There have been lows for Manchester United supporters over the last nine years, but losing at Anfield in the way they did felt worst of all.
For fans of clubs other than Manchester United, a thought experiment: imagine for a moment that your team has two rivalries. They’ve both always existed but they’re very different to the other. One is with a side from the same city as yours. It’s periodically been vicious in the past, but as the more successful club, it was never an equal relationship.
The other rivalry is the one that still feels more vital, even though the team concerned is from a different place. That rivalry taps into something deeper and more primal; a feud that pre-dates professional football, stretching back to the peak years of the Industrial Revolution. They wear almost the same colours. Middle-aged supporters can still remember when they lorded it over you. But your team turned it around and spent even longer lording it over them.
Those days seem like a long time ago now. The city rivals won football’s equivalent of the Euromillions – new owners with bottomless pockets and an ambition to ultimately own all of the game. The origins of that money may be shady, but it’s difficult to argue that it hasn’t been spent well. They have a generation-defining coach and a team that makes those who see them purr.
And the days of browbeating those other rivals are definitely over. Your lot still had the wherewithal to be able to put out a big performance against them – these matches have usually been tight, no matter what the general condition of the teams – but no longer and they have also overtaken you. They also have a generation-defining coach and a team that can take the breath away from those who watch them.
These two teams aren’t just the best in England; they might be the greatest in Europe. But all the time this has been happening, your club has been in stasis, with owners more interested in the bottom line than the football, and…
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