When I arrived at Anfield in 2004, Liverpool had not won the league championship for 14 years or the European Cup for 20. Historically, they had been the most successful club side in English football, but they had not lifted the biggest trophies for a long time and it was like an obsession. You could feel it. When you have been there and done it and when you are expected to do it again, it’s something you think about all the time.



Even now in China, I’ll bump into Liverpool fans and they always talk about that incredible night in Istanbul and our victory over AC Milan at the end of our first season. Not too long ago, some people were having their picture taken with me on a plane and I could see a father explaining to his son who I was. ‘Oh, he won the Champions League’. It’s what people still remember – it was such a beautiful moment – but they don’t realise we were also building something.



The other obsession is...