How it felt watching Liverpool equal Man United’s 20 titles… as a Man United fan

I’d seen enough of Liverpool this season by the start of August. They were a class above Manchester United in a South Carolina friendly and my attention would focus on what was going wrong at the right end of the East Lancashire Road rather than what was going right in Liverpool.

As United’s season went from bad to worse, I didn’t need to know how well Liverpool were playing. What good could come from that? Snippets of information would permeate my self-installed Scouse-free mental firewall: Mohamed Salah’s form, or him signing a massive new contract, or ‘Trent’ (Alexander-Arnold) wanting to leave. Whatever. It felt barely relevant.

I watched through my fingers as Liverpool came to Old Trafford in September and handed United their backside on a plate once again. Laughed when United held them at Anfield in a January league game because it was so unexpected.

“Oh, how the mighty have fallen,” people would sneer about Man United. No s***, have you seen the league table? United have fallen massively and it’s been a terrible watch all season, bar a couple of highs. Why make yourself feel even worse by seeing how good they are? Where’s the joy in that or subjecting yourself to hearing nonsense about the Kop sucking balls into the net. Liverpool are easier to ignore, except when your editor asks you to write an article like this.

So here goes. I saw a tweet from Sean, a United fan from Manchester, on Sunday morning.

“The dark day where Liverpool equal 20, stripping away one of the few unique things we have left, has arrived. Grim.” He’s right, but why put yourself through it? You have choices in life. You wouldn’t pick up dog s*** and eat it and I can’t imagine Liverpool fans focusing on how good United were for 20 years, but sometimes life slaps you in the face.

Like walking across Stanley Park, having seen United lose the league in 1992 to a backdrop of Scousers singing: ‘Have you ever seen United win the league?’. I dreamed that day of seeing my team win just one league title in my lifetime. I saw United win 13, surging from seven titles to 20 and passing Liverpool’s 18 on the way. It was wonderful and Sir Alex Ferguson achieved his aim of knocking them off their perch, but United’s pre-eminence and size ultimately attracted the sharks in May 2005, who would load the club with so much debt it would start to unravel at the seams.

Ah, May 2005, a s*** month for United for many reasons. In the early hours of May 26 that year, I also received a text message from a Liverpool fan in Istanbul for whom I have a huge respect.

“I know how you felt in Camp Nou,” it read — and it was meant with respect. A few hours earlier, when I could stomach a little more Liverpool, I’d quite enjoyed Milan cruising at 3-0 and wouldn’t know a United fan who’d feel any different: one can find joy in the misery of your greatest rivals. And I remember the Liverpudlian writer Kevin Sampson saying that he was quite enjoying May 26, 1999, and footage of Manchester United losing a Champions League final (and treble), until “a Norwegian with an extending toe” put paid to that at Camp Nou.

I’d like to see Liverpool lose every game they play and I’m sure the feeling is mutual. None of this ‘support the teams from your country in Europe’ nonsense. Saint-Etienne fans had it right last week with their ‘Merci Maguire’ flags when they played their neighbours, Lyon, a few days after Harry Maguire saved United’s terrible season.

In 2005, my Scouse mate in Istanbul had just seen his team come from 3-0 down in the Champions League final to draw the game 3-3 and then win 3-2 on penalties. He didn’t need me to be happy for him, he was happy for his team, his support, his community, his tribe.

United and Liverpool are England’s two biggest and most successful clubs, with more in common than not, but one regret is never really seeing the pair go head-to-head in a sustained title race. That wasn’t going to happen this season and that much was clear from the start.

Manchester United, in 14th, are 43 points behind Liverpool, who are first. I can scarcely believe that I’ve written that last sentence. Liverpool have scored more than two goals for every one from United all season. And so on.

They’ve won a 20th league title, matching the 20 won by United, and they look far better placed to win a 21st than United. I can’t lie or even laugh as I could five years ago with Liverpool’s self-aggrandising ‘This Means More’ marketing slogan that implied a supercilious and superior standing. No, It Doesn’t.

But sometimes you get a laugh out of the rivalry. Like asking a Liverpool fan if he’d like to have a quick word with a United podcast outside Anfield’s main stand in 2016.

“I’d rather have my liver removed,” he replied. So that’s a no, then? Fair play.

Or inviting a Scouser to Old Trafford to meet some United players in June 2019. He’d just paid £5,000 to buy Andy Robertson’s match shirt from the Champions League final the previous month, which had been kindly given to us by Liverpool FC, who knew we were trying to buy an ambulance for a Salford hospice.

Liverpool secured the Premier League title on Sunday (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

“I respect what you lads are doing, but why the f*** would I want to meet Man United players for?” replied the Scouser. That’s the spirit. He paid up, the ambulance was bought, I was deeply grateful to him, and the only time he came to Manchester was to be in the away end at a football ground.

But some things are unavoidable and life can whack you in the face. Like in 2019, when I was sent to Madrid to watch Liverpool become European champions in Madrid. Swimming the Mersey in a Liverpool kit weighed down with bricks would have been preferable, but even then there were tiny chinks of humour — a sunglasses seller wore a United shirt as he hawked the streets.

Or Paris in 2022, when I was sent to another Champions League final. Liverpool didn’t win, but their fans were stitched up by typical heavy-handed French policing of English football fans. My empathy was with the innocent football fans over any aggressor.

I walked past Anfield last Saturday en route to a final-ever trip to Goodison Park. Ventured behind the rebuilt Anfield Road and read the messages on the freshly laid flowers at the Hillsborough memorial that transcend any tribal rivalries.

I know little, but enough to know that Liverpool have done much right. They’ve not had a benefactor, they’ve not cheated, they’ve recruited players far better than their biggest rivals, Manchester United and Everton. Like United in the 1990s, Liverpool have created a positive virtuous circle, reaping financial and football rewards, building upwards and reinvesting profits in players and bigger stands. In contrast, United has been a whirlpool, sucking in talent, ruining it and spitting it out at great cost. It’s s*** and, like most United fans, we’ll suck it up until it changes. And it will, just don’t ask when.

I recall a Liverpool writer, maybe five years ago, talking about how he’d had enough of what he called ‘the Joe Cole did well today’ articles. He knew Liverpool were poor around 2010 and had tried to find one of the few positives. It’s like that for Manchester United, England’s biggest club, right now. S***. Maybe if we hadn’t seen such riches, we could live with being poor.

So what do you do? Football is an important part of life, but it’s not the only part. Other parts of your life can go well even if your football team doesn’t. And isn’t not winning the reality for most football fans? And isn’t fandom just reflected glory anyway? At least that’s what you can tell yourself at times like this.

Anyway, United fans have a trip to Bilbao to look forward to this week and Liverpool have… been knocked out of Europe by Paris Saint-Germain. Unlucky!

I’m genuinely looking forward to it and I couldn’t give two hoots what anyone else thinks. Glory, Glory Man United.

(Top photos: Getty Images)

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