And yet mistakes have been made. Many of which we’ve talked about in recent days and many more which have been discussed ad nauseum over the course of the season. Many of which have led to serious doubts as to whether Kenny Dalglish could lead Liverpool to success in the league and Europe given the current state of the game.

We would have wanted nothing more than for Dalglish to quash those fears and doubts if given further chance, though we cannot pretend those fears and doubts did not exist. The only thing we are certain of is that he deserves a great deal of respect—and a great deal more respect than he has received from many as Liverpool’s league season deteriorated. Questions and concerns are always worth voicing, but personal attacks that show a disgusting ignorance of the club’s history have at times been tied to legitimate complaint, and those guilty of doing such will always have cause for feelings of guilt.

Of course, one expects most of them will in no way feel guilty for their actions. The rest of us, however, those who have doubted and questioned while trying to preserve something of the respect Dalglish deserves, undoubtedly will. Though nothing is official yet, by all reports his second spell in charge of Liverpool Football Club is now over.

Whether it will turn out to be the right decision will not be clear for some time. Whether it is the right decision or not, this is a sad day and sad turn of events for the club.

Updates will follow after the jump, as there’s likely to be plenty.

**Update** Noel and I will be sharing the wealth over the next while—there’s still not anything from the club or FSG, but with every media outlet confirming that he’s gone, in addition to each member of the Dalglish family tweeting their condolences, we can safely say that Kenny Dalglish is no longer Liverpool manager.

**Update** And now the offal has tweeted there will be an official statement soon:

**Update** FSG confirm that Kenny Dalglish leaves his post as Liverpool manager:

John Henry: “Kenny will always be more than a championship winning manager, more than a championship winning star player. He is in many ways the heart and soul of the club. He personifies everything that is good about Liverpool Football Club. He has always put the Club and its supporters first. Kenny will always be a part of the family at Anfield.

“Our job now is to identify and recruit the right person to take this Club forward and build on the strong foundations put in place during the last 18 months.”

Tom Werner: “Kenny came into the Club as Manager at our request at a time when Liverpool Football Club really needed him. He didn’t ask to be Manager; he was asked to assume the role. He did so because he knew the Club needed him. He did more than anyone else to stabilize Liverpool over the past year-and-a-half and to get us once again looking forward. We owe him a great debt of gratitude.

“However, results in the Premier League have been disappointing and we believe to build on the progress that has already been made, we need to make a change.

“We are committed to delivering success for our supporters and our ambition remains resolute to return this great Club to the elite of England and Europe, where it belongs.”

**Update** Kenny Dalglish’s quotes from the offal, which crashed due to traffic is now back up:

“It has been an honour and a privilege to have had the chance to come back to Liverpool Football Club as Manager. I greatly appreciate the work that Steve, Kevin, the players and all of the staff put in during my time and feel proud that we delivered the Club’s first trophy in six years winning the Carling Cup and came close to a second trophy in the FA Cup Final. Of course I am disappointed with results in the league, but I would not have swapped the Carling Cup win for anything as I know how much it meant to our fans and the Club to be back winning trophies.

“Whilst I am obviously disappointed to be leaving the football club, I can say that the matter has been handled by the owners and all concerned in an honourable, respectful and dignified way and reflects on the quality of the people involved and their continued desire to move the football club forward in the same way as when they arrived here.

“I would like to thank all of the staff at the Club for their effort and loyalty. I said when first approached about coming back as Manager that I would always be of help if I can at any time and that offer remains the same.

“Finally, I want to put on record my heartfelt gratitude to Liverpool’s fans, who have always given me and the Club their unwavering support. Without them neither the Club nor I would have achieved anything.”

**Update** Plenty of speculation that Ian Ayre has also been dismissed, but nothing confirmed. If so, that leaves the club without a Manager, Director of Football, and Managing Director ahead of a summer that was expected to see major changes.

So actually I guess that’s already started.

**Update** As I noted above, Noel and I will be going back and forth with updates as needed. For whatever reason I was switched over to admin, but worth noting that all the content before the fold is his, on the off chance anyone thought I had anything profound to say for once.

