It was just a few weeks after Jordan Henderson’s 18th birthday when he was confronted by one of the most intimidating sights in football.
After being part of a Sunderland team who had just lost comfortably to non-league Gateshead in a pre-season friendly, Henderson found himself in the eye of a Roy Keane storm in July 2008.
A snarling, angry Keane is surely the last thing any young hopeful wants to be subjected to, particularly when he is your manager and you've just lost in abject fashion to a side over 100 places below you in the rankings of English football, but then Henderson has always been built of stronger stuff than your average teenage fledgling.
BLOOD RED: Alisson Becker's Champions League prediction can come true after Liverpool's 377-day journey
READ MORE: Joel Matip makes 'amazing' Real Madrid claim but explains why Liverpool will not be afraid
"I remember it well," recalls David Meyler, who had not long signed for Sunderland himself when the infamous, post-match dressing down from the legendary firebrand that is Keane played out. "I'd signed a week or two before so it was my first game and we'd gone to Gateshead, who were kind of a conference team at the time. We went with a young, exciting side of mainly U23s but we lost 2-0. It was just one of those awful days, nothing was going right.
"Roy, for some reason wasn't meant to go to the game, he was meant to be going back to Ireland to visit his family but he decided to stay and watch it. I remember we were all on the bus heading back and we were told the manager wants to speak to us.
"So Roy had a few choice things to say to us and I remember he really went after Jordan. He asked him in no uncertain terms if he thought he'd ever be good enough to play for the first team and Jordan said: 'Yes, I do!'
"So Roy asked again: 'You think you're good enough for my team do you?' and Jordan, again, said: 'Yes, I do!' So basically Jordan showed a bit of balls and a bit of character and then next thing he knew, he was making his debut against Chelsea (in November 2008).
"Jordan was the only one who responded that day in a positive manner. It showed a fierce character because you heard so much about Keane being an intimidating figure but, as it turned out, Jordan was right!"
It was the first real sign of the temperament that has driven Henderson to the very edges of Anfield immortality; the same mindset that allowed him to rage against his own apparent fate all those years ago when times were tough and his Liverpool future looked in peril.
By now, those stories of him nearly being sold to Fulham by Brendan Rodgers have been told dozens of times, but it makes it no less pertinent that Henderson has made a career out of proving his doubters and detractors wrong. In 2022, however, those naysayers have almost evaporated entirely. On Saturday night, the Liverpool captain will skipper his side in a third Champions League final, making him the first to do so at Anfield.
That alone is testament to the sheer force of will and relentless, unceasing dedication that has underpinned Henderson's career as a top-level midfielder.
Earlier this month, he became the first Englishman to lift the Club World Cup, Premier League, Champions League, League Cup and FA Cup as a captain. But as the bus pulled away from Wembley after a second penalty shootout success against Chelsea on May 14, Henderson's mind was already steeling itself for the next challenge.
"After they won the FA Cup, I congratulated him and was messaging him," Meyler adds. "I think it was about 2am in the morning and he was in the pool doing a recovery session!
"If I'd have won the FA Cup, I'd have been on the drink for a week, but his mindset straight away was: 'We've got another game' - and, look, I know they needed to win that game at Southampton, but his attitude was that he needed to be 100%. They'd just done extra-time against a top side, a mammoth game, but his thing was: 'I need to be back fit and at it.' I've known him for 13 or 14 years and he still blows my mind the way he conducts himself.
“When I met him, he was very quiet about how he went about his business, training, games and certainly the stuff he'd do outside of football in terms of gym work, diet and stuff. He was always really professional and someone who was desperate to give himself every opportunity. He was a manager's dream."
Charlie Adam, Joe Allen, Luis Alberto, Marko Grujic, James Milner, Gini Wijnaldum, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Fabinho, Naby Keita and Thiago Alcantara have all been signed to play in the centre of midfield for Liverpool since Henderson was brought to Anfield for £20m in June 2011, but still he remains an integral figure well over a decade later.
And while the skipper finds himself now surrounded by elite-level quality under Jurgen Klopp, Henderson's influence has not been diluted within this squad. He is the one who sets the standards, ensuring that nothing ever dips below the required level. It's this thought process that held in place the push for every major honour this season and one that has led them to the brink of a treble.
"He's one of the major reasons we've been able to perform as well as we have, in all fairness," Harvey Elliott tells the ECHO. "We call ourselves a family, which is the main thing, but you have your key leaders like Virgil (van Dijk), Hendo and Milly (James Milner), who are constantly talking and constantly motivating us and driving us on.
"Hendo has been a massive part of this season. He is always someone who goes the extra mile if we need him to and he works so hard. He is always there trying to shine and improve himself and the team and to just get us through to the finishing line. So hopefully he is here for many more years and I am sure he will always be a leader whatever he does next. He's a top leader to be learning from."
Henderson's teak-tough mentality might have been evident in his teens to his team-mates, but his leadership qualities have become more prevalent to those on the outside since being handed the captain's armband from Steven Gerrard in the summer of 2015.
Meyler adds: "The thing is, when you play for a club like Liverpool FC, which has incredible history, you have to embody the club and understand what LFC is about. As a player you have to be able to understand what has gone on. It is steeped in tradition and I think that is where Jordan has been able to be such a captain because he has gone in and understood things and if he hasn't, then he has learned about it.
"He understands the people of Liverpool. They have warmed to him because he has tried to get them and being captain of Liverpool, one of the most iconic clubs in the world, he's had to understand that. He's bought into what the club is about and he's gone out of his way to understand what this club means to everyone and now it means the same to him.
"The first captaincy role he had was with England Under-21s and that might have been his first year under Kenny Dalglish. I think from then on he started to mature as a player and a person. I think the best way to put it is he understood the responsibility of being a captain as the years have gone. He has gotten better and better as a captain. There aren't enough words to describe the type of professional he is."
One player who knows full well how much Henderson polices the Liverpool dressing room is Adam Lallana, who played with the current skipper at Anfield for six years before leaving for Brighton in 2020. Still a close friend of the Reds star, he believes this weekend's Champions League final is the perfect chance to furnish a career that will compare alongside any other in years to come.
Lallana tells the ECHO: "I think with him having accumulated every trophy, that kind of sums up his legacy at the club really. That all speaks for itself. He's won everything there is to be won now, so now, looking at him, he's in his 10th year and it's not always been easy, of course, but nothing is in life.
"For the majority of the time I was there and even now in the last couple of years when I've not been, I'm still on the phone to him a lot. Those weeks when we're speaking about good moments and tough moments and what is strange is it is hard for them all to enjoy the success at times because there have been so many games to be played.
"So it's just about moving on to the next one constantly and there was no greater example than the FA Cup final a couple of weeks back and they've got a game three days later. So there were no celebrations, it was all about recovery sessions and then going again. There are so many sacrifices that need to be made for him to perform at the level he has for the last 10 years. He deserves this legacy."
Lallana adds: "Everything is down to him and the way he sets the tone. Since Jurgen has come in, he fundamentally changed the way the club operated and the way the team worked but without his enforcers like Jordan who implemented his work then that cultural change couldn't and wouldn't happen. So yes, he's a huge, huge part of that.
"He's a modern-day legend. He's that experienced now he should just be able to go out and enjoy the Champions League final but I am not sure that will happen given the occasion. Having led the boys out already in the last two finals he's only going to make this one feel more familiar.
"Playing Real Madrid in Paris, you know, it doesn't get much bigger than that. What a spectacle it's going to be and the boys, led by Hendo, will be raring to go."
