Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain believes there is a ‘what’s next?’ mentality throughout the Liverpool squad that means they will not rest after their first Premier League title.
John Barnes has a great story from his first season with the Reds in 1987/88, which ended with another First Division title for the club.
That was ninth time Liverpool had lifted the trophy in the past 12 years, and by that point the feeling was all too familiar for Ronnie Moran.
“Ronnie Moran came in and had the medals in a plastic bag,” Barnes recalled of the first domestic title of his career.
“He put them on the table and said: ‘Four weeks till pre-season lads’. That made a huge impression on me.”
The 1980s were the most successful period in the club’s history, and the winning mentality was instilled by the likes of Moran, Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness.
It is part of Liverpool’s ethos, and now Jurgen Klopp has restored the club to the pinnacle of English football—along with, of course, being current champions of the world—that is shining through again.
Speaking to the club’s official website, Oxlade-Chamberlain explained how the squad are taking the same approach, saying “why can’t we do this again and win more and more?”
“I think we’ve all had a talk and spoke about it, that this is amazing and we need to take this moment in and realise what we’ve achieved,” the midfielder said.
“But at the same time we’ve still got time left so why can’t we do this again and win more and more?
“Then in 20 years hopefully we’ll have a few seasons to talk about. So I think that’s what we are more focused on doing now.”
There is already evidence of this in action, with Liverpool recovering from their heartbreak in Kyiv to win the European Cup in 2019—their first in 14 years—and then a year later lifting the Premier League.
Oxlade-Chamberlain used this as an example of the Reds’ ‘what’s next?’ mentality, with the objective now to win “multiple trophies” under Klopp.
“We won the Champions League, then you go away on holiday, you come back and it’s happened, but you don’t think about that now,” he continued.
“It’s gone and you think about those things in years to come, but whilst we are here and we are still playing, and whilst we are still responsible to perform for this football club, we can only think about: ‘What’s the next thing we can go and win?’.
“So I don’t know what I’ll think about it, what people think about this season [in the future].
“The only thing in my head and the rest of the boys’ heads is what can we do next season?
“That’s the only thing we can think about now and if we have that mindset every year, we give ourselves more hope and more chance of having more nice conversations in 20 years’ time about multiple seasons and hopefully multiple trophies.
“That’s what we’ve got to focus on. That would make everyone happy involved with this club—and that’s what we look forward to trying to do.”