I don’t.

**Update** Changes not done yet, with Tony Barrett’s tweet below indicating that Steve Clarke is now gone as well:

**Update** Noel’s gonna take it from here for a little while on a strange, emotional day for Liverpool.

**Update** It appears as though that may do it for major developments for the time being at least, though that may be down to the proverbial tea lady being top of the organisational flow chart at Anfield at the moment. We’ll be along with more when—or perhaps if—we manage to more fully digest what has happened today.

Fernando Torres left, Steven Gerrard was soon injured, and Andy Carroll arrived unfit to play. Pepe Reina was in the midst of his second of three seasons that left fans talking about him being some way short of his best. The defence, though decent, was hardly the dominant force it became for a time in the middle of the 2011-12 season after Jamie Carragher’s injury forced the coaching staff to experiment with Martin Skrtel and Daniel Agger as the starting pairing.

Success instead came from Luis Suarez, having just arrived at the club and playing his best football for Liverpool in the final months of last season, while in the centre of the pitch Lucas continued the form that had made him one of the few bright spots of Roy Hodgson’s aborted reign. Meanwhile, at the centre of it all, Dirk Kuyt, Maxi Rodriguez, and Raul Merieles provided the passing, the movement, the supporting runs into the box, and the attacking interplay that linked Lucas and the defense behind them with Suarez in front.

Without them, Lucas’ solid base goes to waste. Without them, Suarez appears isolated for long stretches, forced to do everything on his own—and likely suffering for it as he often has this season. Without them, Kenny Dalglish never becomes Liverpool’s permanent manager.

*

It makes the decision Kenny Dalglish then made—or at the very least acquiesced to—to throw those three men aside in favour of a failed rebuilding effort based around Charlie Adam, Stewart Downing, and Jordan Henderson on the right more than simply frustrating from a footballing perspective. Certainly it seemed a massive miscalculation in a footballing sense from the moment the wheels set in motion on changes that would see Liverpool plummet from the kind of form that would see them fighting near the top of the table to where they find themselves today. But beyond that, the marginalisation of those three men Dalglish at least in part owed his job to—in favour of a trio who, at least in the roles they have been used in, made Liverpool demonstrably worse—cannot help but leave one feeling uncomfortable.

It can’t help but leave one wondering if Dalglish is the man to rebuild the club now that his first efforts at rebuilding it—efforts that came at a time when it was far from clear that a complete overhaul was necessary or wise—have ended badly and two more of the men who were key in making Liverpool look so good when he first returned to the manager’s chair are on their way out. And it won’t be just the fans asking themselves this question—the club’s best players, the few who could walk into a Champions League and title challenging side without difficulty, will be asking it, too.

The first of such cases may end up being that of Martin Skrtel, Liverpool’s best and most consistent player of the season. While his agent has denied reports that the player is unhappy due to fears he may see out the prime of his career at Liverpool without Champions League football, he does admit that discussions with the club to determine its short-term ambitions will be necessary. And if Liverpool’s few truly top class players—players like Skrtel and defensive partner Daniel Agger, midfielder Lucas Leiva, and striker Luis Suarez—find themselves unable to believe in the club’s short-term prospects, it could end up a blow that would consign Liverpool to mid-table mediocrity for the foreseeable future.

*

Then, of course, we return the case of Dirk Kuyt. Kuyt’s career may be closer to its end than its beginning, but with it a near certainty that he will start every game for the Netherlands at this summer’s European Championships and given his form twelve months ago when he last played regularly at Liverpool, it’s difficult to believe he doesn’t have more to give a side looking to compete near the top. At the very least, it’s hard to imagine that a player like Stewart Downing who will turn 28 before the start of next season or Jordan Henderson who continues to look woefully misused on the right would offer this or any other side a better future at the position than Kuyt.

Dalglish, it seems, doesn’t agree, and the unsurprising end result can be found in an interview with a Dutch newspaper where Kuyt spoke of how in his heart he would like nothing more than to stay at Liverpool but that he feels marginalised by the current manager—a man who without the run of form that saw Kuyt end the 2010-11 campaign as the club’s leading goalscorer likely wouldn’t be in the manager’s chair this year.

