Fusing the blind passion of a lifelong supporter with the cold eye
of an award-winning journalist, this is an up-close and personal
view of the entire modern era of Britain's most successful
football club. From their first ever FA Cup win in 1965 to the
Champions League defeat in Athens in 2007, this overview takes on
the extraordinary stories behind the 48 trophies Liverpool has won.
Highlighting the memorable nights that propelled the club to five
European Cups, three UEFA Cups, 12 titles, and countless domestic
cup triumphs, this account also discusses their bitter failures,
the tragic disasters in Sheffield and Brussels, and the barren
years of the late 60s and the 90s.
There have been football books which have told their tale through
the partisan heart of a besotted fan, and those that have dissected
their subject through the scientific mind of an objective writer.
But rarely does one fuse the blind passion of a lifelong supporter
with the cold eye of an award-winning journalist in the way
"43 Years With The Same Bird" does. That bird is the
Liver Bird, and on the surface this book is a pitch-side view of
the entire modern era of Britain's most successful football
club. It is Brian Reade's take on the extraordinary stories
behind the 48 trophies he has seen Liverpool lift since watching
them en route to their first ever FA Cup win in 1965, right through
to the Champions League defeat in Athens in 2007.It takes in all of
the big nights that propelled the club to five European Cups, three
UEFA Cups, twelve titles, countless domestic cup triumphs, bitter
failures, the tragic disasters in Sheffield and Brussels, as well
as the barren years of the late 60s and the 90s. But the book goes
far deeper than that. It's about how football allowed a father
who was separated from his son to forge a precious bond. How a
football club can make a city that is dying on its knees keep
believing in itself. How you should never, as a professional, get
too close to your heroes. How being part of a disaster at a
football match (Hillsborough) can leave you a mental wreck,
unwilling to carry on, but how witnessing a miracle on a football
pitch (Istanbul) makes you realise that no matter how low you sink,
you should never give in.
Brian Reade is an award-winning journalist who has two columns, one of them about sport, in the Mirror. In 2000 he was named Columnist of The Year at The British Press Gazette Awards, and in 2003 was named Sports Columnist of The Year in the Sports Journalism Awards.
