#Liverpool’s agonizing title wait extended by coronavirus pandemic

As the club brushed off Bournemouth with a 2-1 win on March 7, it peered down at the rest of the Premier League from its near-insurmountable perch: a 25-point advantage over second place Manchester City. When City lost 2-0 to rivals Manchester United the next day, Liverpool’s magic number shrunk even more. Just two more wins, and it would clinch its first domestic title since 1990 before the calendars even flipped to April.

On April 3, though, that dream was put on hold, perhaps even hurled into jeopardy. The Premier League suspended its season due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and an agonizing 30-year wait was extended even further.

“I saw the panic, and the devastation,” said Kieran Hardy, a member of New York City’s Liverpool supporters’ club (LFC NY) who does IT work at a hospital. “In early April… I was just devastated. But lives are more important than soccer.”

When the Premier League shut down, Liverpool fans were essentially assured of their team’s forthcoming title but with no pulse for when that would actually happen. Those fans now know the Premier League will return on Wednesday after extensive discussions. However, for a club with a recent history of being bridesmaids in the league, the lengthy layoff still brought back familiar feelings of dread.

“We did feel like we were getting screwed… nobody could have thought this,” Hardy, 53, said. “Nobody was close, it was a juggernaut. They were running away with it. And the only thing that nearly stopped it was a pandemic.”

Hardy, born in Belfast and raised in Dublin, moved to New York and began working as a bartender the same year as Liverpool’s last domestic title win. But his — and hordes of other Liverpool fans’ — anxiety over the league’s predicament wasn’t just because of the awkward wait they knew they’d endure.

At one point, their worst-case scenario looked far worse than an anticlimactic championship. Some, like West Ham vice-chairman Karen Brady (whose team is currently separated from the relegation zone only on goal difference) and retired Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand, were actually calling for the league to be voided completely, nullifying Liverpool’s would-be title and reopening wounds from other almost-seasons.

That idea has since been firmly squashed by the English Football Association, but the mere suggestion of another title slipping through the club’s grasp touches at its tortured experience in recent years after a period of dominance in the 70’s and 80’s.

“Until we see [club captain] Jordan Henderson physically go get that cup, get that trophy, and lift it over his head, there will still be doubts in Liverpool fans’ minds that this is actually going to happen,” said Tim Mahoney, 49, another member of LFC NY. “And that’s just because of the last 30 years of not winning it.”

There have been five second-place finishes since the club’s last domestic title. There was the club’s infamous collapse in 2013-14, punctuated by Steven Gerrard’s “This does not f–ing slip” battle cry as Liverpool led the league with three games to play; he literally slipped two weeks later against Chelsea, allowing a goal in a loss that would hand City the league. There was ‘08-09, when Liverpool fell just short of bitter rivals United. Before that, Mahoney was convinced they’d usurp Arsenal in ‘01-02.

“There wasn’t any one particular moment,” Mahoney, who lived in Ireland at one point, said. “You chip away, you chip away at the confidence, you chip away at the ego of being a Liverpool fan.”

Liverpool came close again last season. Its 97 points were the third-highest total in Premier League history. Manchester City one-upped them with 98.

All of that heartbreak would be painful for any fan base, but even more so for Liverpool fans of a certain age. From 1970-90, the club won 11 domestic titles, three FA Cups and four European Cups (now known as the Champions League, which Liverpool won last season). And now, the wait for that elusive title has been made even longer.

“It develops character,” Mahoney said. “It tells you how truly you love a team, to say you go back continuously, year after year.”

Liverpool fans will likely get to celebrate a league title, but not in the manner in which they intended.

Hardy said he would have been in England for two of the club’s final nine games, visiting its stadium Anfield and basking in the previously-presumed victory parade.

“I guarantee you there would’ve been… grown men crying on the street,” he said.

He’ll now settle for watching the season play out on TV from the comfort of his couch. Just ask Mahoney what that’s been like.

“A couple of us have gotten together and done zoom calls to watch the [German] Bundesliga [which returned on May 16],” he said. “But it’s not the same, it’s not the same atmosphere. You can’t hug the person next to you when they score a goal.”

Eventually, Liverpool fans will be able to properly revel in their team. Other LFC NY members will congregate at their base, the 11th Street Bar in the East Village. Hardy will head over to one of the local pubs by his home in Clifton, NJ, maybe downing a pint while Liverpool play.

Until then, he’ll wait for life to return to normal. The wait for another title, though, shouldn’t last another 30 years by his estimation.

“I think they have the start of a dynasty,” he said. “This is not a once-off.”