"We've been through it all together..."

Earlier this season I decided to stick a spare £5 on Liverpool being relegated; with odds of 80/1, it was a long-shot, but with growing unrest at Anfield it was difficult not to see more and more similarities with the epic fall of Leeds United.

In truth, I’ve never really believed Liverpool would go down and the bet was made as more of a wind-up to my Liverpool supporting friends than it ever was for profit. The term ‘too good to go down’ became synonymous with Leeds United during that dreadful season back in 2004 and even when the games started to run out very few of us ever really believed it was a possibility. Most Liverpool fans probably share a similar mindset now, and whilst I agree with Fanhouse UK’s verdict that Leeds’ team was better than Liverpool’s current one, there’s one major difference they’ve not accounted for – morale!

The real problem at Elland Road was growing unrest which grew from a mixture of court cases, wage deferrals, player speculation, manager changes, in-fighting, ill-fated book releases and a looming financial Armageddon (amongst numerous other things). It’s difficult to pin-point the exact straw that broke the camel’s back – and there’s been plenty of discussion amongst fans over the years that followed – but ultimately, the real problem was a team that had stopped playing for one another. Squad morale was at an all time low and once you reach that point it’s hard to turn it around.

Whilst I may be hard-pressed to find many Liverpool fans that agree with me on this one, Liverpool have been extremely lucky. With Leeds in an unrelenting spiral of decay, what we desperately needed was the kind of investment NESV has brought to Anfield. Not only have they ridden Liverpool of the debt the previous American owners had burdened them with, but they’ve also provided the Liverpool fans and players with a silver-lining. The boost to morale that financial security and the possibility of new January signings will bring the squad and fans should be enough to see Liverpool turn the corner.

Whilst £405 in May would be a welcomed contribution towards my season ticket renewal, it’s never going to happen. Like Leeds were in 2004, Liverpool are ‘too good to go down.’ The difference is, the Liverpool fans and players now have more reasons to believe it.