Liverpool, 2019-20 Premier League Champions: This One’s For You

This needs no introduction. You and I are well acquainted. In this moment, you mean everything to me. We’ve made it here. Liverpool Football Club have won the Premier League. Our Liverpool Football Club have won the Premier League.

Not in a way any of us could have ever imagined it would happen, but that’s not what’s important. Not right now. What’s important is that you and I are here, together but apart, in this moment. That’s what makes this so special.

The way I see it from here is that the extra-extra-extra long wait, the unexpected wait beyond the extra-extra long wait of thirty years, makes it more special. Liverpool are Premier League champions. On the 25th of June.

It’s the latest any team has been crowned champions of the English top flight.

And Liverpool are also champions with seven games remaining on their schedule and it’s the earliest any team has been crowned champions of the English top flight.

It’s all a bit crazy, when you think about it. It being all that’s going on. And I can’t entirely separate my thoughts and emotions from all of that. I’m not sure I want to.

A billion pieces have been written about Liverpool being crowned champions of England. You should read every one of them in the coming days and weeks. Many of them will be more eloquent than this one. They will all certainly be much more about the football and how amazing this group of Reds are at kicking the round thing into the rectangular white thing.

But this here is about you and us.

I’ve spilled a lot of proverbial internet ink on The Liverpool Offside about my experiences with Liverpool. Whether about how I really do think that This Means More is more than just a slogan.

Also, I’m sorry about maybe causing the global pandemic by tempting fate by saying the league was won and done. I didn’t know I possessed such powers. I’ll try to be more responsible next time. I do hope there’s a next time.

For now, though, this time is what matters, and we both know I think that Liverpool is a football club that is to be experienced. Last year following the Champions League Final victory, I couldn’t help but be proud of the team. Today, a year and some weeks later, I’m still proud of the team. But I’m even more proud of you, reader. I’m beyond happy that you’re getting to experience Liverpool winning the Premier League.

There’s that Bill Shankly quote that has been bandied about probably half a billion times by now: “Liverpool was made for me and I was made for Liverpool.” Or something like that.

I’ve always taken it to heart, even if I can’t really ever know what exactly Liverpool meant to Shankly. What I do know, though, is that Liverpool is where you and I can belong, no matter what. And that Liverpool belongs to us, no matter what.

And that’s more true now than ever.

Back in the Before Times, back before the global pandemic, some of us here were planning a trip to Liverpool from all corners of the world. A trip in May, to celebrate. We were going to witness if not the winning of the league then at least the parade and to formalization of Liverpool retaking their rightful place back up on their perch.

Obviously, that didn’t happen. I’m fortunate that the money I lost on airfare is about the worst thing I’ve experienced during this pandemic. I know that many of you will have had it far worse.

I know that some of you have experienced unfathomable loss during these past months. Maybe you’ve gotten furloughed, maybe you’ve been laid off at work, maybe you’ve lost your housing or watched your family get sick or maybe, worst of all, you’ve experienced loss of family and friends. Because of the virus or because of one of the any number of other things that can go wrong even when things aren’t as bad as they are now.

Sports are often so, so silly. But we’re here now, all of us. And Liverpool Football Club have won the Premier League. Our Liverpool Football Club have won the Premier League.

I hope that this moment can bring you some joy. Perhaps even a joy that you’ll be able to keep a piece of forever. Because you deserve that. We deserve that.

And you deserve to know that in this moment and always, you’ll never walk alone.