Liverpool: not what they once were

The Anfield club may not be matching their past glories, but they have chosen well in Roy Hodgson as their manager.

Roy Hodgson's ability to do good deals in the transfer market will help Liverpool.

Liverpool were the best team in England when I was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. But that is not the case anymore. Now, they are up for sale and many of their players are being coveted by clubs throughout Europe. Going back a couple of decades the Anfield club paid the best wages in the country and most players wanted to go to Liverpool more than any other club. They dominated the trophies with brilliant players like Kenny Dalglish, Alan Hansen and Ian Rush, the great goalscorer who I used to try and copy because he was so prolific.

This was a time when Manchester United could not buy a league title and Chelsea spent as much time in the second division as the first. A little later I can remember my friend Michael Thomas moving from Arsenal to Liverpool in 1991. It being considered a step up and he earned a bigger wage at Anfield. I am sure today's Liverpool fans will sleep a little easier after the transfer deadline passes next week. They might lose Javier Mascherano, their holding midfielder, but I don't believe that holding midfielders are as difficult to replace as forwards, wingers or attacking midfielders.

But it is vital that Liverpool keep Steven Gerrard, their captain; Fernando Torres; Jamie Carragher; and Pepe Reina, the goalkeeper. They are the backbone of the team on and off the field, the players who made Liverpool regulars in the Champions League. Those players will not want to miss out on the Champions League again next season, but increased competition from Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur means that they might.

It is a Catch 22 situation, because Liverpool have to keep these players and that is not easy when they are for sale and need money to service debts. The problem is, if just one of them leaves then Liverpool will really be in trouble. It will weaken them significantly and send out a message that they are a selling club, a sinking ship. In the glory days of the 1970s and '80s Liverpool were not only the top dogs in England, they also dominated in Europe.

They won four European Cups between 1976 and 1984. They went to Rome in 1984 to play AS Roma in the European Cup final and came back with the trophy. Their success was based on continuity and stability and great management by Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley. But there was a shift in the balance of power in the mid 1990s from which Liverpool have still not recovered. Liverpool started to slip behind United in the 1990s. I wasn't offered a chance to go to Liverpool, but I can remember telling my agent that the only club I would leave Newcastle United for was Manchester United. Sir Alex Ferguson wanted me or Stan Collymore, then with Nottingham Forest. I went to United, Stan got the second choice of going to Liverpool.

When we played Liverpool, it was always United's biggest game. You have to give respect to the team with such a rich history and I still do. Clubs have spent hundreds of millions of pounds and not come close to winning what Liverpool did, but the situation is changing. Both the Manchester clubs and Chelsea pay more than Liverpool now. Liverpool's takeover has been a disaster. The fans hate the American owners, who promised to build a new stadium and have instead plunged the club into massive debts and put the club up for sale. Anfield only holds 44,000 - it is now the sixth biggest ground when it was once the second biggest after Old Trafford - so they can no longer compete on gate receipts, despite having the second biggest support in England.

Rafa Benitez, their former coach, was not good for Liverpool either. He won the European Cup in his first season, but he wasted so much money in the transfer market and sold players for half what he had bought them for. Roy Hodgson, the new manager, is an improvement and he is perfect for Liverpool because he can spot a bargain - and that is what Liverpool have been reduced to. Hodgson's sides also play good football and I was impressed with how they set up against Manchester City on Monday. Benitez would have gone for a 0-0 draw; Hodgson went for a win. It backfired and they lost 3-0, but I think Liverpool will be better to watch this season and that they will finish around the same position - which is outside the top four if the club remains unsold.

Hodgson has so far done well to keep his leading players and Joe Cole was an excellent signing too, so I'm not as down on Liverpool as others at the moment, but their best players must stay. Andrew Cole, a former Manchester United player, is the second all-time Premier League top scorer with 187 goals [e-mail]