If in case you have been watching Arne Slot‘s press conferences, you’ll recognise the voice of journalist and Liverpool fan Mo Stewart. We sat down with Mo for an prolonged version of My Liverpool Life.
My first Liverpool match was…
Within the Worthington Cup because it was known as again then, or League Cup as it’s now, in opposition to Southampton in 2002 at Anfield.
We gained 3-1 and I used to be sitting within the Kop. Patrick Berger scored a free-kick and I used to be sitting proper behind the aim, and it regarded just like the ball was going to finish up straight in my lap, however fortunately it went within the aim.
By that time I’d already been supporting Liverpool for the perfect a part of 15 years. So it was very a lot a pilgrimage for me to come back to that recreation.
There are a great deal of issues about it I’ll all the time bear in mind however yeah, it was a special occasion, despite the fact that it wasn’t precisely a packed home.
I grew to become a Liverpool supporter as a result of…
I really feel like there’s fairly a number of individuals who appear to be me, who’re across the identical age as me, who could have an identical story, however we’re all John Barnes infants.
I met him earlier in the summertime, and I used to be very clear to level that out. I meant that metaphorically, he’s not truly my father!
My precise father continues to be there, doing an excellent job as he’s carried out for the final 43 years, however after I first began watching soccer, I used to be type of watching it solely on TV as a result of the place we lived in Kent there wasn’t actually a lot alternative to exit and see dwell soccer.
Liverpool had been the crew who had been doing very effectively, in order that they had been on TV extra usually than others and when John Barnes joined, it type of felt like this was it.
This was the second the place I used to be like, ‘OK, these are the fellows I wish to I wish to observe’, as a result of sure, he’d performed for Watford earlier than, however it was when he joined Liverpool actually that all the pieces actually clicked into place.
He’s such a unbelievable man to look at, such an excellent participant and his story was similar to my story as in household comes from Jamaica, my household got here from Jamaica; he was left-footed, I used to be left-footed.
I imply, his birthday is even the day earlier than mine!
Have your love of Liverpool the membership and Liverpool town turn out to be entwined?
They’ve 100% turn out to be entwined, they arrive hand in hand so far as I’m involved.
So earlier than I moved right here, my pictures of Liverpool had been all in regards to the soccer crew. I imply, clearly I used to be conscious of The Beatles, however they actually had been type of virtually like a background.
They virtually felt like a band for everybody, they didn’t actually really feel particularly Liverpool to me in my younger thoughts.
However seeing Anfield, seeing the gang, seeing all of these issues as a younger child, that actually type of made me suppose, ‘OK, that is the place I wish to be’.
And clearly within the good and within the dangerous occasions. I’m sufficiently old to recollect Hillsborough and the entire fallout afterwards with the scarves all throughout the Anfield pitch and the roses, and people had been issues the place I felt actually emotionally related to the crew.
I felt at residence immediately in order that solely elevated my want to maneuver right here, after which after I lastly did transfer right here, all the pieces felt good.
Has your job overlaying Liverpool modified the way in which you view soccer?
It hasn’t modified how I view soccer as a result of frankly, that’s type of how I’ve all the time seen soccer – I’ve my dad to thank for that.
Once we had been youthful, we’d sit down and we wouldn’t simply watch Tottenham, my dad’s crew, and we wouldn’t simply watch Liverpool, or Leeds which is my sister’s crew.
On a Sunday afternoon, we’d sit down and we’d watch Italian soccer, English soccer, French soccer, Spanish soccer or Scottish soccer.
And it was extra in regards to the love of the sport, and never simply the love of the sport, however the love of how it’s performed by sure groups.
There was your AC Milans, my dad likes Actual Madrid, even Celtic within the Henrik Larsson period – the groups who wish to play nice, unbelievable flying soccer, they had been those who we type of caught to, however the analytical aspect was all the time in there.
It has turn out to be harder at occasions, I’ve to confess. So plenty of the time after I’m working the sport as part of the media crew in the mean time, as a result of I work for American radio, so I’ve been sitting up within the radio gantry, I can’t cheer what Liverpool rating and it’s tough.
So I’ve to ensure that I take pleasure in it on the occasions, whether or not meaning going residence and rewatching the sport or as soon as the work aspect’s completed, going to the pub and having to talk with mates and even on exhibits like The Anfield Wrap, getting the possibility to debate it and speak it via.
The Liverpool match I might relive is…
The one which I first got here into my thoughts is the plain one, which is Istanbul, as a result of it was simply such a seismic second for thus many causes.
That was my first summer season dwelling in Liverpool.
So being in and across the metropolis at the moment and attending to really feel what it feels wish to be in a European Cup ultimate, as a result of it’s not simply in regards to the crew, it actually turns into in regards to the metropolis as a result of that at that time, it’s been 20 years since we’ve been within the European Cup ultimate, so all the pieces actually felt alive.
Wherever you went round, you’d see posters, you’d see cardboard cutouts of Stevie and Carra in folks’s home windows and simply the vibe across the place was so particular.
After which clearly the sport itself occurs and the celebrations afterwards. I’ve received vivid reminiscences of strolling residence from town centre just about down Higher Parliament Avenue and down Smithdown Highway, simply strolling via the center of the highway.
The Liverpool season I might relive is…
The treble season, 2000/01, as a result of all the pieces that we wished to realize, we did obtain, and the thought of having the ability to compete in three totally different competitions – 4 totally different competitions should you embrace the league.
That was additionally my first 12 months at college in Stoke, so I used to be dwelling in scholar halls and over the course of the season, a lot of my different buddies who weren’t into soccer, a few of them buddies who had been supporters of different groups, type of received swept up alongside within the emotion of all of it.
It was simply I might say six months the place each time we gained a recreation, it made me really feel like we had been going to win the subsequent one.
The driving of the wave of ‘wow, you simply by no means know what’s going to occur right here’, that season was simply very, very particular to me.
For those who might have a cocktail party with three figures from Liverpool’s current and historical past, who would they be?
Properly, I’ve truly been fortunate sufficient to be at a party with Jurgen Klopp on the membership of couple of years in the past and it was all the pieces I’d hoped it to be. So yeah, he’s positively in, 100%.
I’ve to be apparent and say John Barnes as effectively for all these apparent causes already talked about.
For a wild card, I wish to say Daniel Sturridge as a result of he’s simply a lot enjoyable.
He genuinely is rather like the type of individual you would have a completely superior time with, it doesn’t matter what you’re speaking about, and he’s additionally somebody who received a really astute soccer mind.
I’d love to talk to him about soccer and all that type of stuff, however then we will speak about music, vogue and meals as effectively.
Thanks once more to Mo Stewart for his time. You may subscribe to his Substack right here and his YouTube channel right here.
