Ring of Fire Page 7

  ‘The old ways were on the way out. That included training too: no more small-sided possession games, which were famous at Liverpool. They were all a bit too fun and not particularly relevant to the real games, which were becoming more about power and speed over touch and possession. Let’s be honest, the intensity at Melwood was nowhere near where it needed to be for players to reach peak levels of fitness. I’m not saying it was easy, because we did fitness sessions that made you blow. The day-to-day stuff was quite lax, though.’

  Roy Evans had signed Murphy for Liverpool.

  ‘I got on well with him,’ Murphy says. ‘I thought he was a proper guy: very honest, straight and loved his football. But he came from an era when people did not know any better. Young people were changing, their motivations becoming different, not just in football but in society as well. It was only when Houllier started to achieve success by running the club a lot more professionally that everyone realized Liverpool had fallen behind because they hadn’t moved with the times.

  ‘In the late nineties, it was a joy for me to be at the club I’d dreamed of joining, experiencing things I thought were beyond me growing up in Chester: going to a Liverpool game in a team tracksuit, travelling abroad, being recognized in the street. But in terms of it being an environment that was really productive for young players? No.’

  The Liverpool board’s solution in the summer of 1998 was to appoint Gérard Houllier as joint manager with Evans. It proved to be an unhealthy compromise. Murphy made only four appearances during his second season at Anfield and one of them was in the last game where Evans was involved, the 3–1 home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in the League Cup when John Scales, a player Evans had sold, scored for the visiting team.

  ‘Even if you appoint two people who are great friends and have similar views on football to be in charge of a team, a decision still needs to be made and there will be disagreements. Everyone has different opinions on one player, never mind eleven players or sixteen players. So I can’t imagine the amount of time Roy and Gérard must have spent picking a team or a squad. It must have been a nightmare. I could imagine Gérard saying, “Let’s go defensive; we’ll hit them on the break.” Then Roy, “No; let’s have a go here.” It was an impossible working situation. Gérard believed in another way to Roy. That started with discipline, hard work and intensity. He didn’t care what had happened at Liverpool in many ways. Yeah, he educated himself in the history of the club, but the way it worked previously? It didn’t matter. It was only a matter of time before a split. The people running the club must surely have known that. They’d been in charge long enough.’

  Houllier was left in sole charge. Things were about to change.

  ‘There was a gentle approach when Roy was still around but as soon as he went, boom, Gérard was like a sledgehammer. “He’s gone . . . he’s gone . . . this is what we’re going to do: we’re training at these times, wearing these clothes.”

  ‘His methods were not particularly outrageous when you think about them. Quite often in football, common sense is the obvious route to success but people overcomplicate it by overlooking the most basic things. In pre-season, we did two sessions: one in the morning and another at 5 p.m. Everyone was like, “What are we going to do in between?”

  ‘“Rest!” Houllier would say.

  ‘Gérard was a disciplinarian. You’d get fined for wearing the wrong clothes on match days. If you were meant to wear a black T-shirt and you wore a white one – even by accident – on the bus to an away game, it would be taken out of your wages. There were no mobile phones in the main building at Melwood. That became standard rather than a punishment. The same on a match day: no phones. It led to greater focus. And then the French lads would get fined if they spoke French amongst the British lads.’

  Houllier’s methods were met with resistance. David Thompson, a young midfielder from the tough Ford council estate on Wirral, found Houllier’s methods punitive and admitted to relishing the challenge of pushing the boundaries as far as he could before he was offloaded to Coventry City. Robbie Fowler was installed as the team’s captain but eventually Houllier became tired of his mischievous behaviour and sold him to Leeds United.

  ‘No matter how big or important you appeared to be, Houllier would get rid of you if you didn’t buy into his ideas,’ Murphy says. ‘He did it all for the benefit of the club. It was never personal. Paul Ince was the captain before Robbie, and Houllier got shot of him because he thought he had too much power in the dressing room even though he thought a lot of Incey as a player.

