Tony Barrett Interview
By James Carroll - 22/05/2008 14:55
Following on from our interview with Nicky Allt for the excellent 'Here We Go Gathering Cups In May', ShanklyGates.co.uk caught up with Tony Barrett, who described last years European Cup Final in the book.
Tony, who is the Liverpool correspondent for the Liverpool Echo, joins the Nicky Allt, Jegsy Dodd, Peter Hooton, Kevin Sampson, Dave Kirby and John Maguire in giving their own supporter's account of a European Cup Final in the book, focusing on the lengths they've gone to to watch the Reds in action and the antics that ensue along the way.
From the highs of Rome and Istanbul to the lows of Heysel and Athens, nothing is left to the readers imagination.
Tony had the task of covering not only the Final itself for the Echo, but also the scenes outside the stadium in Athens that saw a lot of fans denied entry to the ground and the mud slinging that followed.
You mention in the book that there was a strange feeling in the air in Athens in the sense that it did not feel like the European Cup Final. What do you put that down to and would you agree that even in previous rounds there just wasn't that special feeling that there was in 2005?
It all comes down to how special our run to Istanbul was. The hunger of the fans in 2005 was incredible and something which will never be repeated again. Because it was so great it meant that everything else that followed immediately after would suffer in comparison.
There was a quest for redemption and an overwhelming desire to prove ourselves on and off the field in 2005 that just couldn't be repeated two years later. Athens was just a weird experience though. I don't think anyone I've spoken to who was there got anything like the buzz you would expect to get at a European Cup final.
Your interview with Rick Parry for the Echo regarding the ticket allocation for the final was famous for his 'numbers game' quote. How disappointed were you with his refusal to go into detail and give the fans the answers they wanted?
I've been on the receiving end when tickets are distributed for big games so I know how it feels to miss out.
That's bad enough in itself so when that does happen I think the very least the fans deserve is an explanation of why they've missed out.
The fact that this didn't happen with Athens caused all kinds of resentment and it was all justified.
In the build up to the final loads of my mates missed out on tickets in the ballot so you can imagine how gutted they were. All of them were desperate for answers and for the club to explain to them why they would not be getting a ticket so I wanted answers for them. You don't always get what you want though and I still feel this failure to explain the situation fully to disappointed fans is one of the biggest mistakes the club has ever made.
It made them look arrogant and aloof and, worst of all, it made many, many good fans wonder why they bother.
Flying out to Athens on the same flight as the players and staff must have been some experience?
It's mad. Honest to God, it's about as mad as it gets, especially for someone who's used to getting to European games by a mixture of easyjet, Ryanair and trains via the most scenic of routes.
I can remember going up the steps to the plane and the first player I saw was Jermaine Pennant. It was like being invited to a supermodels party and finding out one of them had brought their ugly mate!
But then you see the manager and the rest of the squad and it hits home that you could be flying with the sixth Liverpool FC party to win the European Cup.
The thing that really struck me was how quiet they all were. A gang of lads in their 20s and early 30s and they hardly made a peep all the way to Athens. Most of them were reading or playing computer games and one or two had a kip.
There was a professional air to them and you got the feeling they were in no mood to be distracted from the job in hand.
For me, the experience was superb but I'll always be disappointed that the European Cup didn't accompany us on the return flight. I'd had visions of me cradling the trophy and not letting any of the players get anywhere near it but it wasn't to be.
Meeting Peter Kenyon on the other hand...
I don't think I could tell you what I think of him or I'd lose my job.
Dead funny seeing the chief executive of a team Liverpool had beaten in the semi-finals during the build up to the final but it also brought home the sheer scale of the "UEFA Family" and what a junket their showpiece event had become.
It was chaos outside the stadium even over an hour before kick-off. What was your take on it?
I think everyone knew it wasn't going to be fun before we even got there. Using an athletics stadium with no working turnstiles for a European Cup final was a joke.
When I got there with my mates there was already a crush developing outside the ground because the Greek police had used two vans to close an entrance over to stop fans getting through without tickets. But all they did was create a bottleneck. The organisation was as amateur as we have become used to on European trips and how UEFA continue to get away with treating their "customers" in such a shoddy fashion is beyond me.
A lot of mud was thrown in our direction as the footage of fans attempting to 'storm' past the Police was played on a seemingly constant loop on TV for nearly a week. How did you go about setting those who had jumped their own conclusions straight in the paper?
There are certain media organisations who seem to have it in for Liverpool fans and who never seem willing to put any incidents involving them in context.
I knew two weeks before the game that things would be bad because I'd been told so by high ranking Merseyside Police officers and by people at the club who knew the Olympic Stadium simply wasn't a suitable venue for such an occasion.
So when things did go wrong it was no surprise whatsoever.
Some of the coverage that followed it was a shock though because it was so far removed from what had actually happened.
The good thing is, there were plenty of articulate and passionate Liverpool fans who did their best to put the record straight and who refused to let the likes of William Gaillard get away with his scandalous smear campaign.
Some of our 'fans' were not without blame though with regards to the ticket snatching that went on...