For Kuyt—and for the fans as well—seeing the club bring in a player who dominated his position, who won the right to take the bulk of his minutes a few months after he led the team in scoring, would have been one thing. Instead an unproven central midfielder was handed the ill-suited role on a silver platter, never having to prove his effectiveness. And when Henderson’s struggles at the unfamiliar position at times became too much for Kenny Dalglish to stand, the answer most often was to shift Downing to the right where his ineffective predictability became a further mark against a man who managed to go an entire season without scoring a goal or assist in league play despite being the club’s fourth most expensive signing ever.

It was a similar story for Maxi Rodriguez, and the tale only ended differently for Raul Meireles when the club’s refusal to live by the previous regime’s promise to renegotiate his relatively paltry contract following a strong first season made clear what his standing was following last summer’s arrivals. Dalglish had decided on a clear and ruthless course, sacrificing those who had given him a second chance at managing Liverpool Football Club in order to rebuild a side that for many seemed to only need minor tweaking.

*

It would have been one thing if it had all worked out as Dalglish intended. Looking at the treatment of certain players who seemed as though they deserved better after what they gave the club might still have left some feeling uneasy, but success can excuse quite nearly anything in football. That success, at least in the league, never arrived. Liverpool were often static; became more direct; often lacked support from midfield in attack. Luis Suarez attempted to do too much on his own and in the end everything he tried to do came off slightly worse for it. Lucas was overworked trying to do the job of two in midfield, and the worst fears of that over-reliance leading to injury came to pass. Gerrard once again found himself regularly injured—or forced into a deeper role when he wasn’t. And in the end Kenny Dalglish was left with a poor result built on a clear failure of judgement.

No player has done more for Liverpool since arriving at the club than Kuyt, and none of the recent British signings embodies the ethos of the club even half as well as the Dutchman. His career may be winding down, but the evidence suggests he still has a lot to offer—certainly more at the positions he’s comfortable in than those who would be his replacements. For a man who will go down as a club legend to be marginalised as he has in those circumstances is disgraceful, no matter that the man making the decisions is himself a legend of even greater stature.

While not nearly as unfortunate as the case of Dirk Kuyt, the disposal of Maxi and Meireles in favour of a failed British revolution after they both played key roles in the previous season’s resurgence can also in no way be spun into something encouraging. Elsewhere, too, there are further personnel decisions that cannot help but leave one puzzled, with Jose Enrique overplayed at left back to the point of exhaustion, something the entire team suffered as a result of. Then there is the complete failure to find playing time for Sebastian Coates, one of the most promising centre back prospects in world football, as the season wound down. Andy Carroll, meanwhile, found himself either promoted or dropped from the starting eleven with seemingly no concern for form, as his best games were often followed by a return to the bench and poor performances led to further starts.

Still, if one casts back over the mistakes of the past twelve months at Liverpool Football Club, nothing stands out quite so much as the decision to unceremoniously discard the core of last season’s successful second half resurgence. Fans and clubs are quick to talk of players having loyalty—or, more often, of them lacking it—yet the treatment Kuyt in particular has received over the past year tops by some margin the defection of Fernando Torres to Chelsea when it comes to displays of disloyalty. If Kenny Dalglish had been right in his decision to cast him and others aside it may have been easier to overlook. Instead it represents this season’s most damning failure—a sorry confluence of personnel, selection, and stubbornness.

People can talk about rebuilding. Even if the point of last summer’s transfer strategy was to avoid long settling-in periods that would lead to 2011-12 becoming a rebuilding season. Even if it now appears that next season will end up something of a rebuilding season, too, with few entertaining realistic hopes of a return to Champions League action twelve months hence.

They can talk about bad luck and posts. Even if, in the context of an entire season rather than over a stretch of a few games, the idea that nearly every moment of luck across an entire season would go against Liverpool begins to sound faintly ridiculous.

