Liverpool Football Club History

In 1891 John Houlding, the leaseholder of Anfield stadium, purchased the ground outright and proposed increasing the rent from £100 to £250 per year.^[9] Everton F.C. moved to Goodison Park after a seven year tenancy. Liverpool F.C. were founded by Houlding in 1892 to play in his vacated Anfield.

With an empty ground and just three players remaining, Houlding decided to form his own football club and on 15 March 1892, Liverpool Football Club was formed. The original name was to be Everton F.C. and Athletic Grounds, Ltd., or Everton Athletic for short, but was changed to Liverpool F.C. when The Football Association refused to recognise the team as Everton. John McKenna was appointed director and signed thirteen Scottish professionals for the new club.

In their first season Liverpool won the Lancashire League, and they were elected to the Football League Second Division for the 1893–94 season. They ended the season unbeaten as Second Division Champions,^[10] and were promoted to the First Division, the highest level of English football. Liverpool won their first Football League championship in 1901, and were champions again in 1906. They played their first FA Cup final in 1914, but lost 1–0 to Burnley.^[11]

In 1922 and 1923 Liverpool won their first back-to-back League titles, captained by England full-back Ephraim Longworth.^[12] This was then followed by the longest spell without a trophy in the team's history, which only ended when Liverpool won the league once again in 1947. However, Liverpool struggled in the years following this success, and were relegated to the Second Division in 1954, where they suffered their record defeat, 9–1 against Birmingham City in December 1954.

In December 1959, Bill Shankly was appointed manager. Over the next fifteen years he transformed Liverpool into one of the top club sides in Europe.^[13] In his first year, he released twenty-four players and reshaped the squad. In 1962, his third season as manager, Liverpool won the Second Division Championship by eight points and were promoted to the top division, where they have remained ever since.

Having started the 1960s in the Second Division, Liverpool would end the decade as a major domestic power. In 1964, Liverpool lifted the League Championship for the first time in seventeen years. Liverpool were League Champions again in 1966, having won their first ever FA Cup in the previous season, beating Leeds United 2-1 in the final. Liverpool won their eighth league title and defeated Borussia Mönchengladbach to win their first European trophy, the UEFA Cup, in 1973. However, a year later, following another FA Cup victory, Shankly retired. His assistant, Bob Paisley, was offered the chance to manage the team.^[14]

In 1976, at the end of Paisley's second season in charge, Liverpool became champions, and also won the UEFA Cup. The following year, Liverpool retained their League Championship, lost the FA Cup Final, but won their first European Cup. The final was played in Rome, and Liverpool defeated Borussia Mönchengladbach 3–1. In 1978 Liverpool retained the trophy, beating Club Brugge 1–0 in the final at Wembley, and in 1979 they broke another domestic record by winning the league title with sixty-eight points^[15] and only sixteen goals conceded in forty-two matches.^[16]

In 1980, Liverpool won the league title for the fourth time in five seasons, and Paisley's third European Cup victory came in 1981 with a 1–0 victory in the final over Real Madrid in Paris. In the following two seasons, Liverpool won a League Championship and League Cup "double" .In the nine seasons Paisley managed the club, Liverpool won a total of twenty-one trophies, including three European Cups, a UEFA Cup, six league titles and three consecutive League Cups. The only domestic trophy to elude him was the FA Cup.

The succession of managers appointed from within the club's staff is worthy of note. These managers are often referred to as "the boot room boys" after a part of Anfield where the Liverpool staff discussed strategy and allegedly stored gin.^[17] Just as Shankly had been succeeded by Paisley, so too Paisley handed the reins to his assistant, veteran coach Joe Fagan. He was 63 when he became manager in 1983. In his first season in charge, Liverpool become the first English club to win three major trophies in a single season — the League title, the League Cup and the European Cup.^[18] However Fagan's reign ended with tragedy the following season.

