Sami Hyypia, Jari Litmanen nor Didi Hamann from a transfer to Anfield.

Arsenal haven't won a single trophy since 2006, and trophies – not coffers – are what football is about.

The league title is the trophy Liverpool fans crave most, and our league form this season has not been as good as any supporter would have liked.

But did anyone really think this – the first full campaign for our manager and owners, seven new signings bedding into the team – would be the year when our too-long wait for the title would end?

And that being so, which is a better consolation prize: fourth spot and entry into the Champions League or, possibly, two cup wins?

Do Arsenal fans remember what they were doing on the night Henry scored his hat-trick? Some might. But I bet you couldn't find a Liverpool supporter without a story to tell about the evening after the Gerrard final.

Days like these are the apex of life in the stands. Days like Saturday: beating your local rivals in a semi-final at Wembley. Days when your match ticket will be preserved in a shoe box under your bed alongside a stub from your first concert and your childhood bank book. Days that ever so slightly change who you are.

Liverpool may be 'just' a cup team right now but which of the 91 other English league sides have had more of these days since the turn of the century?

A treble in 2001, including the drama of a late comeback against Arsenal and a nine-goal European final; a League Cup win over our fiercest rivals in 2003; the aforementioned FA Cup in 2006; a possible FA and League Cup double this season. And, of course, Istanbul: a fifth European Cup, a night some Liverpool fans would describe as the greatest of their life.

Would you swap all this for Arsenal's cache of two league titles and three FA Cups? No Liverpool fan in my office would.

How about Chelsea's collection of three league titles, four FA Cups and two League Cups? This is tougher – but it was still a toss-up for all those colleagues I questioned.

Which leaves Manchester United - whose 12 major trophies since the turn of the century include seven Premier League triumphs - as the only team to have unquestionably given their supporters more joy than Liverpool over the past dozen years.

There isn't a Liverpool fan alive who is happy that United have been the dominant force in English football during this period, but 90 other clubs would surely love to be seen as a cup team as defined by Liverpool since the Millennium.

Just a cup team? Tell that to those who stood in the Westfalenstadion in 2001. Tell that to those who were in Cardiff when Gerrard felt-tipped memories into our minds. Tell that to anyone who spent a month's wages travelling to Istanbul. Tell that to these people and see if they care.

Good article.... but we need CL-footie "=) JK"

Love it. Though it sums up the sad fact of modern football and why I, and many others, try to remain true to the old, tried and tested ways of passion, loyalty, pride, faith and hope. It seems that more than a few think of nothing other than £ signs as a measure of success in the Beautiful Game.

We need to improve in the league end of,of coarse there will be a time we'll trade a cup for a place in the top four if were not back there next season,if all we do is get in the top four know one's going to be complaining about not winning trophies that season whether you like it or not cl football is paramount to top level success and the longer your out the harder it is to get back in.

And have a look at the team sheet and compare it to are cl challenging teams and tell me it don't attract and allow you to keep better players.