And they can talk about the team missing Lucas. Or about the distraction of Luis Suarez’ autumn incident. Or about the focus on cup runs leading to letdowns in the league.

In the end, though, after all the reasons and explanations and excuses for Liverpool’s unqualified failure in league play, it will always come back to one inescapable truth: 52 points. With that return, Liverpool ends the 2011-12 season with the worst record the club has managed in the top flight of English football since being demoted in 1954.

Normalising the data to allow a level comparison of every season back to 1962-63, the year Bill Shankly returned the club to the old First Division, puts this season’s Liverpool side and the league result they managed in historical perspective. And it’s a perspective that rather throws cold water on any effort to wave away the poor results as nothing but a bit of bad luck and rebuilding.

Until yesterday’s loss confirmed a new and ignominious record for Liverpool, the worst results came as the club struggled through the 90s. First Graeme Souness led the club to back to back 54 point efforts (normalised). Then, in 1998-99, Gerard Houllier’s first year in charge again saw Liverpool earn only 54 points.

Those seeking solace might look to past occasions when Liverpool have finished with 55 or fewer points, as on four of the previous five occasions this has been followed by at least a ten point improvement in the league. Two of those times, however, came shortly after the club returned to the top flight, and the two relatively successful recent seasons following efforts of 55 or fewer points both led to results that would still have seen the club finish worse than fourth in each of the past six years.

Whether Kenny Dalglish, Steve Clarke, and the rest of the current coaching staff are the right men to rebuild from this all time low is an entirely separate question, though one imagines that a prerequisite for any meaningful improvement will be realising that mistakes—some of them quite major—actually have been made. That many of the same problems that were apparent at the beginning of the season remained at the end, and that at times the message emanating from the club matched the belief of some fans that the only problem was settling in and bad bounces, is almost as discouraging as that depressingly inarguable final number: 52.

Fifty-two points. The worst Liverpool season in the Premier League, closer to the bottom than the top in points and as far from the top four as they’ve ever been in the Champions League era. The worst season Liverpool has had since returning to the top flight. Or the worst season in the top flight since they were demoted to the Second Division in 1954.

You don’t get to that point by accident, and there’s simply no way to spin the result to make it look acceptable. To even try to do so only sets the club up for further failure going forward.

Fitting that, on the final day of a frustrating season, the best thing to happen to Liverpool didn’t actually have anything to do with Liverpool. Manchester City stole the title from Manchester United with two goals in injury time, and that’s about all that Liverpool supporters are left to celebrate. Exhilarating, to be sure, but once the schadenfreude fades it’s also an indictment of the fact that Liverpool’s mediocrity leaves little to cheer other than the failings of others. The less time spent on today—and this season, one in which the club earned their lowest points total in the top flight—the better.

A depressing end to a depressing campaign, and around these parts all that’s left to do is thank you all for your support and involvement in such a miserable season, and we’ll hope to see you in the future.

Ways to Watch:

Match live on FuelTV in the US.

Wiziwig.eu
MyP2P.bz
StopStream.tv
FromSport.com
FirstRowSports.eu
CoolSport.tv

Liverpool:

Doni
Kelly Carragher Agger Johnson
Downing Henderson Shelvey Maxi
Suarez Carroll

Bench: Jones, Enrique, Coates, Kuyt, Spearing, Sterling, Belllamy

Swansea:

Vorm
Rangel Caulker Williams Taylor
Britton Allen
Dyer Sigurdsson Sinclair
Graham

Bench: Tremmel, Tate, Monk, Gower, Edwards, Routledge, Moore

With a mixture of relief and sadness, the season finally comes to a close tomorrow in Wales. Swansea City welcome Liverpool in the the last act of the campaign, with both sides looking to finish off the year on a high note. It’s been a decidedly more positive year for the hosts than it has been for the visitors, with Elvis-inspired celebrations among Swans supporters set for tomorrow, and those of a Liverpool persuasion yet again looking to turn the page.