The lowest of the low. I'd seen something similar in Cardiff a year earlier when we were playing West Ham in the FA Cup final but on a much smaller scale.
You can't excuse ticket snatching no matter what. Although some of the nonsense that was written about it was beyond a joke.
I stood outside and watched it happening but it didn't happen hundreds of times as some have suggested.
Although, having said that, if it happens once it's too much.
I think you sum up Milan's first goal brilliantly in the book by describing it as a 'name-on-the-cup' goal. What did you think of our overall performance in the final?
We were far and away the better side in the first half but we failed to take our chances and if you do that at the top level you're always going to be punished, which is exactly what happened when Inzaghi became the first player in history to score with his nipples.
There's a piece of commentary from the 1966 Cup Winners Cup final where Borussia Dortmund score past Tommy Lawrence from about 35 yards and the commentator describes it as "a freak goal". That one wasn't but Inzaghi's was. As soon as it went in my heart sank because you just knew that was it. We'd been the better side by miles but couldn't score and then they go and get the kind of goal which you wouldn't see repeated if you went to a thousand games.
After that, our lack of a top class centre forward really showed and I don't think we ever really threatened to get back into it.
Good luck to Milan though, they'd earned their luck after what happened in 2005 and to be in the stadium when Paolo Maldini lifted the European Cup is something I'm sure I'll look back on as a great moment in years to come, even if it was tough at the time.
By the way, funny how sections of the national media failed to mention that the Liverpool supporters almost to a man stayed behiond to applaud Milan. That was a touch of class which should have been given the coverage it so richly deserved.
Benitez took some stick for his team selection - Zenden on the left, Crouch on the bench - with the benefit of hindsight do you think it was fair?
I think Zenden was a huge mistake. He had done well in the semi-final second leg against Chelsea at Anfield but I think every single Red was gutted when they saw his name flicker onto the scoreboard in Athens.
His inclusion meant we simply couldn't hurt Milan down their right. There would be no crosses coming in from our left and there would be no through balls and no shots.
To be fair though, Benitez did not have too many options, especially with Fabio Aurelio ruled out through injury.
I wasn't too bothered about Crouch being on the bench although I would have liked to have seen him brought on earlier than he was.
Finally, just why do we performance so well in Europe but cannot manage it on a consistent enough basis domestically to sustain a title challenge?
I just don't think we've got a strong enough squad to get us through the rigours of a 38 game league season.
In Europe, the demands on your squad are nowhere near as great and the manager is able to pick his strongest line up for pretty much every game. He can't do that in the Premiership though and when he isn't able to call on his strongest side I think the weaknesses of his squad really show through.
By James Carroll - 22/05/2008 14:55
Following on from our interview with Nicky Allt for the excellent 'Here We Go Gathering Cups In May', ShanklyGates.co.uk caught up with Tony Barrett, who described last years European Cup Final in the book.
Tony, who is the Liverpool correspondent for the Liverpool Echo, joins the Nicky Allt, Jegsy Dodd, Peter Hooton, Kevin Sampson, Dave Kirby and John Maguire in giving their own supporter's account of a European Cup Final in the book, focusing on the lengths they've gone to to watch the Reds in action and the antics that ensue along the way.
From the highs of Rome and Istanbul to the lows of Heysel and Athens, nothing is left to the readers imagination.
Tony had the task of covering not only the Final itself for the Echo, but also the scenes outside the stadium in Athens that saw a lot of fans denied entry to the ground and the mud slinging that followed.
You mention in the book that there was a strange feeling in the air in Athens in the sense that it did not feel like the European Cup Final. What do you put that down to and would you agree that even in previous rounds there just wasn't that special feeling that there was in 2005?
It all comes down to how special our run to Istanbul was. The hunger of the fans in 2005 was incredible and something which will never be repeated again. Because it was so great it meant that everything else that followed immediately after would suffer in comparison.
There was a quest for redemption and an overwhelming desire to prove ourselves on and off the field in 2005 that just couldn't be repeated two years later. Athens was just a weird experience though. I don't think anyone I've spoken to who was there got anything like the buzz you would expect to get at a European Cup final.
Your interview with Rick Parry for the Echo regarding the ticket allocation for the final was famous for his 'numbers game' quote. How disappointed were you with his refusal to go into detail and give the fans the answers they wanted?
I've been on the receiving end when tickets are distributed for big games so I know how it feels to miss out.
That's bad enough in itself so when that does happen I think the very least the fans deserve is an explanation of why they've missed out.
The fact that this didn't happen with Athens caused all kinds of resentment and it was all justified.
In the build up to the final loads of my mates missed out on tickets in the ballot so you can imagine how gutted they were. All of them were desperate for answers and for the club to explain to them why they would not be getting a ticket so I wanted answers for them. You don't always get what you want though and I still feel this failure to explain the situation fully to disappointed fans is one of the biggest mistakes the club has ever made.
It made them look arrogant and aloof and, worst of all, it made many, many good fans wonder why they bother.
Flying out to Athens on the same flight as the players and staff must have been some experience?
It's mad. Honest to God, it's about as mad as it gets, especially for someone who's used to getting to European games by a mixture of easyjet, Ryanair and trains via the most scenic of routes.
