In the summer of 1987, Liverpool signed two players who would form an axis of excellence in one of the most exciting teams in history that stormed to the league title while sweeping aside all before them along the way.
Anfield has seen its fair share of great sides, but during the 1987/88 season, Liverpool produced a breathtaking brand of football thanks, in no small part, to John Barnes and Peter Beardsley; who would form one of the most explosive and exciting relationships the game had ever seen.
The Reds scored 87 goals that season on their way to amassing a tally of 90 points, hitting four past their opponents on no less than nine separate occasions and scoring five twice. They had the title sewn up with four games of the season left; but, in truth, it was all over long before that.
When Kenny Dalglish was appointed player-manager in 1985, following the resignation of Joe Fagan, his reign at the club couldn’t have started any better, winning the double at the first attempt; but there was no denying the fact that the group of players he had inherited was on the wane.
The side was ageing quickly and in need of major surgery, something that became clear the following season when Liverpool ended the campaign empty handed; prompting the relatively new boss to bring two of the most exciting talents in the English game to Anfield.
Barnes was signed from Watford for £900,000 that June while Peter Beardsley joined from Newcastle United a few weeks later for a record-breaking £1.9 million, and although far from being unknown quantities, nobody could have guessed just what an impact they would have on the club.
With the potent goal threat of John Aldridge - who would replace the outgoing Ian Rush - along with the services of his former Oxford United teammate Ray Houghton, Barnes and Beardsley completed a quartet that many felt was the best Merseyside had seen since John, Paul, George and Ringo.
The tantalising prospect of the newly signed pair playing alongside the likes of Aldridge, Houghton, Hansen, Nicol and McMahon, meant that expectation was high and Liverpool didn’t disappoint, setting off like a train and winning their opening game against a strong Arsenal outfit on a gloriously sunny day at Highbury.
But building work under the Kop meant that the home faithful would be kept waiting to see their new-look side in the flesh as their first three games would all be played away from home. Even so, that didn’t deter Dalglish’s men and as they lined-up for their first game of the season at Anfield that September they had already won two out of three and scored seven goals.
And when Barnes and Beardsley combined emphatically once again to demolish Queens Park Rangers 4-0 that October - in what Barnes himself describes as one of the greatest performances of his career - it fired Liverpool to the top of the table, a position from which they would not be budged for the rest of the season.
They also combined well for England...
That win over QPR was also one of four consecutive games that Liverpool hit four that autumn, having also thrashed Newcastle, Derby and Portsmouth in their previous three matches; all part of a stunning run that saw them go unbeaten in the league until March, when they were eventually defeated by Everton.
But the finest demonstration of Liverpool’s superiority undoubtedly came when they faced Nottingham Forest at Anfield that April in a performance that encapsulated the devastating way they had dominated throughout the entire campaign as they played Brian Clough’s men off the park.
Liverpool thrashed Forest 5-0 but it could have been double that as Barnes and Beardsley tormented the Forest defence along with the striking prowess of Aldridge - who scored 31 goals that season - in a performance that the great Tom Finney described as: “One of the finest exhibitions of football I’ve seen.”
A home win over Tottenham just ten days later confirmed the inevitable and Liverpool were crowned champions. They had won the league by nine points and had it not been for a Manchester United side, who did well to hang on to their coat-tails, it could have been over before Christmas.
Liverpool's frontline that season was simply sensational and whether it was the searing pace and skill of Barnes, who ghosted down the wing, while cutting inside to devastating effect, or the creative guile and individual brilliance of Beardsley, who regularly terrified defences, they seemed to have an answer to anything their opponents threw at them; leaving Kopites, who probably believed they had seen it all down the years, to think again.
