Who is our biggest rival? This is the question that is often debated. I think if there was ever a vote, which there probably already has been then the two at the top of the list are obvious. It would definitely be between the city rivals Everton and northwest rivals Manchester United. People from Liverpool are obviously going to see Everton as a bigger rival than fans who are not from Liverpool; local bragging rights at stake and so on. I am a fan who does not live in Liverpool so the hatred of Everton is not so strong because I have fond feelings towards the city as a whole. I mean there is a strong will to beat them but then again I want us to beat everybody in every game. When I look at the fixture list before every season I check when we play Everton just after I’ve checked when we play Manchester United. In my time as a Liverpool fan Everton have not really been a challenge to Liverpool, which takes away the feeling of total dislike towards them. In the late nineties when they used to be in a scrap to avoid relegation I used to honestly hope that they survived.

When I was young I think Newcastle were my biggest rival because all my friends supported them and they were challenging with us for a few years so obviously I wanted to beat them for the local bragging rights; we usually did beat them as well and we always managed to score a mountain of goals too. Everything has changed since those days though and because Newcastle seem to have become the joke club of the country I feel for them and I honestly want them to win every week now until they play us. I’d hate for them to ever go down but they have toyed with the idea on a number of occasions.

Arsenal are a team who some might see as a big rival especially after 1989 but I don’t feel much of a deep hatred towards them because in the last few years they’ve been playing some fantastic pass and move football that you could only admire. I still want them to lose every week but that’s all really. Chelsea have always been strongly disliked by me and not just since they became Chelski after the Abramovich takeover. In the nineties they always looked like they could threaten the top teams in the league and I remember they were usually challenging us for a place in Europe or the Champions League. I can always remember a horrible game against them in the F.A. cup as well. We were playing at Stamford Bridge and in the first half we destroyed them and played fantastic football. It was 2-0 and just before half time when Steve McManaman missed a right easy chance, which at the time didn’t bother us much. We didn’t come out for the second half and got beat 4-2 and it felt horrible. This was the story of that era for me. We played the best football we’ve ever played in my time as a fan but we had no consistency or mental strength at times and it was frustrating.

Obviously after Chelsea became Chelski they were more of a threat because they had the money to just buy anybody that was willing to go to them. Money was no object at the beginning of Abramovich’s era. There was this arrogance about them though for me and over night they became the biggest club in the world in their eyes. When they played us in the Champions League semi final in 2005 they booked out the hotel for their winning celebrations that Liverpool had been going to all the way through the campaign. Liverpool were not happen and more so at the hotel but obviously the money that Chelsea offered must have been so great that they couldn’t refuse. They got beat and everybody in the country seemed to love it; even Manchester United fans to some extent. They talked about how the ball wasn’t over the line for our goal but it wasn’t proven whether it was or wasn’t. If the referee didn’t give a goal he would have had to give a penalty and a red card to Cech the Chelsea goalkeeper because he fouled Milan Baros who was in a goal scoring position in the build up to the goal so I don’t feel we were lucky. The atmosphere that night was the best I’ve seen on the television and I’ve been told it was fantastic if you were there. I’ve been to Anfield a lot of times but the atmosphere seemed to be something really special that night.

Manchester United are our biggest rivals in terms of history and success and also they have been dominating English football for some years now and Liverpool fans hate it. The biggest games of the season in English football are still the Liverpool v Manchester United games without a shadow of doubt. Most Manchester United fans seem to think that football began when sky put the money up and the Premier League was formed. In their defence they must be annoyed that they’ve dominated for so long but they still haven’t overtaken Liverpool in terms of trophies won so you can understand their annoyance towards us. We got so far behind them at one point in recent years it was embarrassing. I remember a recent time a year or so after Gerard Houllier took over we managed to beat them at Old Trafford and all the players started celebrating like they’d won the league, even the coaching staff were dancing around. It was embarrassing. Liverpool should be able to beat them regularly so that just showed how far behind we were.

My worst moment watching us playing against Manchester United came on January 1999 in the F.A. cup. We were playing away at Old Trafford and Michael Owen scored right at the beginning and we managed to hold them off until the last two minutes and they scored two goals and my brother being a Manchester United fan went crazy and I felt deflated and shocked. At that time it just felt like we were never going to catch them and I couldn’t stand it. So there you have it I believe our biggest rival is definitely Manchester United and although they seem to be a good few miles away from us at the moment I do believe we will catch and overtake them some day soon.