Opinion | Manchester United revel in nostalgia as Liverpool win Champions League – oh, how the tables have turned
- United are becoming what Liverpool became in the 1990s – a club that harks back to historical achievements while the other wins the biggest trophies
- Fans having to watch with envy as their arch rivals gloat – and there is little light at the end of the tunnel
The metro pulled into the station outside Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano three hours before Saturday’s Champions League final. It was packed with Liverpool fans singing about Bobby Firmino, an infectious, irritating number sung in a Scouse lilt that I wish hadn’t burrowed deep into my consciousness. The fans were having the time of their lives; their team was about to play in a Uefa Champions League final they were clear favourites to win. Was this really happening?
Irrational and nonsensical as it would be, I wanted Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his entire Manchester United squad to be on that metro.
I wanted them to feel the pain of what it’s like to see fans of their biggest rivals crowing before a major game while their own fans still wondered how it was possible to win two of their last 12 matches and lose at home to relegated Cardiff City.
I wanted it to be a motivation to help United get back on the perch they once knocked Liverpool off.
But football is not like that. Fans see things differently from players, for one. United fans don’t “like” the picture of Liverpool players holding the European Cup as Alexis Sanchez did of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain after the game. Players don’t like it when fans accuse them of not trying – that’s the biggest slight against them, yet it felt like that was the attitude of some United players towards the end of a season which ended awfully and was topped off with Manchester City winning the league and Liverpool winning a sixth European Cup.