It feels a bit hollow to do much lamenting for a season I wasn’t very fond of, so we’ll skip most of the nice-nice and just say that, despite all the troubles Liverpool have endured since August, this season has somehow managed to finish with a glimmer of optimism—whether it’s the individual play of a handful of squad members, the promise of improvement in the summer, or just the mere fact that it’s finally over, I’ve noticed the slightest bit of reality-defying positivity creep into the collective consciousness over the past few weeks. Or it’s just the new shirts.

So finishing tomorrow isn’t a bad thing by any stretch, with a decent couple of hours in their more immediate rear-view and European football on the horizon at the end of the summer. There’s the formality of tomorrow to get through, though, and it’d be nice if they ended the season with a win. It’ll be the third consecutive season they finish away from Anfield, with a bore draw at Hull on the final day of the Rafa Benitez era and a loss at Villa last season decided by Stewart Downing’s last Premier League goal.

Swansea will pose just as much, if not more, of a threat as each of Liverpool’s last two final day hosts, as Brendan Rodgers has had the Welsh side playing some of the league’s most aesthetically pleasing football. They’ve also been surprisingly effective despite many of the doubts entering the season, which led to Rodgers’ call for supporters to dress up after they were welcomed to the Premier League with pronouncements that it was just as likely to see Elvis as it was Swansea staying in the top flight.

They’ve been comfortable for some time now, though, and they were boosted tremendously by the arrival of now-rumored Liverpool target Gylfi Sigurdsson on loan in January. He added quality to an already effective Swansea setup, with Nathan Dyer and Scott Sinclair providing pace in the wide areas, Danny Graham as the target man up top, and a midfield with Mark Gower, Leon Britton, and Joe Allen to choose from. Michael Vorm’s anchored the defense with a terrific season in goal, and Nigel Rangel, Steven Caulker, Neil Taylor, and Ashley Williams have seen most of the minutes across the back.

Who starts for Liverpool?

Reina
Johnson Carragher Coates Enrique
Kuyt Shelvey Henderson Maxi
Carroll Suarez

—Once again it’s Charlie Adam and Lucas as the only ones out through any sort of publicized injury, although both Steven Gerrard and Fabio Aurelio missed out on Tuesday.

—The adjusted back line against Chelsea pushed Daniel Agger to left back and Martin Skrtel to the left side of central midfield, and rather than displace both in service of Jamie Carragher’s extended farewell tour, I’m in favor of giving them an early vacation and starting Sebastian Coates alongside Carragher. Martin Kelly might have a shot ahead of Glen Johnson, and there’s word that Jack Robinson’s been included in the squad, but I doubt he edges out Jose Enrique.

—Gerrard’s fitness obviously informs the way the midfield lines up, and if he starts that’ll push either Jonjo Shelvey or Jordan Henderson, both of whom have impressed of late, out of the side. The non-negotiables should be Dirk Kuyt and Maxi, with firmly-founded expectations that they’ll be taking part in their last match in a Liverpool shirt. Do whatever you want with everyone else, but give us Kuyt and Maxi and a negative amount of Stewart Downing.

—Also, Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll. Suarez has been the catalyst in much of anything that’s been encouraging around Liverpool for the past few months, and Carroll’s improvements have been well documented of late. Craig Bellamy could also feature in some capacity, but I think Suarez and Carroll are locks, and I don’t want to see Kuyt or Maxi pushed out.

What’s the most important factor for the Reds?

There’s still some pride left to be found in the wrap-up, with many pointing towards the opportunity to finish above Everton in the table with a win tomorrow. The other half of Merseyside will have some work to do, with Newcastle visiting in search of an outside shot at Champions League qualification. There’s a very real possibility of dropped points for David Moyes’ side, leaving Liverpool with the potential for silverware, European football, and a spot in the table above their neighbors.

There’s no listing in England for tomorrow’s 3:00PM BST/10:00AM EST kickoff, but stateside viewers can catch the match on FuelTV as part of Fox’s Survival Sunday coverage. For all their lesser qualities—of which they do have many—the US network rounded up as many available slots as possible, and will be showing all but one of the final day’s matches on their variety of stations. If you don’t get FuelTV or aren’t in the states and don’t get television coverage, streams should be fairly easy to come by, and we’ll have links for those in the matchday thread. That post will also have team sheets around an hour before kickoff, and you can join in the season’s final comment section there or catch up with us on Twitter.

