Source: Daily_Mail
ASH WEDNESDAY: Manchester United boss Fergie has been focused on Liverpool since Kenny was king of t
Sir Alex Ferguson's obsession with Liverpool can be traced back to a television interview given by Manchester United's manager after a fiery 3-3 draw at Anfield way back on April 4, 1988.
Ferguson claimed managers 'have to leave here choking on their own vomit, biting their tongue, afraid to tell the truth' after United had ended up on the wrong side of a series of controversial incidents.
At the time Liverpool still had the upper hand on their great rivals, brilliantly illustrated when the camera immediately panned to Kenny Dalglish, who was holding his new-born child and announced that people 'would get more sense out of my six-week old daughter, Lauren'.
Dalglish's amusing one-liner put Ferguson in his place at time when they had a remote chance of breaking Liverpool's domestic stranglehold and winning the league title for the first time since 1967, eventually falling nine points short after that thrilling game at Anfield.
His fascination with Liverpool is unlikely to stop now that United are level on the number of league titles (18), especially when there is another opportunity to put them away, this time in Europe.
Liverpool's supporters are fond of reminding top-class opposition that 'we've won it five times, in Istanbul, we won it five times... Stevie G's eyes lit up, when he lifted the European Cup, 21 years now and it's coming back home'.
This evening in Rome, the scene of Liverpool's fourth European Cup triumph in a penalty shoot out at the Olympic Stadium in 1984, United will only be one short if they can find a way past the free-scoring spirit of Barcelona.
Then the race will be on for Ferguson to land another and draw level with Liverpool, perhaps even landing one more to put United in the clear before he finally retires from top class football.
United's manager has always maintained that his club should have won more European Cups during his time at Old Trafford, something he regrets during a period in the 1990s when they won five Premier League titles, but could not quite master the Champions League.
When they finally cracked it in the treble-winning season of 1999, it took them another nine years before they lifted their third European Cup with perhaps the greatest United team of all.
Ferguson no longer talks about his Third or Fourth Generation United team, no longer concerning himself with the kind of rebuilding that took place at Old Trafford after Arsenal's Invincibles won the Premier League in 2004.
Instead, Ferguson's team is evolving in much the same way as Liverpool's in the Eighties when they won five league titles and two European Cups (1981 and 1984), modifying the team each season and yet never making wholesale changes to the squad.
They are playing the same tune at United, a club no-one wants to leave now that the team is guaranteed to be competing at the high end of European competition at the end of each season.
It is incredible to think that it was only three years ago that United's manager was celebrating a League Cup triumph over Wigan at the Millennium Stadium (their first trophy since they beat Millwall in the 2004 FA Cup Final) as if it was the first of his career.
That 4-0 victory, with two goals scored by Wayne Rooney and one each from Louis Saha and Cristiano Ronaldo, was the catalyst for this current United team (at least seven of the team who lined up at the Millennium Stadium will start at the Olympic Stadium this evening) to start bringing silverware back to Old Trafford.
Two years later they were European champions again, beating Chelsea in a penalty shootout with the new blood, but there is an appetite for them to continue this remarkable period of success.
This time last year Ferguson spoke of phasing out Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs, limiting their first-team opportunities as the new breed pushed them all the way for their places.
A year on and Giggs is the PFA player of the year and both will play a part in this evening's final against Barcelona, willing their bodies on for another push towards yet another major honour.
They are the senior members of the sixth most successful team in the history of the competition, one behind Bayern Munich and Ajax (four), two behind Liverpool (five), four behind Milan (seven) and six behind Real Madrid (nine).
To match the achievements of Milan or Real Madrid is unthinkable, even during Ferguson's distinguished reign at Old Trafford, but drawing level with Liverpool is far more likely.