  ‘Houllier gave a couple of lads a lot of opportunities to change, possibly more than other managers would have. Now they might say, “Danny Murphy – well, he’s agreeing with Houllier because he played him.” But there has to be some framework of discipline at a club. If a manager keeps allowing someone to step outside it – even if it’s for daft things like turning up late – the indiscipline spreads quickly. Houllier was a fair man. There comes a tipping point. I disagree with some people who might claim they were pushed out of the door unfairly. They were pushed out of the door for a reason.’

  At the beginning under Houllier, the progress made by Murphy at Crewe had halted at Liverpool.

  ‘I was a young lad who didn’t know any better: parties, drinking and girls. Carra would admit that he was the same, I’m sure. He turned that off, calmed down and became really professional quickly. It took me longer. I wish I had been as quick as him. When I eventually followed suit, I earned the rewards.

  ‘I wasn’t an important player when Houllier came in. I wasn’t playing well enough and I wasn’t fit enough. It was my second season as a Liverpool player and I’d got a bit comfortable. I was probably thinking without realizing, Yeah, I’m a Liverpool player now; I’m made. I’ve seen it happen to so many other players since. You think you’re the man without having enough experience or ability to be the man. You forget that you need to continue to work. When you don’t, you fall behind. Eventually, you begin to doubt yourself because a cold reality hits home if you’re bright enough. I wasn’t sure whether I was good enough for Liverpool. I wasn’t sure whether I was good enough to even play in the Premier League.’

  George Burley was in charge of Second Division Ipswich Town. He made Murphy a loan offer.

  ‘I went to Gérard and told him that I wanted to go. Gérard told me about an opportunity to go back to Crewe. “Yeah, but they’re bottom of the league, getting smashed every week,” I said. “They’re shit – how is that going to do me any good? I’ve already been there, done that.”’

  Houllier was insistent that Murphy move back to Crewe temporarily – and to the womb of Dario Gradi.

  ‘He probably thought the value of a hard day’s work and the strain of a relegation battle would show whether I was truly up for a fight at Liverpool.’

  With Seth Johnson in midfield and Rodney Jack up front, Murphy helped Crewe stay up.

  ‘Houllier told me the following pre-season that had I not agreed to go to Crewe, he’d have got rid of me. “I’ve seen your ability – you’re a clever player, you see the bigger picture,” he said. “I wanted to see that you still had the passion.”’

  Murphy was placed on a strict fitness regime. In October 1999, he was handed his first start in the league for Liverpool in more than eighteen months against Chelsea, helping the team to a 1–0 victory.

  ‘Little Thommo [David Thompson], for example, had all of the passion in the world. But he channelled it in the wrong way. He kept having arguments. He’d argue with the manager, he’d argue with senior players, he’d argue with anybody – even himself. Houllier knew he was passionate about the club and was desperate to win. But he kept seeing red, kept getting sent off. In the end, Houllier probably came to the conclusion that he couldn’t rely on Thommo to keep his cool. Ultimately, it was about ability and passion and harnessing the two to produce performances. That’s why players like me and Jamie Carragher got along. We played all across the pitch. Sometim
es we got frustrated filling in for other people, not playing centrally where we wanted to be. But we never let the frustration get the better of us. Thommo was like me and Carra: he wanted to play in the centre. We went through the same cycle of being the first player to be substituted. Whereas Thommo went mad – finger pointing at Houllier in the dressing room afterwards – I’d accept the decision because I appreciated it wasn’t personal. It was only for the benefit of the team.’

  Murphy relates Houllier’s desire for controlled passion to results in the Merseyside derby, a fixture Liverpool had failed in previously. Under Roy Evans, despite Everton’s clear inferiority in terms of talent and league placing, Liverpool had managed to beat them only once – a dire run stretching back to 1994. In the eleven derbies when Houllier was involved, Liverpool triumphed in six of them.

  ‘In the dressing room before every derby – especially at Goodison Park – one of the last things Gérard used to say was, “Keep eleven men on the pitch and we’ll win.” Again, the message was clear: controlled passion. It felt like we scored a lot of winning goals late on, when Everton had someone sent off and they were tired. Everton wanted it to be a fight. We were up for the fight. But we became cleverer with our aggression, finding a way to wind them up.’

  Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher later became the axis of the Liverpool team under Rafael Benítez and they developed a close bond. Under Gérard Houllier, though, Murphy was closest to Gerrard and the pair roomed together, while Carragher’s best friend in the squad was Michael Owen.

  ‘Because Houllier signed a lot of foreign players at the beginning, there was a perception on the outside that Liverpool’s soul was being stripped away. There’s no doubt the setting of standards was helped by the signing of foreign players like Sami Hyypiä, Markus Babbel, and Didi Hamann to a degree. But the heartbeat of the team was English: Stevie, Carra, Michael, myself, Robbie, Jamie Redknapp and Emile Heskey.

  ‘Houllier realized that he needed British players. He realized that some sense of local pride is something any Liverpool manager needs to get into his side. Although the foreign lads were on board just as much and gave their all, because he bought well in the early years and they were the right type of characters, it still can’t mean quite as much to them as it did to us. I’d been to cup finals as a kid and seen Liverpool win the league. I was desperate to emulate what I’d seen, absolutely desperate. I sometimes think the top foreign players get a team close to the line but the local ones help you cross it. Maybe I’m being too simplistic.’

  During the 2000–01 season, which ended with Liverpool winning a cup treble, Murphy was often stationed on the left side of midfield, a role referred to by anyone who filled it as ‘the graveyard shift’. A solid midfield four was Houllier’s priority. It came at the expense of expansive wing-play; creative midfielders were required to be extremely disciplined, taking care of their defensive responsibilities first. Murphy believes that it was due to his education under Dario Gradi that he was able to perform the role without becoming irritated.

  ‘At Crewe, we didn’t have a big squad, so every player ended up filling in for someone else at some point. Young players got all the plaudits and the club sold them on but the real strength of the club was the collective mentality. For example, I learned quickly that if I was playing as a centre-forward, even though I didn’t have the pace to beat defenders by running in behind them very often, I still had to make those runs because it created space for others behind me. Equally, I knew that if I played on the sides of the midfield, I wasn’t Linford Christie. But sometimes I’d have to push out wide and get chalk on my boots from the touchline just to create the space for someone else to move into. Crewe helped me appreciate space: how to expand it, how to fill it.’

  Though Murphy played plenty of times under Houllier on the right of midfield, the left defined him. When the team did not perform as well, he became a scapegoat for the crowd, the jeering after his substitution during the 1–1 draw with Southampton at Anfield in January 2002 ahead of the fixture with Manchester United being an example of the feeling towards him.

  ‘On the right, I was able to get myself into a position where I could put a cross in with my right foot because it was a more natural thing to do. On the left, I became trapped, because I had to cut back on my right foot, slowing the game down. By then, Emile Heskey – the type of player who thrived on service from wide – was already marked. The crowd could see it.

  ‘The reason why Houllier played me on the left more often than not was because he felt I offered more of a goal threat from that position. Houllier being Houllier proved this to me statistically. I was like, “Bollocks! He’s got me again here!”

  ‘First and foremost, Houllier was a defensive coach. He wasn’t adventurous and didn’t encourage us to play a high-pressing game. We had Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler, Emile Heskey and later Jari Litmanen: four top-quality strikers he felt would score enough goals to win us games. Then there was Steven Gerrard, who was afforded more leeway in an attacking sense from midfield than anyone else. The rest of the midfield, the defence and the goalkeeper acted as a block. This isn’t a criticism of Houllier in any way, because it was successful. But the reality was – as a right-sided midfielder, or especially on the left – my role primarily was to help the full-back defend. I was often asked to double up on a good wide player in the opposition. I remember playing the League Cup final against Manchester United in 2003 on the left and Houllier told me I was playing there to help John Arne Riise out, who was up against David Beckham and Gary Neville. I did very little going forward that day but played very well defensively and, ultimately, Liverpool won the game, so everyone celebrated. The same thing had happened in the UEFA Cup final in 2001. Carra was left-back and I was left-midfield. Houllier wanted to stop Cosmin Contra, the Alavés right-back, from raiding forward. Neither me nor Carra were left-footed and neither of us really wanted to play there but Houllier knew that both of us would die trying to stop him.

