Legendary Reds

Terry McDermott - at the time he was one of my least favourite players but the goals v Tottenham & Aberdeen were sublime and a big part of my football education.

At the time I was at primary (junior) school and going to a school full of Rangers fans - all my street pals and neighbours were Celtic fans so the fact the a player I (foolishly!) didn't rate was scoring goals like that was incredible.

"Did you see the Liverpool game?"

"Yeh - McDermott ok goal but he's cr#p compared to Souness, Ray Kennedy, Kenny..."

The education - well it's off at tangent (and on a different level) but it's what I tell my boys when they see Messi - don't assume it'll always be like this, this might be very, very special.

Lots of obvious choices out there but I'm going Spanish.

Everytime I reminisce about Luis Garcia it makes me smile.

And I like smiling:

Luis Garcia

Birthdate: 24.06.1978
Birthplace: Badalona Spain
Other clubs: Barcelona, Real Valladolid, Toledo (loan), Tenerife (loan), Atletico Madrid (loan), Barcelona (2), Atletico Madrid (2), Racing de Santander, Panathinaikos, Puebla, Pumas de la UNAM
Bought from: Barcelona
Signed for LFC: 6000000 20.08.2004
International debut: 26.03.2005 vs. China
International caps: 18/4 (11.10.2006)

Liverpool debut: 29.08.2004
Last appearance: 09.01.2007
Debut goal: 11.09.2004
Last goal: 30.12.2006
Contract expiry: 03.07.2007
Total games/goals opposite LFC: 2 / 0
LFC league games/goals: 77 / 18
Total LFC games/goals: 121 / 30

Player Profile

Rafael Benítez was in charge of Tenerife in 2000/01 when Garcia starred for the club that got promoted to La Liga, scoring 16 league goals in 40 matches. However, Garcia was only on loan from Valladolid and returned there in 2001/02, playing 29 games, scoring ten goals. He moved to Atletico Madrid in 2002/03 where he was in sensational form making 32 appearances and scoring nine goals. Barcelona snapped him up before the 2003/04 season. He was no stranger to Barcelona as he had been raised in their B-side from the age of 19 until he was 21. He played 38 games and scored eight goals in his only season for Barca, coming into his own in the second half of the season.
 
Garcia couldn't resist of joining his former boss, Benítez, at Liverpool, joining along with his compatriot Xabi Alonso. Both became quite a hit in their first year in English football. Five vital goals by Garcia in the knock-out stages of the Champions League against Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus and Chelsea helped to ensure Liverpool's passage to the glorious final in Istanbul. "Was it or wasn't it?" is the eternal question about the Chelsea goal in the Champions League semi-final at Anfield, but the scoreboard said 1-0 in Liverpool's favour. Garcia was rather inconsistent in his second season, making 28 starts and coming on as a substitute in 22 games. He was brilliant one game and then wasteful in possession and seemingly careless in the next, frustrating his admirers. Garcia still added 11 goals to his tally of 13 from his debut season, the most important one being Liverpool's second in the FA Cup semi-final victory against Chelsea. Unfortunately for Garcia he was sent off only two minutes after coming on a sub in the eightieth minute in a League game at Upton Park and he missed the last three games of the season through suspension including the FA Cup final victory against West Ham.
 
Garcia missed the second half of his third and last season at Liverpool after rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in the 6-3 loss to Arsenal on 9 January 2007 in the fifth round of the League Cup. He returned to Spain in the summer of 2007 after rumours that his family was unsettled in Liverpool and wanted to return home. Garcia failed to hold down a regular place with Atletico Madrid in his second season in the Spanish capital and lost his place in the Spanish national side. In August 2009 Garcia agreed a deal with Racing de Santander at the age of 31 after making close to half a century of league appearances for Atletico in two years. He only featured in 15 games scoring no goals as Santander battled relegation. On deadline day, 31 August 2010, Garcia moved to Panathinaikos in Greece on a free transfer. Garcia's career was not revitalised in Greece as much as he probably hoped as he played in less than half of the defending champions' Süper Lig matches. The popular Spaniard flew back to England so that he could appear in Jamie Carragher's testimonial match in September where he scored a cracking goal to remind everyone of his mercurial talent. Garcia has been playing in Mexico for the last couple of years with Puebla and Pumas de la UNAM.
 