Hope you all had a nice end of the week/start to the weekend, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.

Smart movement, keeping the ball moving, always making himself available as an outlet, and more committed defensively than many give him credit for. That and a knack for finding space in dangerous areas that seems as though it should be simple except few other players manage to do it quite so well. It’s rarely flashy, and for a time it meant many were quick to look past him, but as his time at Liverpool comes to an apparent close there are few who remain unconvinced of the value of Maxi Rodriguez.

It’s quite likely he will be remembered, when he does go, as the club’s best free transfer signing, having arrived in January of 2010 from Atletico Madrid after spending four and a half years at the Spanish club. Since then, he’s made 72 appearances across all competitions for Liverpool and scored 17 times, with 56 appearances and 15 goals coming in league action—and with it becoming increasingly clear that about the only possible mark against him is that he wasn’t four years younger when he arrived.

He still has one year left on his current contract, but it would be hugely unexpected if Tuesday’s game against Chelsea didn’t end up being final time he plays in a Liverpool shirt. It may not have been a final match that reached quite the heights set by hat-tricks against Birmingham and Fulham towards the end of the 2010-11 season, but it was still the kind of smart and assured performance on the left that Liverpool have noticeably lacked when he isn’t playing. And unfortunately for the club, it’s hard to imagine anybody currently on the squad being able to step up to fill that role next season if he is indeed heading back to boyhood club Newell’s Old Boys.

But all of that is for the future. For now, enjoy a bit of Maxi’s smart football along with his seemingly telepathic understanding with Luis Suarez, perhaps while hoping that against all odds Liverpool’s number eleven stays at the club for one more season before heading home.

Video by Mostar.

When word first leaked that Warrior and not adidas would be making Liverpool’s kit in coming seasons, some reacted with skepticism. After all, adidas have a long history in football—and just as importantly, a long history of supplying Liverpool kits. Warrior, on the other hand, is an offshoot of New Balance known for lacrosse and hockey equipment, and their deal with Liverpool represents their first foray into the world’s most popular game. Turns out that at least for the home strip there was nothing to worry about…

* Before we get to the kit, though, there are a few quick notes to cover involving players who may find themselves wearing it next season, and first up on that front is Andy Carroll. Liverpool fans have certainly noticed his improved form and effectiveness over the past month, culminating in an appearance off the bench against Chelsea in the FA Cup final that radically changed the game and then a subsequent start against the same side in the league where he was again highly effective. Others, though, have noticed it too, and that has led to talk that he should be in Roy Hodgson’s plans for this summer’s European Championship.

One of the people who thinks this is teammate Glen Johnson, who rather intriguingly hints that Carroll’s teammates also believe they’ve seen a change in the big striker’s game in recent weeks:

In the last few weeks, Andy has been fantastic. He is unplayable. Chelsea have two big centre-halves and he has thrown them around. Andy looks like he is quicker and is working a lot harder.

You could see John Terry was petrified at times. Andy is a big lump but he’s good on the ball and works very hard. He will scare a lot of defenders.

All in all, it doesn’t sound far off what most fans would say about Carroll—right down to the implication that there’s been something very different about the striker of late. In any case, on current form it does seem increasingly likely that Carroll could find himself included in England’s Euro squad. And though Liverpool players and international duty can at times be a sore point for many of the club’s fans, in this case it’s hard to imagine anything better for Carroll’s continued development than further minutes against top competition.

* If most will be pleased by the idea of Carroll heading to Poland and Ukraine this summer for the European Championships, far fewer will be happy to find that Craig Bellamy has been called up by Wales for a meaningless friendly against Mexico set to take place in the United States after the domestic season. With Wales out of the Euros and Bellamy captaining the side in the recent Gary Speed memorial match, most had assumed the 32-year-old had all but officially retired from international duty. Now, however, it appears he may end up involved in Wales’ efforts to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

In today’s latest breaking news from the future, Wales will not qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Though of course, since Craig Bellamy is Craig Bellamy, one can understand why he would be determined to try and make that happen even if every Liverpool fan would have preferred he spend the summer sitting on the couch with a couple of ice packs.

