Premier League: Ten things that have happened since Liverpool last won the league

Just six short weeks ago Liverpool still had genuine title aspirations, with leaders Chelsea in touching distance and their tails up after four consecutive victories. Then January happened.

Now firmly out of the reckoning the Reds who dared to dream that this could finally be their year have grown silent, painfully aware that by the time August rolls around it will be 27 long seasons since their team last lifted the coveted trophy.

It is fair to say that a lot has occurred in that period

De Gea born to be first

Having sewn up their eighteenth championship in typically imperious fashion Liverpool travelled to Highbury on December 2, 1990 to face George Graham’s Arsenal. A comprehensive 3-0 defeat was ultimately costly as the Gunners went on to steal their crown.

[GERRARD SET FOR ANFIELD PLAYING RETURN]

Three weeks earlier – and one thousand miles away in Madrid – David De Gea Quintana was born.

If you’d tried to place a bet at the time on who would next win the league – the highly successful club boasting talents of such outstanding quality as Barnes, Beardsley and Rush or a new-born baby soiling his nappies – the bookmaker would presumably have asked if you had a friend or relative who could ensure you got home safely.

Are friends electric?

In 1990 the world began to change beyond all recognition. It’s just that nobody at the time knew it.

While Alan Hansen and co were undertaking their title defence a scientist by the name of Tim Berners-Lee had finally received official permission from his employers to start work on a little project that went by the name of the World Wide Web.

When Liverpool fans tweet-brag of their club’s stature the irony doesn’t require any html.

City’s rollercoaster ride

To suggest that Manchester City have undertaken an interesting journey since Big Al held aloft the 1989/90 league championship trophy is an understatement on a par with saying Daniel Sturridge can sometimes be a touch selfish in front of goal . The intervening years have seen 17 managers occupying the sky blue dug-out, along with three different owners, two grounds, three relegations, and two Premier League titles. It’s also seen them rise from the very brink of bankruptcy to having the third most expensively assembled squad in world football.

Eighteen years ago City were beaten 2-1 in the third tier away at York. Now they dish out hidings to the continent’s elite in the Champions League.

A new Europe

Beyond the insular world of football City’s travails and triumphs pale into insignificance compared to the major restructuring of Europe that followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The fall of the ‘Iron Curtain’ resulted in fourteen countries declaring their independence while a year later the abandoning of communism by Yugoslavia saw it split into seven separate states.

Or, to put it another way, entire countries have been founded, forged an identity of their own, and sent 23 of their best footballers to World Cups since Liverpool were last the kings of England.

Worlds apart

Speaking of World Cups the now-iconic Italia 90, complete with Gazza’s tears and Roger Milla dad-dancing by the corner flag, is a more recent phenomenon than Liverpool topping their peers come May. Just take a minute to absorb that.

That year’s final was a dismal affair dominated by West German and Argentine defences on full lockdown leaving each team’s best player, Jürgen Klinsmann and Maradona, feeding on scraps throughout.

Post-retirement both Klinsmann and Messi Mk I went on to manage their nations in future World Cups in year’s where Liverpool finished in the Premier League third and seventh respectively.

Do you remember the first time?

The year is 1993 and Manchester United are celebrating winning their first league title in 26 attempts, ending a prolonged drought their arch-rivals are all-too-familiar with at present. Quickly making it a habit Ferguson’s men go on to become quite successful all told in the seasons that follow.

In various studios from Monnow Valley to Fulham two very contrasting bands are busy recording songs that will soon become Definitely Maybe and the seminal Parklife. Britpop is brewing.

The year is 2017 and in Birmingham preparations are underway to hold a festival celebrating a Britpop revival. As Liam Gallagher nasally intoned on Rocking Chair, “I’m older than I wish to be…”

Rule changes

It may ‘only’ be a quarter of a century ago but revisiting clips of that great Liverpool side who last won the league is like peering into a bygone age. Professional fouls earn little more than a ticking off; the ball is routinely passed back to Grobbelaar to waste 30 seconds; and most shocking of all are the challenges – usually clumsily executed onto the ever-dangerous Barnes and Beardsley – that amount to grievous bodily harm.

English football and its rules have evolved substantially within a lifetime and thankfully so too have the player’s shorts since they no longer reveal the length of a player’s career.

Sadly the opposite is true off the pitch. To watch one of the finest teams to ever grace the domestic game from the Kop in 1990 cost a measly £4.

Kevin McAllister got real old

The second highest grossing film of 1990 (after Ghost) was Home Alone. It’s adorably cute child star who stole every mother’s heart with his ingenuity and pluck now looks like this…

Chasing the past

Chasing former glories can be an expensive business while it would probably have been a good idea to install a revolving door at the player’s entrance to Anfield.

Since their last title triumph Liverpool have splurged an astonishing £927m on 202 new players a figure made all the more depressing when it’s acknowledged that one of them was Bruno Cheyrou.

The more things change, the more they stay the same

Back in 1990 Britain had an unpopular, ruthless female Prime Minister and with unemployment on the rise her approval ratings continued to slump. Elsewhere the American President was getting all pally with the Russian leader as Bush and Gorbachev signed a treaty to effectively end the Cold War. In sport the England cricket team were a bit rubbish while Manchester United were the FA Cup holders.

Maybe not much has changed after all.