Written by Russell Berrisford on April 20, 2012 | 10 Comments »
Posted in Arsenal, Liverpool

There was a time (in a League far, far away) when the question in the headline would barely have been worth asking.

Liverpool, with one trophy under their belt and another trip to Wembley to look forward to, would have a much happier set of fans than Arsenal who, with third or fourth place the best they could hope for, would be left with only a place in the UEFA Cup to look forward to in the following season and few genuinely exciting memories to keep them going during the summer months.

The arrival of the Premier League though and, more importantly the Champions League, changed the mindset of almost everybody.

When Arsene Wenger claimed that a top four spot was the equivalent of winning a trophy, or when Kenny Dalglish lauded a recent kit deal neither man was saying anything particularly outlandish in a world where finances are discussed as much as formations.

So when the dust of the season has settled which club can claim to have had the better year?

Both went into August with reasonably high hopes, maybe not of winning the title but at least with the potential of being in with a shout at some stage, and they were both definitely hopeful of gaining one of those much coveted Champions League positions and will have been reasonably of having some silverware to put on display when May rolled around.

Well Arsenal, another implosion notwithstanding, will have achieved Champions League football for 2013 and Liverpool will have given their supporters three trips to Wembley (including a victory over their local rivals in an FA Cup semi-final).

As I implied at the beginning of this piece there was a time when soccer fans lived solely in the moment and the lifting of a trophy was all they craved, but now so many thoughts are on the balance sheet of the club or even, and this is becoming more prevalent, concern as much with the cache of being in the Champions League as actually winning the thing.

So when we look back on the season is it Arsenal with their guaranteed income and continued marketing potential that are the winners, or is it Liverpool with at least one trophy already won that take the plaudits?

You can get updates through RSS (top of the page), follow at Twitter BobbySoccerRep, or on Facebook SoccerReportExtra.com

You can also find other Soccer Report Extra.com contributors on Twitter by following this link.

Have some thoughts and opinions you want to express?  The Training Ground is your chance. Just click on the link.

Written by Bobby McMahon on February 27, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Posted in Liverpool

Half a century ago just as the Beatles were about to realign the meridian of pop music with the City of Liverpool an effervescent Scot called Bill Shankly was about to do the same thing for English soccer.

Shankly joined Liverpool in 1959 as their manager and set about remaking a team that had fallen on tough times. Promotion to the English top flight in 1962 was followed by league championships and cups and the team quickly became a feared European opponent.

For more click on the link to Forbes.com

Written by Russell Berrisford on February 24, 2012 | 16 Comments »
Posted in Liverpool

There was a time when winning the League Cup (under any of its sponsored names) was a mere afterthought for Liverpool football club.

It counted as a pleasant, but not essential, bauble to add to the many League titles and European Cup triumphs that made the Merseysiders not only the premier club……

For more click the link to the Vancouver Sun.