But should I, really? After all, 9 months ago, before a ball had been kicked in anger, Liverpool had been virtually written off as Top Four contenders, and certainly weren't being thought of as title contenders. Instead, thanks in no small part to the free-scoring exploits of Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge in helping the team amass 101 goals this season - a huge improvement of 24 goals on their previous best for the Premier League - and an 11-game winning streak that started with the 5-1 demolition of Arsenal and included a 3-0 win away at Old Trafford and a 3-2 defeat of the eventual champions Manchester City, Liverpool have ended this season second. Second! A position that, in the twenty-two seasons of the Premier League, Liverpool have only reached twice, and certainly one that according to both those in the media and in management we shouldn't have achieved.
So why, at this moment, am I not thrilled with the final outcome of this season, a season in which my club once more challenged for top honours, honours that have been sadly scarce for the adult years of my footballing life? It's at this point I'd like to refer you back to John Cleese....
Part of the thing that draws me to football over pretty much every other sport that I enjoy watching - and I enjoy watching most sports - is both the emotional range that football is able to draw out from me and the intenstity with which I experience those emotions. In the course of 90 minutes I can go from the depths of despair to the highest heights and back again, depending on the skill and dexterity (or lack thereof) of 11 men kicking around a ball for 90 minutes. It's insane when you actually think about it in any sort of logical terms, but there you go.
This season is not the only season when Liverpool have performed well on the world club stage - that night in Istanbul in 2005 springs to mind - but it's certainly been a while since we performed so well so consistently. Winning the league makes you the best in a way that winning a cup competition does not, so to perform well in the league is what any football fan craves. That 11 league game winning run, completed as it was with swagger, artistry and breath-taking moments, took us to the point that the dream was within touching distance. It wasn't a half-baked hope; it was entirely feasible that Liverpool FC could win the league. It wasn't like 2008-9, when our chances depended entirely on another team dropping points. This time, with just three games to go, it was in our hands. It didn't matter what other teams did; if we continued to play as we had done, we would win the league. The dream was becoming reality. It felt like we were running on autopilot: having forgotten how to lose, it seemed like we couldn't lose. Only we did. We were still in with a shot at the title, but now it wasn't in our hands. We still could win both of our remaining games, but because of an inferior goal difference, we had to depend on another club slipping up somehow in order to be crowned Champions. That was still possible though - just as we had to win every game, so had they. And pressure does funny things to people.....
In the end, the pressure did funny things to Liverpool not Manchester City. We ended up throwing away a 3-0 lead with 12 minutes left to end up with only a draw away to Crystal Palace (the curse of Tony Pulis teams continues), and we were left with only the slimmest of hopes going in today. Perhaps today would finally be the day that Andy Carroll would guide Liverpool to glory, albeit in a West Ham shirt? Rationally speaking I knew that this was somewhat clutching at straws. But when has football ever been about rationality?
City duly won, and all that Liverpool are left with is second place. When I think about this, I feel slightly hurt. I believed. I believed that the title was finally coming back to Anfield, and then it didn't. I have coped with the various league disappointments of Graeme Souness, Roy Evans, Gerard Houllier, Rafael Benitez and Roy Hodgson's managements. This, being the freshest, inevitably feels the worst right now, and the dashing of the hope that only 15 days earlier had burnt so brightly only serves to increase it. Agony is the only word to describe the season at the moment.
But, on the bright side, we finished second. Second. We were in the title mix until the final day of the season. If someone had offered me that on the day before the season kicked off, I would have snatched their hand off. Back in the Champions League, and because of the finishing position we won't even have to play a qualifier to make certain of it! Our strong performance this season and the guaranteed Champions League place makes Liverpool a much more attractive proposition to the quality players that we knew we would have to sign in this close-season anyway, so that's all good. Sign those players, and who knows? Perhaps we can turn second to first in twelve months time and truly return to our perch.....
Maybe John Cleese was wrong after all.