Benítez summed up Luis Garcia perfectly: "You have to accept Luis for what he is. When he played for me at Tenerife, I tried to change him, but you have to say OK, he does what he does and provides different things. I have kept trying to remind him - many times - that when he takes the risks he does, he should do it closer to the opposition box. He can give possession away and that can anger the fans. But he also does different things that excite them and he scores goals. I tried to change him in Spain, and he scored 16 goals for me, so you have to accept what he does." Garcia is still immensely popular on Merseyside as well as his song that so many Liverpool supporters have sung at the top of their voices.

Letter to Liverpool Supporters

A LETTER FROM LUIS GARCIA

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Dear Reds,

First of all I'd like to apologise for not having been back in touch sooner, but I needed to take some time to take on board all the recent changes and then to put down these words for you.

I'm sure you will understand.

I would rather this be a letter of thanks and gratitude, not simply a goodbye.

Yes, that's right, gratitude, because that is the word that best sums up my feelings for you all.

Taking the decision to change clubs hasn't been easy. Not easy at all.

I've experienced three fantastic years at the club and in the city. Three years in which together, the fans and the team, we have accomplished some fantastic achievements, and I'm sure that these successes will continue to be repeated in the near future.

You know that I like a challenge and that I don't just settle for second best.

Back then Liverpool Football Club gave me the opportunity to be part of an ambitious plan to put the Reds back at the summit of the game.

I think that together we managed to achieve that.

As I said, I do like challenges and in spite of the fact that at that time I was playing for my home town club, one of the biggest in the world, I wanted to be a part of that project that was being presented to me by Liverpool, and so I accepted the challenge.

Now, after three seasons in the Premier League and having won some major trophies, the chance came up for me to return to La Liga and be part of a new project at a club I already knew.

The idea of enjoying things in a Spanish club like we experienced together at Liverpool over these last three years appealed to me, and that's why I accepted the offer.

I want to thank everyone working at Liverpool Football Club for how well they have treated both my family and I, making us feel at home from the very first day to the last.

I also want to thank the management, coaching staff and directors for the opportunity they gave me back then to be part of such an important and well-loved club as Liverpool. A club which has helped me to grow as a footballer and where to date I have enjoyed the biggest success of my career.

Without a doubt, this success has been possible thanks to the outstanding group of players with whom I've been able to share a dressing room over the last three seasons.

I'm not going to mention anyone specifically, because I think that the secret of this team's success has been exactly that: nobody wanted to stand out above the rest and there has always been a great togetherness in the squad, which made it into something more than a group of players, it was a group of friends.

Thanks to all of you for your help and your friendship.

I've left until last the thank you which for me is the most important: Thank you to the supporters.

Your support allowed me to settle quickly at both the club and in the city, and you made me feel really at ease with you all right from the word go; that's the kind of help that you notice most of all during the difficult times, of which there have been a few during my time here.

I'd like to especially thank you for making up a song for me and you should know that every time I heard you singing it, it was like an extra injection of strength and motivation, even helping me to overcome pain occasionally during a game.

Your unconditional support is the thing that ensures that this team manages to pull through in the most difficult circumstances; and I can assure you that the whole squad is aware of this and thanks you for it.

A football club isn't just made up of players, coaches and directors. More than anything else it's the supporters who make a club, and that perhaps is the ingredient which best distinguishes Liverpool Football Club from every other team. The supporters.

Because if one thing has remained obvious to me after these few years, it's that with supporters like you, Liverpool Football Club will never walk alone.

I really hope that the club wins lots of major trophies in the future; I'll be following it all from a distance, with the pride that you can only get from having been a Red and played for the home team at Anfield – a ground that every football fan must visit at least once in their life.

Thank you for everything. Yours most sincerely,

Your friend, Luís García

Luis Garcia Tribute by Linus
 

Luis Garcia,
 
He drinks Sangria,
 
He came from Barca to Liverpool!
 
He's five foot seven,
 
He's football heaven,
 
So please don't take our Luis away!

John Charles Bryan Barnes

"Digger"

Born in Kingston Jamaica on 7th November 1963

John moved to Anfield for £900,000 in 1987 as part of Kenny Dalglish's revamp of his squad, he went on to become one the best ever to pull on the famous red.
He made his debut at Highbury in a 2-1 win for Liverpool and went on to score his first goal for the club a month later against Oxford at Anfield. In that debut season he won the league title scoring 17 goals in 48 apparences in all competetions and only missed out on the double following the shock loss to the crazy gang of Wimbledon at Wembley in the FA cup final. He was voted PFA player of the year in that first season which also included one of the greatest peformances seen at Anfield with the 5-0 win over Brian Clough's Nottm Forest in which the great Tom Finney described it as “the finest exhibition I’ve seen the whole time I’ve played and watched the game. You couldn’t see it bettered anywhere, not even in Brazil.”