  ‘The problems happened when Liverpool didn’t win the game, especially against teams at Anfield who were lower down in the league. I could play well and execute the role Houllier was asking of me but if the team didn’t win, my role became an issue. The crowd wanted to see flying wingers obliterate the opposition. Cristiano Ronaldo was coming on the scene. I was diligent and tidy, but you’d never see me fly past a full-back. Likewise, flying full-backs were coming into vogue. Carra couldn’t really do that, so he got stick as well.

  ‘I was older when I played for Tottenham and Martin Jol used me on the left. The crowd got annoyed. As I had more experience then, I was able to reason with Martin and he let me play in the centre, and when I did I was able to influence the game positively. The difference at Liverpool, of course, was that I was just happy to be in the team. I wasn’t Steven Gerrard. I was younger then; at the time, I couldn’t do what Didi Hamann did and hold the midfield together, be that authority figure in the centre of the park. If it meant that in some games I’d have to sacrifice myself, I didn’t really care because I knew one thing: I was playing for Liverpool, for god’s sake. I had the best job in the world.’

  Murphy emerged as a full England international, earning nine caps, with Houllier citing his versatility as a reason for his progression. Yet when Houllier left Liverpool, Murphy says his successor viewed such flexibility as a negative.

  ‘When Rafa Benítez became manager, in one of his first training sessions he called me and Steven Gerrard over and said, “I’ve watched a lot of videos of you two.” He pointed at Stevie and said that he needed to be more like me and then pointed at me and said that I needed to be more like Stevie. What he meant was, Stevie needed to be more tactically aware instead of bombing everywhere trying to do everything, while I needed to run about more because I appeared a bit too worried positionally. I would argue that perhaps I created that perception because of the players around me. When I played on the left at Liverpool and Stevie and Didi were in the middle, Stevie would attac
k and I’d fill in for him. Didi was an experienced guy and he’d shout over, “Oi, Danny – get in here . . .”’

  On the pre-season tour of the United States in summer 2004, Murphy believes Benítez decided that Murphy, Gerrard, Carragher and Owen had formed a clique, which concerned the new manager.

  ‘The four of us were quite strong willed. When I heard that Liverpool had hired Benítez, I was absolutely delighted. He’d won La Liga twice and played the type of football I like. Valencia had battered us in Europe.’

  But now suddenly Murphy was told something he did not want to hear. Benítez was happy for him to leave Liverpool. He concedes it was a mistake that he agreed to do so.

  ‘People who tell you they have no regrets are speaking bollocks. I regret leaving when I did,’ Murphy admits. ‘Even though Benítez made it clear that I wasn’t going to be his first choice, I should have given it a year to prove him wrong. The problem was, quite simply, it is very hard going from playing for Liverpool – the club you love – to being told you are not part of the plans. You picture yourself being in the stands, not being involved at all. These are nightmarish thoughts. You think, I’ll lose my head here. Carra was the same – that’s why he retired [in 2013]. I wish I’d stuck it out, though. Maybe I’d have changed his opinion. Maybe I underestimated the strength of my own character.’

  Murphy moved to Charlton Athletic. He signed for Tottenham Hotspur and then Fulham, where he became captain under Roy Hodgson. In 2010, Hodgson became Liverpool’s manager, a move that Murphy backed publicly. Hodgson lasted six months in the role. His sacking was largely down to poor results but beneath that there was the joyless style of football as well as the perceived attempt to sink expectations at a time when the club was in danger of going into administration under American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett. Hodgson described the challenge of Northampton Town from the lowest tier of professional football in England as ‘formidable’, before losing on penalties in embarrassment. Murphy, who had previously flourished under Hodgson, was considered as a Hodgson sympathizer in some quarters for his earlier commendation and, though no Liverpool manager endures such a dubious reputation, Murphy has not changed his opinion.