And yet Liverpool do hard things well through the match.

Yeah, it's a really good result.

You mentioned there that the team that Chelsea picked, you know, Liverpool are cobbling something together.

There's four young players, two of which, you know, I don't think will be at Liverpool in two years' time, but they're here now and made up for them because they throw everything in.

But, it is a sort of cobbled together team of who can we get out there, who can we ask to go again, who can we rest, what young players can just do a job for us, in McConnell's case, in a pretty unfamiliar position.

And they just have to find them ways.

They're going down in games, they're coming back, which they were doing last year and in other tough seasons as well.

So this game will be on a knife edge.

I mean, I know you're a good manager and you're an intelligent guy, but you must have a way about you that helps those young guys get established and get comfortable in that position and that hot seat.

Yeah, you know, TC, you know, that's a good point.

You know, both guys, you know, Mendoza, I didn't know Mendy, you know, when I first got the job there, you know, but just after talking with him over the phone, I love the guy, you know, a good baseball guy.

And I don't know, maybe it's my personality.

I think as a first-year manager on the job, I don't think you want somebody too overbearing, things like that.

And that's kind of my approach.

If they – my advice or what they think I might do here or there, whatever, I let them ask.

And, of course, you added a couple of personal touches to that as well that only you can.

Yeah

... and a different way of, of football really and, and teams set up in different ways.

I think he, he did look towards the end of the, you know, for him, the idea of him playing at a, a, for a top club in the Premier League has probably sort of gone.

And so I think on the pitch, I think in a way Salah will be sort of quite easy to replace, but off it, e- and everything he brought to the club and, you know, his, his star quality and, you know, he's a global superstar that sort of transcends sport really.

And so, you know, I think he, you know, he, he...

There is a gap in, in, in terms of that.

Andy Robertson is, is another one who, whose best years are, are behind him, but has he gone too early? Again, we'll have to see how he plays for Tottenham.

Done really well as well, didn't he, at, at Bayern Munich there? [laughs]

Mm

... unfortunately football fans, we can be quite fickle, you know.

We can love you one minute, and then if you leave it's always, "Let us down." But, but every, every club that he's been to, it seems to be, you know, adulation.

And we talk a lot about Liverpool, we talk about Newcastle, but my mate who's a Man City fan said, you know, before the, these owners come in, when Kevin Keegan was the Man City manager, that was the most fun they'd had.

You know, watching that team and, and the team, you know, he put together.

I'm sure in Germany there's, there's tributes for his, his time over there.

You know, he played on the South Coast.

Mm.

[laughs] What do, what do you think it is about the connection you give, you had with this fan base, and just that era had with, with this, this Blue Jay mafia?

Well, you know, it goes back, I think, a lot of it starts back, you know, it had been so long since the team had won anything, you know, '92 and '93.

And I had heard, you know, I was there a number of years with, with two, two go-arounds.

And everybody says, "Watch what happens in this place when you guys become relevant," right? In, uh, especially in August and September.

So anyway, the, the, that year we, we picked up, you know, Russ and Josh.

You know, uh, it, it's, it kinda lit a fire there anyway, you know? They, all right, the team's, the team's serious now.

It, it was kinda the feeling that I felt, you know? And, uh, and I, and I was excited because I knew it, it would add some toughness to our team.

the other one who was the good cop amidst all the bad cops, what stands out the most from, uh, from the get it done era with the Blue Jays?

Give, give us a flavor.

I'll give you, I'll give you a few, right? First of all, the ESB have, has pointed out that we have four times more, uh, electricity network in Ireland per capita than the European average.

Why? Because we have to bring electricity poles up every highway and down every byway.

We have the same thing.

If the Gardai want to service a rural community, uh, of course, there are rural communities elsewhere, but here we have a scattered rural community.

It ta-places an enormous burden, a financial burden, on local authorities because now there's people living up at Boreens who are saying, "Well, hang on, I want a good surface on that road.

This isn't just a tractor run that it used to be once upon a time.

We want to build a house close to i- in the area that we, uh, grew up." What, what do you say to that?

What's different about coaching now versus, say, 15, 20 years ago?

Well, that's a g- that's a good question.

You know, uh, nowadays, uh, there's so much information out there.

There's so many different coaches for this, that.

Uh, and to be honest with you, I think it be, can be a little overwhelming.

Uh, and you get some, you get guys coming to the big leagues with s- such little experience in the minor leagues that, uh, you know, a lot of them are still learning on the job up here.

