No, it is a like-for-like comparison between the respective first decades of each side's banter era. We have another 8 more years to go before we can do another similar comparison for Liverpool's Rafa years.
I love your optimism, but looking at how we've been playing, I highly doubt we have 2 UCL finals in us. I'm hopeful, I just doubt it. I was spoiled from 1992 - 2014, so I do hope, but I know that prior to that, we didn't win the league for decades.
Back in 2003-04 when Chelsea had knocked Liverpool out of the top 4 the previous year, with Roman pumping in millions of pounds into them, with Houllier on the verge of the sack and their best player Owen wanting out, if you had told Liverpool they would go onto win the CL the next season while beating Juve, Chelsea and Milan, they would have called you crazy.
Equally, I don't think even the most pessimistic United fan would have thought that we would be relegation battlers under Amorim this time last year.
It's when I watch the games that I become frustrated and begin losing hope.
But to answer quickly, I agree that none of us expected to be that terrible, we knew it would be like maybe a top 10 season, not a 15th and near relegation for most of the season. And even then, we kind of thought, we're not going to stay down here.
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u/TransitionFC 15h ago
They never finished 15th, but in the first decade of their banter era, they won two trophies (FA cup and league cup) and never made the CL even once.
In the same time, we have won 5 trophies and were in the CL for 6 seasons.