From the Observer:
http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,1563,1494903,00.html
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So what if they didn't win the league? Hail champions with cheers, not jeers
A Champions League open to non-champions is vastly more difficult to win than old knockout cup - and critics should accept that, says Paul Wilson
Sunday May 29, 2005
The Observer
Purists and pedants alike are already busy revising the last few days of history. Liverpool might have thought they had just completed the greatest European Cup final comeback of all time, but even as the trophy goes into permanent residence at Anfield the achievement is being sniffed at because the new European Cup is not the old European Cup, the Champions League is no longer for champions and Rafael Benítez's players have yet to prove they are even the best team on Merseyside.
Some critics seem to want it both ways. The glaring fault of the old format was that although the competition was open only to champions, the champions of Spain, to pick an obvious example, would find it fairly straightforward to eliminate the champions of lesser leagues. To pine for that sort of elitism just because Liverpool could only reach fifth place in the Premiership this season seems ridiculous. In 1985, the last time Liverpool reached the final under the old system, they travelled to Brussels for their ill-fated meeting with Juventus by virtue of having disposed of Lech Poznan, Benfica, Austria Vienna and Panathinaikos. That was it. Four ties, eight legs, all against teams from lesser leagues, and Liverpool were in the final. No one carped at the time, yet now they are carping because Liverpool have managed to put out the champions of England and the top two teams in Serie A .
Nostalgia for the noble origins of the competition is permissible, just as memories of Alfredo di Stefano and Ferenc Puskás do not deserve to be dimmed just because television money and G14 greed have altered the original concept beyond all recognition. What needs to be acknowledged is that the European Cup as presently constructed is vastly more difficult to win than it used to be, precisely because it now contains all the leading teams from all the leading leagues in Europe. If you can stay the course and come out on top of that lot, especially if you happen to have turned round 3-0 down in the final, you ought to be greeted with cheers and not raspberries.
It is undeniable too, and this process has accelerated with the much-needed pruning of the second group stage within the last couple of years, that the competition has become more democratic. This is amazing considering the Champions League was specifically designed to preserve the status quo in Europe and to ensure the biggest clubs made the most money and enjoyed the best chance of success, but the trend established by Porto last season has now been followed by Liverpool in a competition that English clubs have played a major part in this season. Suddenly this is a competition any properly organised and ambitious team can win. With the greatest respect to Liverpool's history, this season they entered the contest as unfancied minnows, and finished it the most unlikely of giant-killers. This is the formula that makes the FA Cup so attractive, writ large across Europe.
In any sport, in any era, all a competitor can do is play by the the rules as they stand and beat the opponents presented. Liverpool did that, fair and square. In terms of determination, application and character their fifth European Cup is at least on a par with any of their previous four, and Benítez has proved an inspirational leader in a remarkably short time. End of story, except that by playing the rules as they presently stand Liverpool will find themselves excluded next season. Only an organisation as dim as Uefa could simultaneously invite non-champions into a Champions League while turning their back on real champions they have just travelled all the way to Istanbul to crown. Credibility has never been a Uefa strong point, but even by their standards it would be ludicrous to stand on ceremony now, just when their competition is more credible than ever.
Indeed, he's already looking forward to next season and the possibility of bringing more silverware to Anfield.
. Yup.....you can call the domestic campaign a disaster but this season has to go down as being the best for liverpool in the past few years 
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