In 1985 Liverpool again reached the European Cup final. The match was against Juventus at Heysel Stadium but before kick-off, disaster struck. Liverpool fans breached a fence separating the two groups of supporters and charged the Juventus fans. The resulting weight of people caused a retaining wall to collapse, killing thirty-nine fans, mostly Italians.^[6] This tragedy is known as the Heysel Stadium disaster. The match was played regardless and Liverpool lost 1–0 to Juventus. English clubs were consequently banned from participating in European competition for five years, with Liverpool receiving a ban for ten years (later reduced to six). Fourteen of their fans received convictions for involuntary manslaughter.

In 1985 Kenny Dalglish became Liverpool's first player-manager.^[19] His reign saw the club win another three League Championships and two FA Cups including a league and cup double in 1985–86. However, Liverpool's successes were overshadowed by the Hillsborough disaster. On 15 April 1989, when Liverpool were playing Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup semi–final, hundreds of Liverpool fans were crushed against perimeter fencing.^[8] Ninety four fans died that day and a ninety-fifth fan died in hospital from his injuries four days later. A ninety sixth fan died nearly four years later having never regained consciousness.

After the Hillsborough tragedy there was a governmental review of stadium safety. Known as the Taylor Report, it paved the way for legislation requiring all–seater stadiums in the top-flight. The report ruled that the main reasons for the disaster were overcrowding due to a failure of police control.^[20][21]

1991 saw Graeme Souness installed as manager. However, apart from an FA Cup win in his first season, his reign was not successful. After a shock exit from the FA Cup at the hands of Bristol City at Anfield, "Boot room" veteran Roy Evans took over. While his tenure saw some improvement in league form, in his five seasons the club never finished higher than third. Evans' only trophy win was the 1995 League Cup. Gérard Houllier, the former French national coach, was drafted into the Liverpool management team for the 1998-99 season to work alongside Roy Evans, but the partnership did not work out and Evans resigned in November 1998.^[22]

2000–01 was Liverpool's best season for many years as the team completed a unique treble of the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup.^[23] They finished second in 2002, a year in which Houllier suffered heart problems throughout the season and this resulted in him having to miss a match with Leeds and having to undergo major heart surgery.^[24] Liverpool looked like becoming a force in English Football once again, but Houllier would only win one more trophy in his time in charge, another League Cup in 2003. Against a background of growing disquiet amongst Liverpool supporters, Houllier and Liverpool parted by mutual consent at the end of the 2003–04 season.^[25]

Spaniard Rafael Benítez took over and in his first season Liverpool finished a disappointing fifth in the Premier League. The season had a surprising ending, however, as Liverpool won their fifth European Cup final in Istanbul. The Reds met the heavily favoured Italian club A.C. Milan in an astonishing final. Liverpool trailed 3–0 at half time, but made a dramatic comeback by scoring three goals in a period of only six minutes in the second half, forcing extra time. Liverpool went on to win the penalty shoot-out, with goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek conceding only two of Milan's five penalties.^[26]

In 2005–06 Liverpool picked up 82 points in the Premiership, their highest points total in the top-flight since 1988. They ended the season by winning the FA Cup in yet another dramatic final, this time against West Ham. Liverpool trailed 3–2 until Captain Steven Gerrard scored an equalizer from 35–yards out past the helpless goalkeeper Shaka Hislop, as the PA system was announcing injury time. They went on to win in a penalty shoot-out.

On February 6, 2007, the club's lengthy search for investment came to an end when American businessmen George Gillett and Tom Hicks became the owners of Liverpool F.C. in a deal worth £470 million.^[27] Liverpool finished the season in third place in the Premiership for the second consecutive season. Benitez did guide Liverpool to the 2006–07 UEFA Champions League final on May 23, after Pepe Reina made two saves in the penalty kick shootout in the semi-final against Chelsea F.C.^[28] Facing AC Milan once again in the final, Liverpool lost 2-1.