Creative Writing: The Spreading Iron Gates

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The imposing iron gates standing between the West Derby streets and the Melwood training complex might have shifted some 500 yards or so off Melwood Avenue ??? and onto ?????? since the last time Liverpool contemplated a trip to a European Cup Final but outside the scenes are exactly the same.

Five or six kids who don't look old enough to remember a time before foreign managers at Anfield stand on tiptoes on the wall of the house opposite the entrance to the most famous training ground in English football. They've been here all day claims the steward manning the gates. Never mind the fact that their parents probably think they're in school, they're here, mobile phones poised at the ready, to snap Djibril Cisse leaving in his Hummer. Twenty …show more content…

He actually talking about media commitments in the run up to Liverpool's most important game in two decades but he's probably been thinking the same thing ever since he was appointed Liverpool boss on June 16 2004, just weeks after breaking down in tears during his farewell press conference at the Estadio Ciudad de Valencia. Find somewhere to live in a foreign country, learn a new language from virtually scratch, check out schools for his eldest daughter Claudia, convince the club's captain to reject Chelsea's advances, scour the transfer market for emergency reinforcements, plan for a season with England's most prolific striker, rip up plans for a season with England's most prolific striker on the eve of the opening day of the season and, somehow, try to work out some way of getting the best out of a squad of players built up over six players by the previous manager; so much to do, so little …show more content…

In fact, he's far too honest to even claim he ever had a soft spot from afar for the club he now manages. He's a Real Madrid man, always has been. The Kop, 'You'll Never Walk Alone', the Shankly statue, Hillsborough, European nights at Anfield; it's all new to him.

But maybe that's why it's been such fun for us Liverpool supporters having him in our dugout this season. As hard as he tries to win us over with his team's football on the pitch and his attitude off it ('He never used injuries as an excuse when no one would have blamed him if he did,' claimed Ian St John recently), we try even harder to impress him from the stands. We want him to feel special and we want him to feel we're special.

On both counts, the first season has been a resounding success if the traditional end of season lap of honour was anything to go by after the victory over Aston Villa confirmed the Reds missed out on fourth place by just three

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