When Liverpool became the first English club to win a treble of trophies

Jürgen Klopp’s team are chasing a quadruple and may yet surpass the efforts of the Liverpool side of the 1983-84 season, but they are unlikely to have as much fun along the way. It was a season of 67 matches, shocks, thrashings, broken bones, beer, brawls, spaghetti legs, Scully and Chris Rea.

Unusually for Liverpool at the time, it was also a season with a few doubts along the way, starting with the retirement of Bob Paisley in the summer of 1983. Joe Fagan, a member of the famous Boot Room who had been at the club since 1958, was hesitant about stepping up to replace Paisley but decided he was the right man for the job. “It would have been impossible for anyone else to follow Bob,” said Fagan. “I’m not being big headed. It’s just that I know the drill.” Arrogance was not an accusation you could throw at Fagan. The title of his biography – The Reluctant Champion – says it all.

Fagan had the players on his side but, even though the club had won the league and League Cup the season before, there were challenges ahead. The squad was short of defenders, needed cover for the Kenny Dalglish-Ian Rush partnership and, with Ronnie Whelan ruled out until November, looked slight in midfield. Gary Gillespie arrived from Coventry as a backup for the formidable centre-back pairing of Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson, with forward Michael Robinson joining from Brighton. Yet, at the start of the season, many pundits suggested Manchester United might finally knock Liverpool off their perch, even more so when Bryan Robson scored twice to give them a 2-0 win in the Charity Shield.

A 1-1 draw at newly promoted Wolves was a less than encouraging start to the league campaign, but four wins in the next five helped. Fagan was not entirely