Have you ever seen a Premier League season end in quite such fashion? After Liverpool dispatched Tottenham Hotspur at the beginning of the month, they were crowned champions, romping home to the title at a canter. No one was ever going to stop them, not even Ibiza. They partied hard between games, deservedly so, too.
They had to wait what felt like an age to actually get their hands on the trophy, though, but they lifted it aloft last Sunday in front of their own supporters for the first time in nearly 40 years.
The Reds may well have won the Premier League in 2019/20, but that ill-fated Covid-19 season meant that no fans were actually inside the ground to see Jordan Henderson get his mits on English football’s biggest piece of silverware.
So, there was understandably quite the party at Anfield over the weekend as Virgil van Dijk, leader supreme, danced for joy as he threw the red-ribonned trophy into the air.
Such an astonishing season, Arne Slot’s first at the helm, lest we forget, begs a question. Where do these Liverpool players stand among the pantheon of Merseyside greats?
Which Liverpool players have become legends of Anfield
A year ago, Jurgen Klopp waved farewell to Anfield a bonafide Liverpool legend. Yet, is legacy may well now be surpassed by Slot who has managed the unthinkable in his first campaign in England.
For winning the league alone, the Dutchman will now stand among the greatest Liverpool managers of all time.
He’s also helped to successfully cement Mo Salah’s legacy as an icon, a player surely worthy of a statue in Liverpool once his playing days come to an end.
Across a simply staggering campaign, the rampant Egyptian scored 34 goals in 52 games, posting 23 assists as well.
In the league, he netted 29 in 38 and also supplied 18 assists. He was two of Thierry Henry’s assist record but he did tie the record for the highest number of goals and assists in a single Premier League campaign.
1. Mo Salah (2024/25)
38
29
18
2. Andy Cole (1993/94)
40
34
23
3. Alan Shearer (1994/95)
42
34
13
4. Erling Haaland (2022/23)
35
36
8
5. Thierry Henry (2002/03)
37
24
20
6. Mo Salah (2017/18)
36
32
10
7. Luis Suarez (2013/14)
33
31
11
He is a certified legend, as too is captain Van Dijk. The pair of them signed new contracts a few months ago to cement their status as legends. Trent Alexander-Arnold may well have been up there too had he rejected advances from Real Madrid. Sadly, we all know how that story ended.
Is there anyone else up there? Well, Alisson is certainly a modern-day great, now up to 298 appearances for Liverpool and hailed as “the greatest goalkeeper in Premier League history alongside Peter Schmeichel,” by Jamie Carragher.
That trio of players will certainly not be forgotten in a hurry, but whether they’ve matched the legacy of a certain Steven Gerrard remains to be seen.
How Liverpool struck gold on Steven Gerrard
The term ‘generational’ is often thrown about a bit too regularly in modern football but it’s safe to say that Gerrard, as far as English talents go, was generational.
He’s one of the best we’ve ever seen in the Premier League but how did he get there?
Well, it all started in November 1998, when aged 18 years, five months and 30 days, he made his Premier League debut for the Reds in a 2-0 win over Blackburn Rovers.
Managed by Gerard Houllier at the time, it was rather poetic that perhaps the best player he ever managed shared a name.
It was the Frenchman who saw Gerrard’s obvious talent, notably handing him the Liverpool captaincy just five years later in 2003.
“I think Stevie has certain leadership qualities which I spotted very early in his career. When he was young, all he needed was time to mature. Now he is 23 and he is ready. There has been a maturing in his game and his personality.” – Houllier on the Liverpool captaincy.
The rest, as they say, is history. Gerrard, capped a remarkable 114 times for England, would go on to feature 710 times for Liverpool. That places him third on the club’s all-time record appearance makers behind Carragher (737) and Ian Callaghan (855).
He never lifted the Premier League like Salah and Co, but he did win the Champions League on two occasions and among many other domestic honours, lifted the FA Cup twice. Who could forget that screamer in the final against West Ham? It was a bullet of a strike, something the midfielder became famed for during his illustrious career.
However, it could have been different for the now 44-year-old. Remember when Chelsea came calling? How could we forget?
In 2004, during the European Championships, Gerrard was distracted by transfer speculation. “Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson talked me up before the tournament, so I knew they fancied signing me,” he once noted.
It was Mourinho and Chelsea who followed up on that interest, reportedly tabling a British record bid for the iconic England international. Gerrard even allegedly handed in a transfer request.
Unlike Trent, a move to another of Europe’s biggest clubs never happened. The Liverpool academy graduate stayed at Anfield and became a legend, one of the greatest we’ve seen in this country.
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He was heralded left, right and centre, but perhaps most notably by the great Brazilian, Pele.
Speaking just months after the 2006 FA Cup final win over the Hammers, Pele said: “The fans, they look only for forwards, always a forward. Somebody who scores. Sometimes you have a player like Gerrard. For me, for the last five years Gerrard has been the best player in the world. He is a midfielder, he plays very good. People didn’t mention Gerrard, now they mention Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Messi because they are forwards.”
Fine words indeed from perhaps the greatest of all time. It’s safe to say Liverpool struck gold on Gerrard. They must be forever thankful that he didn’t head to Chelsea all those years ago.
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