* Last but not least, Liverpool and Warrior have revealed the club’s new home kit for the 2012-13 season, and it’s exactly what we’ve known it would be for months—and that’s hardly a bad thing. Red, red, and more red, doing away with superfluous piping and frills, replacing white with gold as the secondary colour, putting “96″ on the back of the neck, and wrapping it all up with a y-neck and collar? All entirely expected and not the least bit surprising. In fact, perhaps the only aspect of the new kit that hadn’t been covered previously is a subtle use of pinstriping, a choice that only adds to an already fantastic offering from a manufacturer making their debut in football.

The entire package seems an obvious throwback to the 70s and early 80s, and nowhere is this more clear than in the choice to return to the classic, unadorned liverbird as the crest. The over-designed mess currently in use dates back to the early nineties, an attempt to ensure the club’s ability to enforce copyright when the liverbird itself is in the public domain. The inclusion of the club’s initials at the bottom of the new-but-old crest seen on next season’s Warrior kit should cover for concerns on that front while allowing a return to a logo very much like the one Liverpool wore during the club’s most successful period. In any case, all most fans will be concerned about is the final product, and in this case it’s a final product that’s very hard to find fault with.

Whatever the club’s relationship with Warrior might end up being down the road, for today all that really matters is that they’ve given the club its best home kit in ages—perhaps the best they’ve had in the Premier League era, and certainly better than anything supplied by adidas in their latest run. And they’re paying the club an English record fee for the privilege to boot. All in all that’s not a bad deal if you can get it.

We’ll be back with any breaking news, but in the meantime, while you try to figure out where to get your own Spartan helmet and shield to go along with the new home shirt…

“I’ve agreed to keep communication open with [Preston North End manager] Graham Westley just in case I come across a miracle cure,” began a brief statement by former Liverpool striker Neil Mellor. “But realistically, and regrettably, this is the end of my playing days.”

It was sad news for the player, and more than a touch sad too for the countless Liverpool fans who will fondly remember the massive role Mellor played in the road to Istanbul and Champions League glory in 2005. In a way, though, it feels as though it has been a retirement coming for quite some time—despite that the player only turned 29 in November. His knack for finding the back of the net has kept him in the game for a decade, but it has been a career plagued by multiple serious knee injuries, injuries that have seemed to keep Mellor on the trainer’s table at least as often as they’ve allowed him to be fit.

He came through the ranks at Liverpool under Gerard Houllier, following Jamie Carragher, Michael Owen, and Steven Gerrard through the academy during the its most successful stretch in the Premier League era and leading both the reserves and u19s in goals in 2002-03. His dominance that year led to his senior debut and a bit part role in the first team that included scoring against Sheffield United in the League Cup. With the player utterly dominant at the reserve level but not seen as quite ready to play full time with the first team, the following season saw him loaned out to West Ham to further his development.

He suffered the first of a series of serious knee injuries when he returned to Liverpool for the 2004-05 pre-season, but soon regained fitness and began to work his way towards becoming a regular in the starting eleven under Rafa Benitez. After a series of cup appearances, he would confirm his arrival as a first team player with an injury time winner against Arsenal in the league in November. Ten days later he would score the winner against Olympiakos before his cushioned header for Steven Gerrard set Liverpool’s captain up to give Liverpool the two-goal margin they needed to advance to the knockout stages of the Champions League.

Sadly, another knee injury would follow in March of 2005, keeping him from participating in the final stages of Liverpool’s European run. That was followed by a loan to Wigan in January of 2006 in search of playing time to get his stuttering career back on track. It ended after three games with another knee injury.

With his career at the highest levels of football having suffered through countless setbacks and a growing belief that his knees would never allow him to succeed at Liverpool, the following summer saw him move to Championship side Preston. His debut that year was delayed due to a pre-season knee injury, his fourth in 24 months. A relatively injury-free stretch would last until the 2008-09 season, and in recent seasons what injuries he has picked up both at Preston and while on loan at Sheffield Wednesday in 2010-11 have been fairly minor—at least until a tackle late in December of last year by Milton Keynes striker Jabo Ibehre sidelined him.

