The Hillsborough effect

[Leyton388]

With the events of the last few days fresh in everyones minds just thought i would ask everyones opinion on what it meant for Liverpool FC on a footballing basis?

Watching the documentary on LFC TV last night it brought up a good point on how the Taylor report effectively brought about the chance to english football and all but ended the days of standing areas and the old football league.


Now if Hillsbrough had not happened and the heart ripped out of our club and fans in 1989 and the aftermath would LFC had continued to be the force in england or would we have still been knocked off our perch? Hillsbrough is the main reason Kenny left and in doing so started the end of LFC as England's no 1 club.

Justice YNWA!

[Neil Young]

It's obviously a sensitive issue to discuss and very difficult to assess. I think Heysel was more important - it started the decline since we no longer had the advantage of getting deep into Europe every year, often in the European Cup, so that the gap between our players and those of other teams narrowed.

The emotional impact is incalculable I think although you make a good point about Dalglish.

[-V-]

In a footballing sense it broke us. No doubt about that, all that grief and all those funerals destroyed people like Dalglish

[Darkon]

It's obviously a sensitive issue to discuss and very difficult to assess. I think Heysel was more important - it started the decline since we no longer had the advantage of getting deep into Europe every year, often in the European Cup, so that the gap between our players and those of other teams narrowed.

The emotional impact is incalculable I think although you make a good point about Dalglish.

I very much agree with that post.

I think Heysel changed more than just english football being a force in europe, it also changed the domestic side of things.

That said I also believe that all things have an end, and the cause is also very hard to assess precisely. I think LFC at the time where larger than King Kenny, and it has always been that way with us - no player above the club. And I think that we would have coped with "just" the tragedy of hillsborough,

[DannyMan2006]

Had the premiership started ten years earlier we'd have still been on our perch. I think the success that Man Utd came across was at just the right time to take advantage of the new commercial aspects. Great work by Peter Kenyon, attributed to their success helped build them into the massive club they are today. They've always had a big following but they really hit the jackpot.

We in turn dropped at exactly the wrong time. But had the prem started earlier we may have taken advantage of the big boom in money and been looked after well because of that.

[tsb]

I'm sure Kenyon only joined (and left) in the mid-2000s. Wasn't it the Edwards fella in charge back then?

[MrMichael]

It's obviously a sensitive issue to discuss and very difficult to assess. I think Heysel was more important - it started the decline since we no longer had the advantage of getting deep into Europe every year, often in the European Cup, so that the gap between our players and those of other teams narrowed.

The emotional impact is incalculable I think although you make a good point about Dalglish.

Completely agree, good post Neil

Had the premiership started ten years earlier we'd have still been on our perch. I think the success that Man Utd came across was at just the right time to take advantage of the new commercial aspects. Great work by Peter Kenyon, attributed to their success helped build them into the massive club they are today. They've always had a big following but they really hit the jackpot.

We in turn dropped at exactly the wrong time. But had the prem started earlier we may have taken advantage of the big boom in money and been looked after well because of that.

Aye, that's mostly true also, apart from I would, much though I hate it, also credit Fergie for bringing through that first generation of players and melding that with some very clever purchases to provide the basis for what was to come. The stability they were able to achieve at a point when we were not, allied to the commercial things you're talking about, enabled them to pull out a massive gap which we have taken a long time to come close to bridging.

Although, despite their overall dominance, other sides have challenged, and beaten them on occasion, in a way we have not, so they are not necessarily the only yardstick of success.