Have you ever entered an empty stadium? Try it. Stand in the middle of the field and listen. There is nothing less empty than an empty stadium. There is nothing less mute than stands bereft of people.

At Wembley, shouts from the ‘66 World Cup which England won still resound, and if you listen very closely you can hear groans from 1953 when England fell to the Hungarians. Montevideo’s Centenario Stadium sighs with nostalgia for the glory days of Uruguayan football. Maracana is still crying over Brazil’s 1950 World Cup defeat.

At Bombonera in Buenos Aires, drums boom from half a century ago. From the depths of Azteca Stadium, you can hear the ceremonial chants of the ancient Mexican ball game. The concrete terraces of the Nou Camp in Barcelona speak Catalan, and the stands of San Mames in Bilbao talk in Euskera.

In Milan, the ghost of Giuseppe Meazza scores goals that shake the stadium bearing his name. The final of the ‘74 World Cup, won by Germany, is played day after day and night after night at Munich’s Olympic Stadium.

The stadium of King Fahd in Saudi Arabia has marble and gold boxes and carpeted stands, but it has no memory or much of anything to say.

Eduardo Galeano, Football in Sun and Shadow, 1995

On Monday evening Chelsea will train in an empty stadium. The loudest empty stadium in the world. It’ll whisper to them of Liverpool’s five glorious European Cup victories. Kopites now long departed will take up their specs again and invoke visions in the Chelsea minds of St. Etienne, Inter Milan, Auxerre, Roma, Barcelona, Olympiakos and Juventus.

The stands will echo to songs of triumph and glory, of the dignity of Elisha Scott and Billy Liddell, the heart of Ian St John and Emlyn Hughes, the strength of Tommy Smith and Graeme Souness, and the brilliance of John Barnes and Kenny Dalglish.

And when the Chelsea players look around, nervously, to see where these evocations are coming from they’ll see no one there. They’ll return to their hotel and struggle to sleep as their minds are filled with thoughts of Reds coming up that hill once more, victorious and glorious. They’ll toss and turn to painful memories from two years ago.

And on Tuesday evening it is up to us, today’s fans, to do our footballing ancestors proud at Anfield once again. Tuesday night is a chance for Glory, both on and off the pitch.

Do your best Reds, for there’s nothing more you can do, and Rafa’s team will have the chance to emulate the great teams of yore in Athens.

This can and will be OUR year.

It is as recently as both 2003 and 2005 that Liverpool have finished in 5th place in the premiership.
It bodes well, then, that, yet again after last season, a Champions League Qualifying place (NOT a Champions League place - ask an evertonian) has been secured in mid April.

These are small steps, but certainly important ones that show progression from the recent dark days when we often found ourselves fighting for a CL place in the last week of the season, missing out as often as succeding.

The points total will not be as high as last season, but it’ll not be far off, and stability at the club, new investment, and a team building process that looks near to completion, all hopefully signal that the dark days when “4th is the minimum acceptable target” seemed to become “4th is the maximum possible” are at an end. Rather than struggle to get INTO the Champions league, we are about to play in our second semi-final in 3 years, and will begin next seasons tournament ranked the 3rd best team in europe over the past 5 years (with only Barca and Milan ahead of us)

A fantastic, strong, in depth and still very young squad has been built (Reina, Agger, Riise, Gerrard, Alonso, Mascherano, Pennant, Gonzales, Crouch, Kuyt and more have all still to reach the “peak age” of 27-28), while a previously failing youth system has produced a team reaching the last 2 FA Youth Cup finals, with many more young players impressing out on loan.

Small steps (and an occasional celebratory leap in the air) have been taken in Rafa’s three season in charge. Far be it from me to suggest a “5 year plan” is in progress (god forbid), but next season is the time to start taking big, Crouch sized strides.

It’s our year next year!

Now, where have I heard that before…

The wise say that the true fans turn up at the most unlikely of matches, the midweek-nothing-to-play-fors, for example.

Well the true fan was quiet last night, and the true fan could not be blamed for that, as the players went through the motions of a dull game that was more lively than last Saturday’s merely because they were closer to their big houses in Cheshire.

However, Stevie G popped up with that 25 yarder Frank Lampard has being trying to do since 1893 and then grabbed the ball for a penalty to make it a safe 2-0. Safe because apart from Jamie’s uncharacteristic slip up in the first half, Middlingboro wouldn’t have scored with no players on the pitch and only the raking bloke at half time to beat.

True fans would also have noted that Gerrard is NOT our best penalty taker. Frankly I don’t think he’s our 10th best penalty taker. If Schwarzer had gone to his left, he’d easily saved it, as Stevie’s penalties tend to be mid height, mid strength.

A bit like our team last night. Still, a win v Wigan and the new Holy Grail of a top four finish is guarenteed.

some players are either saving themselves for a match 11 days away or the trip to Manchester has dulled one’s spirits so badly, that rhypnol was the half time drink of choice.

Alonso’s effort about 20 mins in was the best we could muster. Arsenal won and are only 2 points behind us now.

furthermorezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

that’s how bad this match was. Perhaps everyone was too busy listening to the Grand National, well there was nothing Grand about this, and I hope the match isn’t shown nationally. Poor poor game.