Liverpool are officially the most successful club in England once again, and here Peter Bolster charts their path to knocking Manchester United back off their perch.
In the 19th century, it was the penny press – cheap, mass-circulated newspapers – that helped football take root.
They printed the rules, spread the fixtures, and turned a working-class pastime into a national obsession. The media didn’t just report football. It helped shape it.
Fast-forward to 1992, and history repeated itself. This time, it wasn’t newspapers driving the change – it was Sky Sports. With the birth of the Premier League came a reshaped vision of English football.
But Sky was new to the game – a fledgling network, inexperienced in football coverage, and in need of a club that could deliver both drama and dominance.
Manchester United became that club.
“Manchester United were Sky Sports”
United had the manager, the fanbase, and the commercial appeal. Sky had the platform. The more United won, the more airtime they received – and the more that airtime reinforced their reputation.
Gary Neville once joked that “Manchester United were Sky Sports.” He wasn’t far off. It was a self-reinforcing loop: success fed exposure, and exposure fed success.
At the time, no English club had reached a European Cup final since 1985, a legacy of the Heysel ban.
Let’s get one thing straight: when the Premier League began in 1992, Manchester United were not the biggest club in England. They hadn’t won a league title since 1967 – a 25-year drought.
They trailed Liverpool by 11 league championships and had just one European Cup to their name. United were a big club. But Liverpool were the club.
While United were still building towards a breakthrough, Liverpool had already lived theirs. Eighteen league titles. Four European Cups. A treble under Joe Fagan before the word was fashionable.
And yet, with the arrival of the Premier League, that dominance was quietly sidelined. A new narrative took hold.
By 2002, United chief executive Peter Kenyon could publicly declare, “we are the biggest club in the world.” It wasn’t just bravado. It was branding.
Under Ed Woodward, that branding became policy: “Playing performance doesn’t really have a meaningful impact on what we can do on the commercial side.”
Pundits like Gary Neville helped carry the message – emotionally, instinctively – even as the trophies began to dry up. But this wasn’t greatness rooted in legacy.
It was greatness built on timing, television and repetition. That narrative has since collapsed.
The forgotten champions
The Premier League was pitched as a fresh start, and in that version of history, football began in 1992.
Liverpool’s legacy – the Boot Room, the European Cups, the 18 league titles – was boxed away like an old VHS tape, while the Premier League sold a new, glossier version of the game. New heroes had to fit the modern brand.
United got the spotlight. Liverpool were cast into the shadows. But football remembers. And history has a way of reasserting itself.
Liverpool have now not only drawn level with United on 20 top-flight league titles – spanning both the First Division and Premier League eras – they have long since doubled them in European Cups, and now surpassed them in total honours and global presence.
This isn’t just a return to the summit. It’s a reclamation of truth.
Two clubs, two futures
As Liverpool’s players paraded their 20th title through a sea of red, Manchester United were on a different kind of tour. A 15th-place finish left them without European football and scrambling to fill the financial void.
To do so, they flew to Southeast Asia for a post-season commercial tour. A 1-0 defeat to the ASEAN All-Stars said it all: disjointed on the pitch, derided off it, and desperate to stay relevant.
It was a striking contrast. Same league. Different planets.
Liverpool’s rise is about more than silverware. It’s about how that silverware was won.
United’s golden era was defined by one man: Sir Alex Ferguson. Liverpool’s success has spanned generations – from Bill Shankly to Bob Paisley, from Joe Fagan to Sir Kenny Dalglish, from Rafa Benitez to Jurgen Klopp, and now Arne Slot‘s title-winning arrival.
And the world is watching. In 2024/25, Liverpool were the most-watched Premier League team globally, drawing over 665 million viewers across all competitions.
Digitally, they lead the league, with more than 11 million YouTube subscribers and over a billion social media engagements this season.
They topped the table in shirt sales in 2023/24, generating an estimated £122 million – just ahead of Manchester United. And from August 2025, they return to Adidas in a kit deal worth over £60 million per year.
Liverpool are no longer just the most successful club in England. By almost every measure, they are the biggest.
The blueprint for success
Liverpool’s dominance isn’t just visible on the pitch. It’s embedded in how the club thinks, scouts and builds.
Behind the scenes, Liverpool’s rise isn’t just cultural – it’s forensic.
Michael Edwards built a model where data didn’t replace intuition, but sharpened it. His team advocated for Sadio Mane over Mario Gotze, Mohamed Salah over Julian Brandt – decisions driven not by name, but by numbers.
He sold Philippe Coutinho for £142 million, a player once central to the side, and used that money to bring in Virgil van Dijk and Alisson – both identified through analytics as the spine Liverpool lacked.
Ian Graham, the architect of Liverpool’s analytics revolution, helped quantify what made players tick beneath the surface. His models looked beyond goals and assists, measuring how each action increased the likelihood of scoring.
That insight led Liverpool to undervalued stars like Andy Robertson and warned them off poor stylistic fits like Christian Benteke. It wasn’t just recruitment – it was system-matching, future-proofing and risk management.
Now Richard Hughes carries that baton forward. At Bournemouth, he signed players like Nathan Ake, David Brooks and Dominic Solanke before their value exploded, showing a knack for spotting potential before others did.
His recruitment was smart, surgical – a smaller club punching above its weight through planning, not spending.
At Liverpool, he entered a system already built on rigour and data discipline. He’s not just here to continue the model – he’s here to evolve it.
With Edwards back in an overseeing role, Hughes in charge of sporting strategy and a deeply embedded analytics department still influencing every major footballing decision, Liverpool are no longer just reacting to the present.
They’re shaping the future.
This isn’t short-term glory. It’s not another cycle of rise and fall. It’s infrastructure. Vision. A football club where the football decisions make sense – and where success isn’t just possible, but probable.
Liverpool aren’t just back. They’ve made staying at the top part of the plan.
This Means More
Their 20th league title wasn’t just a milestone – it was a statement.
When Van Dijk hoisted the Premier League trophy at Anfield, the celebration erupted not from scripts or schedules, but from the soul.
Flags hung from windows. Red smoke drifted through the air. Supporters clung to rooftops, to the Shankly Gates, to anything they could scale. Flares blazed. Songs echoed from every corner.
The scenes were wild, beautiful, and unmistakably Scouse – chaos and unity woven into one unforgettable moment.
Even Sky Sports didn’t need a narrative. All they had to do was roll the cameras.
The fans had already spoken. Hours after the title was sealed, The Anfield Wrap placed a billboard outside Old Trafford that read: “Manchester – just 37 miles to the country’s most successful football club.”
It was needle, yes. But it was also a declaration of fact.
Because this isn’t just about one season. It’s about the truth finally rising through the noise. Liverpool have reclaimed their place – in trophies, in culture, in soul.
They don’t need to shout. The record speaks. The model holds. The plan is working.
This isn’t the end of a rivalry. It’s the end of an illusion. Liverpool aren’t just back. They’re built to stay.
