Liverpool need only look to past to know title is well worth the wait

The Reds are set to capture another record when they eventually claim the title in English football’s longest ever season

Liverpool are set to win the title in what will be the longest season in English football history (Getty)

The record for the longest season in English football history is broken today. Until the appearance of coronavirus in January, it appeared impossible that a campaign could ever rumble on again until June 14. But these are strange times.

Even stranger is that the nation was emerging from a national crisis the last time the domestic game became a summer sport and Liverpool were eventually champions after a lengthy, tense wait. The events of 1946-47 were unique and – unlike today – the title race was thrilling all the way to the end.

It was the first season after the Second World War. League play was cancelled in September 1939 after the outbreak of hostilities and wartime Britain had to make do with regional competitions and friendly matches. Seven years passed before football got back to something near normal but life was very different from the previous decade.

Rationing was in place. There were severe restrictions on what foodstuffs were available to the public. Coupons were given to the population that only provided access to the bare essentials. Allowances of protein – meat, eggs and cheese – were paltry. There were barely any vegetables around in winter and imported fruits like oranges and bananas were almost impossible to come by. Keeping players at peak fitness in these circumstances was a struggle.

William McConnell, the Liverpool chairman, was a caterer who understood the effects of rationing on professional athletes. He had advised the Ministry of Food during the war and had been sent to the United States by the government on a fact-finding trip. Nourishment was freely available in America. McConnell’s plan was to take the players to the land of plenty in pre-season, where the only limitation on buying food was whether you could afford it. As soon as the final wartime season ended in May, McConnell packed George Kay, the manager, and his players on to an Atlantic liner and sent them Stateside.

George Kay, here with his Liverpool side in 1949, led the Reds to the title two years earlier (Getty)

Enough of the American public were hungry for football to make the trip financially worthwhile. The players were just hungry.

“Liverpool came to the States for a crack at our teams and our vitamins,” the New York Times wrote. “It was a clean sweep. The Britons swept all 10 of their matches and, like Jack Spratt and his wife, they also swept the platter clean.

“Away from the British austerity program, they plunged zestfully into our steaks, eggs, milk and other vittles. Not only was there a perceptible gain in strength on the playing field, but the squad averaged a gain in weight of seven pounds a man.”

McConnell outlined his plan. “If I could bring my team to play a few games while sampling American malted milks and ice cream, American meats and vegetables, they’d go back and win the first division championship,” he said.

Only the chairman had believed that. Wolverhampton Wanderers were favourites to win the league and Liverpool were expected to be way down the table. A 5-0 thrashing by Manchester United – temporary residents of Maine Road because of bomb damage to Old Trafford – seemed to confirm this verdict. As a response, McConnell signed Albert Stubbins from Newcastle United for £12,500. The centre forward is most famous for his appearance on The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper album cover but his goals made all the difference. With Billy Liddell, another of the club’s iconic figures, providing the ammunition from the wing, Liverpool were off and running.

The winter of 1947 slowed them down. It was one of the worst on record. The underfed nation, exhausted by conflict, had to suffer restrictions on electricity that led to blackouts. In football, a huge number of fixtures were postponed causing a backlog of matches when the spring finally arrived.

With eight games remaining, Liverpool were in fifth place in the table. Wolves, United and Stoke City could all accrue higher points totals. Kay’s team won seven in the run-in and drew one, including a win over former Liverpool captain Matt Busby’s United. They beat Wolves at Molineux in their final match on the last day of May. Then they had to wait while Stoke completed their games in hand.

The Potteries club could equal Liverpool’s points tally but had a better goal average. Victory over Sheffield United at Bramall Lane in mid-June would give them the title.

While Stoke battled for glory in south Yorkshire, Kay’s team were involved in a Liverpool Senior Cup final against Everton at Anfield. The action on the pitch was almost immaterial. The Kop had gathered in the hope of hailing the first post-war champions. They got their wish. Stoke, who had only dropped one point in their previous nine games, finally ran out of steam, going down 2-1. Liverpool were champions for the first time in 24 years.

“The roar that greeted this announcement [of Stoke’s defeat] made the Hampden Park one sound almost like a childish whisper,” the Liverpool Echo wrote. That was high praise. At the time, Hampden packed in nearly 150,000 vocal Scots on to its massive terraces.

Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool are set for the longest wait for a title ever (Getty)

How important was the tour of the United States in this title win? The feeding frenzy across the Atlantic meant that the team entered the season with a sense of physical wellbeing that some of their rivals lacked. However, many of the most important contributions in the campaign came from Stubbins and Liddell, neither of whom had been on the trip to America.

The main impact may have been psychological. Liverpool showed their physical and mental strength in the run-in but Stoke’s finish to the title race – final game aside – was at least as impressive.

What the pre-season adventure did, however, was create a sense in the dressing room that the club cared for the players and regarded them as important – not all teams at the time took that approach. Even today, there are occasions when footballers feel like commodities.

McConnell, the architect of the season, did not savour the glory for long. The chairman became ill during the brutal winter and by the time the campaign ended was in hospital. He died in August at the age of 59, less than two months after his team’s finest moment.

There will be no roar from the Kop when Jurgen Klopp’s side break Liverpool’s 30-year title drought behind closed doors, probably against Crystal Palace at an empty Anfield. If that happens, it will have taken Klopp’s men 10 days longer than the 1947 team to seal the title.

It is not a record any Kopite wanted to break but supporters will all say the same thing when Jordan Henderson finally lifts the trophy. It was well worth the wait.