In the holidays, my son and I went with Mum and Dad on a tour of Anfield. My ten year old, a devoted Arsenal supporter, spent most of the visit comparing the Liverpool stadium unfavourably with the spick and span of the Emirates, and true enough, the dressing room was like a school changing area pre Building Schools for the Future, while the press room - formally the notorious boot room - was like the inside of a mobile home. ("Is it just a coincidence that we haven't won a league title since we got rid of the boot room?" asked the guide. Much nodding in agreement.)
On the other hand, my dad was recalling the hundreds and hundreds of times he'd stood in the old Kop, and the one time Bill Shankly gave him a free ticket. "'What, no tickets, lads? Here you go then.' Free and everything."
"Look at these seats," said the guide as we sat in the Kop stand. "Three men stood in the same space as every single one of them in the old days."
"Wasn't it a bit frightening?" I asked Dad.
"Let's just say, you wanted to make sure you stood with your back to one of the short barriers. Otherwise you were just going with the crowd, for better or worse."
At the last game before the old Kop was replaced by seats, Liverpool fans brought hammers and chisels to the match. They ripped out the concrete floors and pulled apart the metal barriers. I dare say you can still buy pieces in any decent Liverpool pub, a bit like the never ending bones of some dusty saint.
I like these old seats though, which themselves don't look big enough for any largish backside, of which, with all due respect, there are several in Liverpool.
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