- Anfield Index

As Liverpool swept Middlesbrough aside on the final day of the season, I was filled with optimism. Let the fun begin, I thought We had Klopp, Champions League football and reportedly a rather large pot of gold to splurge on some much-needed transfers. Most importantly, we'd experienced sensible - logical - progression. We'd moved from a season containing cup runs and an eighth placed finish to a season where the league mattered most, and we moved up to fourth. We …

Football is a divisive topic by its very nature. Most people would have hoped Twitter, Whatsapp, Facebook and the like would have brought fans together, settling differences and squabbling. Instead, echo-chambers developed and Twitter is now one of the most toxic, reactive and fickle forums - add in some frustration with the club's performance, a transfer saga, or even a rival club signing a good player, and suddenly the typical Liverpool fan's timeline goes into meltdown: as memes, quotes from …

There’s usually solace in defeat. As the Reds trumped off the pitch at the KC Stadium this month with catcalls ringing in their ears, many of us thought that that was to be the season low, the nadir, the point at which we look back at and say ‘That’s when things began to change.’ They did not. Then came Spurs and the inevitable win. Nothing was more assured than those three points and the performance which generated them. Put this …

After ten years at the club, Ian Ayre, the oft-maligned face of Liverpool's commercial and financial departments, is to leave the club, with the glowing tributes of John W Henry and FSG ringing in his ears. The Liverpudlian will take a position with TSV 1860 Munich on an unconfirmed date in the near future and will ride his Harley-Davidson serenely out of Anfield for the final time at the end of February. After playing what the official website has called a …

You know when you’re at a party or in a pub and your mates start talking enthusiastically about a mutual friend? About how funny he/she is etc. or how wise maybe, but you can’t help but feel that, when it comes to it, they’re not all that? Well, that was my Wednesday night. Following the club statement, signed by John Henry, Tom Werner and Mike Gordon, Twitter has been awash with love and respect for FSG. Climbing down and apologising …

Ian Ayre sat across from me. A vast expanse of desk separated us. Outside, the Liver Birds eavesdropped on our conversation and inside, a portrait of Shankly lecturing his troops, in a Spartan Anfield dressing room, hung on the wall. Ayre began by outlining details of his, often tortuous, negotiations with Seville for Alberto Moreno, while he nonchalantly carved another notch in the solid oak finish. It was the eighth mark he had gouged this window, but, judging by the look of grim determination …