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Liverpool have won their 20th English league title - Getty Images
In winning the Premier League at his first attempt, Arne Slot has scored one of the most celebrated equalisers in Anfield history; Liverpool can proudly call themselves record title-winners again.
True, it is an honour they must temporarily share with Manchester United, the giants of English football tied at 20-20. But there is massive symbolic importance in Slot wiping out the advantage, which owed everything to the genius of Sir Alex Ferguson.
Slot’s instant success ends any debate about England’s most successful club. When you add Anfield’s six European Cups to the league tally, the last counter-argument they were clinging to at Old Trafford has been obliterated.
Bill Shankly officially put Liverpool ahead of the pack when lifting the club’s eighth championship in 1973, kicking off a relentless winning spree.
For 36 years, Liverpool fans boasted about their league superiority to assert their overall dominance over their biggest rivals, even if by the mid-1990s and through the turn of the century it sounded increasingly more like a nod to older glories.
One of my lowest points as a player was in May, 2009, when United pipped us to the title to match Liverpool’s 18th.
It was a depressing blow to everyone at Anfield and – quite rightly – Ferguson was unashamed in his joy at catching Liverpool. United’s fans revelled in it, too.
We had to take our punishment having dished it out for so long.
Fourteen years earlier, with United defending their first title of the Ferguson era, they made their Anfield trip as Premier League champions to be greeted with a scornful Kop banner.
“Come back and sing ‘Ooh Aah Cantona’ when you’ve won 18,” it read.
At that stage, United had been champions on eight occasions and had many more years to endure a chant of “18 times” at Anfield and Old Trafford.
Mancunian memories were good. When they came back to Anfield with their 18th, United fans wore Cantona masks and obliged the request to chant the Frenchman’s name.
By May, 2011, it got worse for us as United won their 19th. Ryan Giggs summed up the euphoria.
“It means a lot, especially for the older supporters, who, through the 1970s and 1980s, watched Liverpool win everything. Now, obviously, the tables are turned,” he said.
We were languishing in sixth. Shortly before my final game for Liverpool in 2013, United won their 20th. We finished the season in seventh under a new manager Brendan Rodgers, 28 points behind.
If you had asked me on the day of my retirement how long it would take for Liverpool to catch up to United’s total, my honest answer would have been it might not happen in my lifetime.
We were miles off it on and off the pitch. United had the best manager, raked in millions more than us a year in match-day and commercial revenues, and had everything within their grasp to keep going. In an era when Chelsea and Arsenal were consistently ahead of Liverpool, and Manchester City had just become one of the world’s wealthiest clubs, today’s Anfield triumph looked like a distant fantasy.
They kept telling us we were “living in the past”. You don’t hear that anymore.
FSG has ushered in golden Anfield era
This is the biggest single reason why I am baffled and occasionally irritated whenever I hear criticism of Liverpool’s owners, Fenway Sports Group. It has overseen an extraordinary turnaround over 15 years to the point where Liverpool’s commercial revenues now exceed United’s.
The difference between the club FSG bought and the Liverpool of 2025 is startling, its most consequential decisions on recruitment paying off spectacularly. Manchester City apart, every club in this country and many in Europe have been studying how Liverpool use their resources to try to replicate the success. With a second title in five years on top of many other honours since FSG’s first trophy in 2012 – and the promise of more to come – this is truly a golden Anfield era.
Nobody believed FSG could replace Jürgen Klopp and win the league straight away. Let’s be honest and admit that when everyone welcomed Slot last summer saying he could be “the new Bob Paisley”, there was as much hope and romance as absolute faith that would be the case. But Slot has justified those comparisons with Shankly’s legendary successor and credit must be afforded him and the hierarchy for succeeding where United failed. History shows how difficult it can be stepping into a managerial giant’s shoes.
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Jürgen Klopp guided Liverpool to their 19th Premier League title in 2020 - Getty Images/Phil Noble
Slot has become the 10th Liverpool manager to lead the club to the title. That shows the depth of coaching talent which has filtered through Anfield. At United, Ferguson and Sir Matt Busby account for 18 of United’s 20 victories.
After the spectacular seasons of Pep Guardiola, Klopp (and last season Mikel Arteta) going head-to-head until the final day, Slot’s title will be remembered as a return to normality. He has navigated Liverpool to the summit in the same smart manner as 95 per cent of championship-winning managers.
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Arne Slot has become the 10th Liverpool manager to lead the club to the league title - Getty Images/Justin Setterfield
His team played brilliant football at the start of the season, including in the Champions League when they beat European and Spanish champions Real Madrid and Bundesliga title-holders Bayer Leverkusen.
League championships are won and lost in that critical period from early November through to the beginning of March, absorbing the tough schedules around Christmas when it is survival of the fittest. Liverpool won 14 and drew six of their fixtures in that run, while City and Arsenal could not keep the pace. That was the defining spell, including Liverpool winning home and away against the team who won the title for four successive years. That is championship-winning form.
By the run-in, it was effectively over, the lack of jeopardy giving the unfair impression Liverpool were somehow a less exciting watch. Like every great champion winning with time to spare, Liverpool had earned the right to do what they had to do.
There is a reason why the league is described as the “bread and butter”. The lavish, expensive meals are cup finals or Champions League nights. Winning the championship is not about Michelin-star banquets. It is about doing what needs to be done week in, week out, when the sun shines in August through the biting winter and the most tense games as the climax approaches.
The last few weeks are a grind where the thrills come from a sense of jeopardy if there are two or more challengers. Liverpool were so far ahead it looked more straightforward than it was. The rest ought to be looking at their own failings, not wagging an accusatory finger at the best team and well-run club.
Slot’s shrewd handling of the contract issues around Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold also bodes well. He has a manner which defuses controversy and switches the focus to the training ground and pitch.
With Salah and Van Dijk committed for another two years, the foundations are laid for Liverpool to maintain these heights.
After matching Liverpool in 2009, Ferguson said this: “It’s a fantastic achievement to win 18 but I think it would be even better to go one better than Liverpool and win 19. That has to be our goal now.”
Slot has secured his place in Anfield folklore by restoring parity with Ferguson. He will be riding the number 20 open-top bus on the parade. Once the many celebrations are over, all eyes will be on the timetable to jump on board number 21.
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