What Does It Mean To Be A Liverpool Legend?
With Liverpool as the new Premier League champions, I’m probably not going to write an article without saying this for the entirety of this summer. However, I thought it was a good time to open it up for Liverpool fans to talk about who they consider to be legends of this football club.
READ MORE: The Future Of Liverpool 2.0 by TJ Andrews
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I take a very black and white approach to this answer. I am more than happy to adapt if someone else has a different take and convinces me I am wrong. You need to be a consistent starter for a team that won something big that season.
Which means, in my lifetime, I have seen four legendary teams play for Liverpool:
2000/2001 Season – Liverpool won the EFL Cup, FA Cup, and Europa League.
2004/2005 Season – Liverpool won the Champions League.
2018-2020 Seasons – Liverpool won the Champions League and Premier League over two seasons.
2024/2025 Season – Liverpool wins the Premier League.
That’s it. I know some fans will call that harsh because guys like Mascherano, Torres, and Suarez do not qualify as legendary players for Liverpool by this criterion. For me, those guys are cult heroes for how good they were. Nevertheless, they didn’t win the top trophies to enter the pantheon with Kenny Dalglish, John Barnes, Steven Gerrard, and Virgil van Dijk.
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Conversely, it means guys like Djimi Traore count as a Liverpool legend for playing in the 2005 Champions League final. I will defend that because he famously stopped a goal on the line. If he wasn’t there to do that, we wouldn’t win that game, and none of the other players on that team would become legends either.
The question then shifts. Can a player stop being a legend of a football club? Is a player like Michael Owen, who helped us win a treble in 2000/2001, no longer seen as a legend because he went to United and talks about winning the Premier League with them? Personally, I think a player can stop being a legend. It would be interesting to know how many of you still see Owen as a Liverpool legend or if you ever did.
Which brings us to Trent Alexander-Arnold. Has he stopped being a legend of Liverpool Football Club because he is leaving us to go to Real Madrid? I would say no, at least not yet. If he starts trashing us, flirting with joining one of our rivals for the Premier League title, then maybe the conversation changes. I still consider Xabi Alonso a Liverpool legend. There are differences. Trent is leaving on a free transfer. He was the Scouser in our team. But, I think it hurts more because of how much of a legend he is for us Liverpool fans.
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I am genuinely fascinated with what happens in this summer transfer window, looking at the players we sign and dreaming of them one day becoming the next legends of this club. I cannot wait to see how much of a Liverpool legend Arne Slot is going to become. At the moment, I would say he is at the level of Rafael Benitez and Gerard Houllier. If he wins the Premier League again or the Champions League for the first time, he gets on Jurgen Klopp’s level. I hope he stays long enough and achieves enough success to challenge Kenny Dalglish, Bob Paisley, and Bill Shankly to become one of the greatest managers ever of this football club. Then passes it on to the next guy, who aims to beat his legacy.
Let me know what you think. What makes a Liverpool legend for you? Who is the best player we have had that you wouldn’t call a legend? Can a legend lose that status once they have earned it? I look forward to reading your comments.