Liverpool 5 - 0 Nottingham Forest


John Aldridge claimed in his autobiography that Sir Bobby Robson claimed that Barnes was "as good as George Best at his peak"


In 1989 in the Merseyside final Barnes set up both John Aldridge and Ian Rush as Liverpool beat their neighbours 3-2 to win the FA cup and was instrumental during the whole game.. He went to score 22 league goals from the left hand side in the title winning side the year after and was voted football writers footballer of the year to top off another fantastic season for the winger. His team mate Peter Beardsley said at the time that Barnes was over the 3-4 year period probably the best player in the world, and definately the best he had ever played with..

He went on to win the FA cup again in 1992 (although he missed the game due to an Achilles injury he was key in the previous rounds)  and the League cup in 1995 by which time he had converted to a central midfielder after the Achilles injury he stated that he had lost his ability to push of at pace out wide..

John Barnes left Liverpool in 1997 again to be signed by Kenny Dalglish for Newcastle but his record of 407 apparences and 108 goals stands up to anything the club has seen from any of our other greats..

He went on after Newcastle to have a short spell at Charlton before entering what is so far an unsuccesful management career in 2 jobs, Celtic and Tranmere..

John Barnes

I thought this thread could just turn into things as simple as

Remember this goal from _-----____-

What a strike..

For example as with WAHS Garicia..

What a strike this was

Luis Garcia scores superb goal vs Chelsea, Fa Cup semis 2006




Just somewhere at times to come and relive the pressure (Not in the same way as the Hot Woman thread or anything) Things can be stressful being a football fan.. Lets look at the great times too.

Ray Kennedy, Terry McDermott, Graeme Souness, Steve Heighway, KK ... Loved em.

This is in my top three all-time favourite LFC goals...

Goal of the season - 1976/77 Terry McDermott Liverpool v Everton

Greatest ever football match - Liverpool 4 3 Newcastle

Most nerve wracking game I ever watched.

Barnes, Rush, Barnes

Still Barnes ( But actually it was Rush then Barnes again )


Collymore CLOSING IIIIINNNNN!!!!!

Most nerve wracking game I ever watched.

Barnes, Rush, Barnes

Still Barnes ( But actually it was Rush then Barnes again )


Collymore CLOSING IIIIINNNNN!!!!!

Tell me about it mate, literally joy to depression all the way through it, i remember still going mental when we let Asprilla score right after Robbie got us back in it... That we couldnt just get a foot hold for 10 minutes..

This coming January, if we went out and spent £30 million on a player of this calibre, I would say it was well worth it.

This video only showcases his goals but I can remember the assists, skills and pure exhilarating entertainment this player used to conjur up on a regular basis.

Some may dislike him nowadays but it gets forgotten what a quite fantastic player he was.

Liverpool - Steve McManaman (goals)

I love watching back clips of God.

Terry mac and Ray Kennedy are probably the 2 most under rated Liverpool players ever. Both oozed class

Speaking of underrated players, who remembers Vegard Heggem?
After rob Jones packed in, we struggled to find a decent right back and tried several players there. Unfortunately for Vegard, he also had persistent injury problems (hamstring) but when he was playing regularly, I thought he was an excellent player. I would compare him to Kelly in the sense that he wasn't afraid to get down the line and take a shot or hit a cross but could stick in a crunching tackle as well.
I personally believe that had he not been injured so much, Heggem could have established himself in that position and been respected as a top player.

Heggem Solo.mpg

Robert Bernard Fowler

Born 9th April 1975

Went from local lad scoring on his debut to netting 5 the following week

fowler five fulham

To my teengae hero

To God...

There is so much to tell about Robbie that this could be one that runs and runs, but for me growing up in the 90s, going to games as a teenager he replaced Ian Rush as my Kop idol..
He made his debut against Fulham in the League cup at Craven cottage on the 22nd September 1993 and went on to score the 5 in the clip above in the return leg.. The kid immediately won the hearts of the Kop with his finishing ability..
He scored a hat trick against Southampton in only his 5th first team game and from there there was just no looking back..

He went on to score 18 goals all comps in his first season, then broke the 30 goal mark in his next 3, 31in 94-95, 36 in 95-96 and 31 in 96-97.. He was voted young player of the year back to back in 1995 and 1996..