Where you used to be, we was just the opposite, you know.

Just you, can you share a memory of, you know, just being around him?

Um, just sum up how you're feeling right now having seen not only what happened on Friday night, but also what Mo Salah said and also what Wayne said just then.

Yeah, it's [laughs] it's, it's a tricky time really at the club, and, and you can see there's problems there and, you know, not just the, the results or not just the, the league position, you know, which isn't that bad in the grand scheme of things.

You know, you can, you can...

You know, you're not gonna win the league every year.

You can, you can fall away, and we, we should qualify for the Champions League next season.

And so you think, well, you know, dust yourself off and go again.

But I think the issue is that fans are feeling at the moment or suspecting that there's, there's something a little bit deeper wrong.

True, true.

I mean, it's not you.

Yeah, I think, I think it's pretty crazy.

You know, I think everything, even all the things I, I went through in Toronto, I feel like I took them with, with grace.

And, you know, obviously early on, some of the, the business stuff is, when you're learning it, obviously, it could be different.

But, you know, I feel like I, I did a really good job of keeping business, business and, you know, keeping family, family and teammates, teammates.

And I've learned that, you know, trying to change people's minds or things like that, I mean, sometimes it's a waste of time.

Whatever people think, they're gonna think and, you know.

[laughs]

[laughs]

Uh, uh, you know, uh, those kind of thing.

Or, you know, you're, you're up there, it could be early in the game, couple guys on base, two outs, you know, and it's a deciding pitch.

Obviously, that, that can matter.

But you just can't, I mean, you can't be flipping coins either.

You gotta have a pretty good idea.

And then, you know, we always, i- if possible, you, you know, you like to save something, uh, at least save one of them for late in the game.

In your mind, as an organization, what would be a good season for them, or for you guys?

And I'd rather start there than anywhere else because that's a special thing.

Yeah, it's a really good shout.

I think he's Liverpool's best ever left back, and there's people who, who are older than me who agree with that and, and testify to that.

And his ability on the ball, off the ball, you know, defensively is, is, is work rate, but also his, his quality and the number of assists he got is, is just phenomenal.

And, you know, you can talk about his humility and the kind of person he is and, and why we love him so much, and that's for a variety of reasons.

But you stay in the team for that long, and we...

That affection that we have for him grew because of how good he was at footy, and that's...

You could've said that after Steve Nicol.

I think they've got to really look at it and

try and change it.

It's a challenge for the manager, but you've got to think it's a challenge he wants, doesn't it? Because last year, you know, he didn't really get any of his own players and it was pretty much Jürgen's team.

And he did make some tactical changes to it, particularly with Gravenberg and how he used him.

And he got a bit more out of Mo Salah, so you think, well, fair play to that.

But now he's brought in a number 10, which I think he always played with in Holland and what he wanted.

The money they've spent on the forwards, you know, he'd be delighted by.

Do you think that could be kind of having a bearing in terms of the feeling around the group?

(laughs)

(laughs) It was everything you dream of and, and almost kind of dare not, 'cause even though winning the title is an incredible thing, to win it how we did is actually fairly rare.

I was speaking to a, a friend of mine who supports Manchester United, and I was at, a horse racing with him the week before, and he said, "Often we'd win it, we weren't even playing."

(laughs)

Um, it was.

And everyone was hugging, everyone was enjoying each other's company.

The, the atmosphere was phenomenal.

And people said, oh, it's a little bit like a cup final, but cup finals, there's jeopardy.

You can't begrudge somebody going off, can you, in their mid-20s, to, to explore pastures new?

(laughs) It's, it's a difficult one because, you know, you can try and think about it, you know, logically and say, "Well, he's got this amazing opportunity to go and live and work somewhere else to play for this fantastic team," but, but football fans aren't logical and, you know, we're not generally, uh, known as, you know, being almost the most rational.

And the, and the whole of football is built around fans acting in, in (laughs), you know, with, with...

in a sort of ex- extreme ways, and that's why we, we travel up and down the country supporting our team, and that's why people will come from all over the world to watch Liverpool, is this kind of irrational love.

And so, you know... (laughs) I think for fans, it's hard to take because he is living all of our dreams and he's basically saying, "Well, that's not good enough for me.

I'm gonna go and do something else," and that's where it becomes tricky for fans.

I've spoken to a lot of supporters.

(laughs)