Unable to return to action since then and with growing concerns over his long-term health, club doctors advised him to end his days as a football player. In his injury-plagued career he played only twenty-two senior games for Liverpool—and only twelve league games—yet he scored two of the club’s most important goals of the 2004-05 season and set up one of the greatest strikes in the club’s history on the road to European glory, making it onto the list of the 100 Players Who Shook the Kop as a result. Before his knees let him down, though, he seemed destined to go down as one of the club’s greats.

Instead, for many he will be remembered rather fondly but sadly as the most important—and perhaps, in a certain light, greatest—Liverpool player to play less than even half a season for the club and an integral part of 2005’s Champions League triumph. Hopefully, wherever he goes next, the future is a little easier on Neil Mellor’s knees than the past ten years have been.

The season is over. Only it isn’t. Not quite yet. Though it does feel as though an autopsy should be done, even if after a long campaign that has seen so many of the problems and complaints remain depressingly consistent it feels as though everything has already been said a dozen times over and that there is really nothing left to say.

It feels as though the distraction of the upcoming European Championships and the hope of a summer’s dealings should raise spirits as everyone begins already to look ahead to next season. Only there’s little left but blind faith to suggest those who got things wrong before and have been getting the same things wrong for so much of this season will suddenly get things right.

It may be difficult to imagine anybody who genuinely cares about Liverpool desiring that those who have made the mistakes that have defined 2011-12 not be given the chance to make things right, but at the same time it’s nearly as impossible to imagine anyone who now feels as confident about those in charge of the club’s football operations as they were at this time last year.

Still, loyal servants deserve better than the fate a small yet vocal minority would casually consign Kenny Dalglish to after a frustrating, uneven, and hugely disappointing campaign coming on the heels of a summer of mis-spending. But then, some of the club’s current loyal servants on the playing staff would seem to deserve better than the treatment they have received of late, too, no matter if in the end decisions concerning the likes of Dirk Kuyt and Maxi Rodriguez have reseted with Dalglish himself, departed director of football Damien Comolli, or others elsewhere in the organisation.

There’s much—so much—to say about this season, and yet it feels as though everything has already been said. And perhaps because of that any true, meaningful examination won’t be possible until it becomes clear just what the final fate of the club’s loyal servants—all of the club’s loyal servants—is in the coming weeks and months.

The season may now have reached an ending of sorts, but in some ways Liverpool’s league campaign has been an afterthought for months now, leaving a case where the obituary for a season that died around the time people were struggling through their New Year’s Eve hangovers would seem to have now been delayed to the point of pointlessness. Everybody had been busy waiting for the cups to confer meaning on a corpse, but after Saturday’s failure to show up at Wembley until the final thirty minutes one is left to the realisation that there had been nothing truly meaningful left of the current season for months.

Tuesday’s unexpected victory over Chelsea, one that confirms the London club will have to win the Champions League to return to it next season, may have for a few of hours provided a welcome bit of entertainment and excitement from a Liverpool side that has given little of such to fans, followers, and supporters over a disappointing season. A similar performance and result at Swansea on Sunday to end the term would do the same. Neither, though, could change anything that has gone before or that may come next.

In some ways, last night’s final game at Anfield and the lap of honour that followed provided a symbolic ending for a season that has in truth been over for a long time now—even if today it still has a game left to go. Beyond the symbolism provided by the chance to say goodbye to players who may never set foot on Anfield’s pitch again in a competitive match, however, that and the ninety minutes that came before had almost no meaningful connection to the previous thirty-six games that made up Liverpool’s league season.

The season is over, even if it isn’t, and even if it already was. There is everything to say but everything has already been said. And what’s left, no matter what one’s personal hopes might be, is an uncomfortable mix of faith and fear and doubt about what comes next. Though the truth of the matter is that that’s been the case for quite some time.