Also in the 94-95 season he scored the fastest Prmier league hat trick against Arsenal (Anny Rd end) 

robbie fowler 3 minute hat-trick

And later in that season won the League cup in the Mcmanaman final against Bolton at Wembley..

A couple of other memories from Fowler early on are these..

Robbie Fowler sniff (Liverpool fc)

Greatest ever football match - Liverpool 4 3 Newcastle

Robbie Fowler vs Aston Villa

Injuries and a falling out with Gerard Houllier and Phil Thompson led to Fowler leaving the club in 2001, when he signed for Leeds for 12m ( I remember being on Ko Pang Yang and walking 5 miles in 90 degree heat to the only internet point when i heard the rumour)

He had a spell at Man City after Leeds before Rafa brought him home on a short term contract where he went on to score 12 goals in 39 games in what can only be remembered as a dream to see him back in the shirt.. He has finished with a total of 369 games 183 goals..

After his release from Liverpool the second time he went to Cardiff before a short spell at Blackburn then a jolly down under at North Queensland and Perth before a spell first playing then managing Muangthong in Thailand..

Robbie now is a TV pundit but someone who i wish to see back at the club again one day..






So much more on Rob that i hope people join in on, if i wasnt smashed id be here for a day a forever on the lad...

That was my 1st Liverpool game, Fowlers Anfield debut, 5 goals. My uncle took me as my dad is a bitter, so yeah Fowler is my all time favourite player.

Terry mac and Ray Kennedy are probably the 2 most under rated Liverpool players ever. Both oozed class

The problem is there are just so many great great players. Terry Mac and Ray Kennedy are right up there with the greats;
Brian Hall never ever gets mentioned but he was a fantastic player and still a great servant to this club.

Most nerve wracking game I ever watched.

Barnes, Rush, Barnes

Still Barnes ( But actually it was Rush then Barnes again )


Collymore CLOSING IIIIINNNNN!!!!!

Was privileged to be there. Kop seats nailed my knees that night, and the year after too.

Question for some of the posters older than me. I never got the chance to watch Peter Beardsley as I was too young to know anything about football. How good was he?

Question for some of the posters older than me. I never got the chance to watch Peter Beardsley as I was too young to know anything about football. How good was he?

A player I always loved watching. 

I wish I could name the red that told me the following quote, but I was pissed and it was a long time ago.

He made poor strikers look good, good strikers look great and great strikers unplayable.

All this while managing 1 in 3 goal ratio himself.  He had a rare quality for a forward, in that he was both selfish and generous, if he had a chance, he'd take it, if he saw someone in a better position, he'd try and find them. 

Question for some of the posters older than me. I never got the chance to watch Peter Beardsley as I was too young to know anything about football. How good was he?

He was brilliant! BAll was clued to this mans feet as he dribbled by people. Had a killer pass and knew how to score goals some right belters to. Sold him too early. Would be up there with the very best Ive seen in red. Probably unlucky for him that as number 7's go we have has some crackers!

Will always have great memories of him. When I get in from work Im youtubing him! 

Emlyn Hughes - The Crazy Horse

So many players to reminisce over down the years...
This guy really was a one off...
I had the pleasure of watching him play, score and boy could he tackle..
and to lift Big Ears two years on the trot was some achievement as a player..
Like Kenny his smile was infectious..still makes me smile today just watching the above vid...
After the last couple of days thought it might cheer some of us up...

I even liked him on Question of Sport..

Named my daughter Emma Lyn after him.

F***ing wonderful player. One of my favorites of all time. Could do anything asked.

I loved watching Danny Murphy! sold to soon i thought. Gary McAllister was superb in his season (the free kick in stoppage time at Everton) just superb

The problem is there are just so many great great players. Terry Mac and Ray Kennedy are right up there with the greats;
Brian Hall never ever gets mentioned but he was a fantastic player and still a great servant to this club.

Bob Paisley reckoned he had more enquiries for Ray Kennedy from other clubs than any other player,that is how good Ray was.

Bob Paisley reckoned he had more enquiries for Ray Kennedy from other clubs than any other player,that is how good Ray was.

Yea...Its mad to think he came from Arsenal as a centre forward and Bob turned him into one of the most skillfull midfield players we've ever had..

Yea...Its mad to think he came from Arsenal as a centre forward and Bob turned him into one of the most skillfull midfield players we've ever had..

Yes as a forward at Arsenal he knew how to put the ball in the net and he never forgot how to do it after Bob converted him to a midfielder.He scored 51 goals in 272 games for us and that is what our current team could of done with these last few seasons.cheers.