I can remember going up the steps to the plane and the first player I saw was Jermaine Pennant. It was like being invited to a supermodels party and finding out one of them had brought their ugly mate!
But then you see the manager and the rest of the squad and it hits home that you could be flying with the sixth Liverpool FC party to win the European Cup.
The thing that really struck me was how quiet they all were. A gang of lads in their 20s and early 30s and they hardly made a peep all the way to Athens. Most of them were reading or playing computer games and one or two had a kip.
There was a professional air to them and you got the feeling they were in no mood to be distracted from the job in hand.
For me, the experience was superb but I'll always be disappointed that the European Cup didn't accompany us on the return flight. I'd had visions of me cradling the trophy and not letting any of the players get anywhere near it but it wasn't to be.
Meeting Peter Kenyon on the other hand...
I don't think I could tell you what I think of him or I'd lose my job.
Dead funny seeing the chief executive of a team Liverpool had beaten in the semi-finals during the build up to the final but it also brought home the sheer scale of the "UEFA Family" and what a junket their showpiece event had become.
It was chaos outside the stadium even over an hour before kick-off. What was your take on it?
I think everyone knew it wasn't going to be fun before we even got there. Using an athletics stadium with no working turnstiles for a European Cup final was a joke.
When I got there with my mates there was already a crush developing outside the ground because the Greek police had used two vans to close an entrance over to stop fans getting through without tickets. But all they did was create a bottleneck. The organisation was as amateur as we have become used to on European trips and how UEFA continue to get away with treating their "customers" in such a shoddy fashion is beyond me.
A lot of mud was thrown in our direction as the footage of fans attempting to 'storm' past the Police was played on a seemingly constant loop on TV for nearly a week. How did you go about setting those who had jumped their own conclusions straight in the paper?
There are certain media organisations who seem to have it in for Liverpool fans and who never seem willing to put any incidents involving them in context.
I knew two weeks before the game that things would be bad because I'd been told so by high ranking Merseyside Police officers and by people at the club who knew the Olympic Stadium simply wasn't a suitable venue for such an occasion.
So when things did go wrong it was no surprise whatsoever.
Some of the coverage that followed it was a shock though because it was so far removed from what had actually happened.
The good thing is, there were plenty of articulate and passionate Liverpool fans who did their best to put the record straight and who refused to let the likes of William Gaillard get away with his scandalous smear campaign.
Some of our 'fans' were not without blame though with regards to the ticket snatching that went on...
The lowest of the low. I'd seen something similar in Cardiff a year earlier when we were playing West Ham in the FA Cup final but on a much smaller scale.
You can't excuse ticket snatching no matter what. Although some of the nonsense that was written about it was beyond a joke.
I stood outside and watched it happening but it didn't happen hundreds of times as some have suggested.
Although, having said that, if it happens once it's too much.
I think you sum up Milan's first goal brilliantly in the book by describing it as a 'name-on-the-cup' goal. What did you think of our overall performance in the final?
We were far and away the better side in the first half but we failed to take our chances and if you do that at the top level you're always going to be punished, which is exactly what happened when Inzaghi became the first player in history to score with his nipples.
There's a piece of commentary from the 1966 Cup Winners Cup final where Borussia Dortmund score past Tommy Lawrence from about 35 yards and the commentator describes it as "a freak goal". That one wasn't but Inzaghi's was. As soon as it went in my heart sank because you just knew that was it. We'd been the better side by miles but couldn't score and then they go and get the kind of goal which you wouldn't see repeated if you went to a thousand games.
After that, our lack of a top class centre forward really showed and I don't think we ever really threatened to get back into it.
Good luck to Milan though, they'd earned their luck after what happened in 2005 and to be in the stadium when Paolo Maldini lifted the European Cup is something I'm sure I'll look back on as a great moment in years to come, even if it was tough at the time.
By the way, funny how sections of the national media failed to mention that the Liverpool supporters almost to a man stayed behiond to applaud Milan. That was a touch of class which should have been given the coverage it so richly deserved.
Benitez took some stick for his team selection - Zenden on the left, Crouch on the bench - with the benefit of hindsight do you think it was fair?
I think Zenden was a huge mistake. He had done well in the semi-final second leg against Chelsea at Anfield but I think every single Red was gutted when they saw his name flicker onto the scoreboard in Athens.
His inclusion meant we simply couldn't hurt Milan down their right. There would be no crosses coming in from our left and there would be no through balls and no shots.
To be fair though, Benitez did not have too many options, especially with Fabio Aurelio ruled out through injury.
I wasn't too bothered about Crouch being on the bench although I would have liked to have seen him brought on earlier than he was.
Finally, just why do we performance so well in Europe but cannot manage it on a consistent enough basis domestically to sustain a title challenge?
I just don't think we've got a strong enough squad to get us through the rigours of a 38 game league season.
In Europe, the demands on your squad are nowhere near as great and the manager is able to pick his strongest line up for pretty much every game. He can't do that in the Premiership though and when he isn't able to call on his strongest side I think the weaknesses of his squad really show through.
