Many players signing from overseas for Liverpool have often used the same phrase upon their arrival at the club.
"I didn't realise just how big the club was", are nine words that have been uttered countless times in years gone by, though new recruits quickly learned all about the demands of representing the Reds after spending a matter of weeks on Merseyside.
But even for players growing up in England, the club has an aura about it that is hard to put into words. David James is one of those individuals who was unaware of the huge step in his career he was about to take when leaving his hometown club for Liverpool in 1992. Indeed, the English goalkeeper left Watford to join the Reds' ranks and admits he underestimated just what he was getting himself into.
Discussing how his move to Anfield came about, he told the ECHO: “I had talks with Aston Villa and there was a suggestion that Chelsea were very interested. I was a young, naive footballer and just wanted to continue playing at Watford. Steve Perryman was my manager, they’d offered me a contract and I said no because I knew there were other clubs interested. One day when we were walking off the training field he went ‘Dave, we’ve put you on the transfer list’ and it broke my heart because I loved Watford. In the end, Liverpool went to a tribunal and agreed a fee.
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“Going back to my naivety in football, I didn’t realise how big Liverpool was. I was an English lad who supported Luton Town, who knew about Liverpool being a big club. But it wasn’t until I got there that I realised the world of football knew who Liverpool were."
During James' seven-year spell at the club, he worked under three different managers: Graeme Souness, Roy Evans and Gerard Houllier - three completely unique characters. Developing strong relationships with the aforementioned figures proved to be somewhat of a challenge for the ex-Liverpool shot-stopper, whose only regret about his time spent working with the trio is how he ignored certain guidance from Houllier.
“Strangely, I get on better with them since leaving Liverpool than when I was actually at the club," conceded James. "Graeme Souness was following on in many ways from the culture that was in football. There was an approach to football which, in some ways, wasn’t the way I was as a person. Those first two years under Souness were difficult, even down to infrastructure. We didn’t have a regular goalkeeping coach, the one we had was there once a month.
"When Roy Evans took over, we got Joe Corrigan in on a weekly basis and then full-time. All of a sudden, I was developing as a goalkeeper. Under Roy Evans, who was a wonderful guy and man, he needed a bit more authority. We had a wonderful squad but, for whatever reason, the results or achievements weren’t mirrored by the quality of the squad.
"When Houllier came in, we had the authority. After five years of less authority, all of a sudden we had a tremendous amount of authority. I think that was a cultural shock. For me, it wasn’t working and I left for Aston Villa. There were some things Houllier wanted us to do as players on the pitch, but off it too. At the time, I didn’t like that, and it wasn’t until I left Liverpool that I realised how important they were. Things like shaking your fellow goalkeeper’s hand before a game. For me, that didn’t make any sense and it really wound me up. I later realised it was an important part of being a team player and I took that with me forever."
A standout moment for the former England international arrived in the 1995 League Cup final, which he started between the sticks as Liverpool got the better of Bolton Wanderers courtesy of a Steve McManaman brace. It proved to be James' first and only piece of silverware on Merseyside.
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“The day was wonderful," he reflected when in conversation with the ECHO. "The League Cup is a magnificent trophy, but it’s a funny one in the sense that the final is played during the season. My overriding memory is that it was the progression we were looking for at Liverpool, from three barren years to go and win the trophy. With regards to everything else around the day and the following days, we won the trophy and had Southampton at Anfield two or three days later. There was no trophy procession around the city and, in a paradoxical way, the reality was that your success isn’t that successful. Other clubs winning the League Cup would probably go around the city for two days, but with Liverpool it was like you’ve got a game on Tuesday and get on with it. And we did. We did start to improve in the way I thought we would go."
Liverpool would again reach a Wembley final the following year, this time setting up an FA Cup final tie with Manchester United. Beaten by a single goal on the day, James is convinced this was a 'tipping point' in his career at the club, which he failed to truly process. Asked how long the team took to recover from this setback, the 51-year-old responded: “We didn’t. This is the interesting thing about it.
"There was a steady progression over a few years and, although as Manchester United had won the Premier League a number of times before that final, we always felt our squad was as good as theirs. I go back to the management stuff, where we had the quality in player, we maybe didn’t have the authority needed to make the best of those talents. The cup final was a tipping point. Had we won that final, it would have given us the confidence for us to say we could challenge for the title the following season. I don’t think we recovered from the cup final, or maybe I didn’t recover from the cup final. I don’t know."
James spent a further three seasons at the club before heading for the exit doors in 1999 to join fellow Premier League side, Aston Villa. The signing of fellow shot-stopper Brad Friedel in 1997 coincided with a difficult period in the career of the Watford academy graduate, at which point he realised his chances of serving as Liverpool's long-term No.1 were fading fast.
“Football is all about environments; if the environment is right and if you can see personal progression, it’s about where you fit into that. Ultimately, it is the individual who has to be in the right space to make everything work, I had a year left on my contract and just wanted to play football. I saw under Houllier and the set up at Liverpool that it didn’t matter what I was going to do, I wasn’t going to get my opportunity to re-prove myself. When Aston Villa came in, it gave me the perfect platform to play first-team football and get back in the England squad. Of course, I was devastated I was leaving Liverpool because I loved the city, the fans and everything about it. But I didn’t want to be the ghost in the Liverpool changing room when there was an opportunity for me to do what I like doing best, being the best keeper I can."
On the lack of support provided in his difficult moments, he added: “There was a time in 1997 when I wasn’t playing at my best. That wasn’t an argument, it was a fact. But, environmentally, there was no help. It was an old-school retort, which was ‘Oh, you’ll get over it.’ That doesn’t actually help the problem. If you’ve got a good support network around you, you will deal with those mistakes much quicker and get back to the level you were before it.
"When I went to Aston Villa, I had one of the best coaches in goalkeeping history – Paul Barron. We would talk about everything and I developed and improved as a person and keeper. If I had that at Liverpool, my career could have been completely different. But I needed that experience as an individual and the beauty of football is back in 1997/98, I’m sure some of the Liverpool fans would have quite happily let me go there and then but Liverpool got back to where they should be and I got a good career out of football. Whatever happened, happened for a reason. I wouldn’t change anything.”
*David James was speaking to the ECHO courtesy of Genting Casino *
