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As the Liverpool players strolled around Anfield for the final time that season, their efforts were given the rich applause they deserved.
There would be no Premier League title to mark a campaign that saw just one defeat in 38, but Reds fans were firm in their appreciation.
A 2-0 win over Wolves on May 12, 2019, brought them up to a remarkable 97 points, but still, the winners’ medals would elude them.
Manchester City, down at Brighton, had got the win they needed to bring up 98, instead, and Jurgen Klopp’s Reds would be forced to settle for second.
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It was hardly a glorious failure, the Reds had simply been marginally bested in arguably the most highly-strung title race of the Premier League era.
Neither team granted an inch during a thrilling run-in that was trademarked by its consistent excellence from both teams.
But while there were no collective honors to be handed out 12 months ago, there were three shiny individual accolades on display for Klopp’s players.
Trophies that suggested a glittering future was on the horizon.
Sadio Mane’s brace against Wolves took him up to 22 Premier League goals for the season alongside his team-mate Mohamed Salah as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s double for Arsenal at Burnley saw him edge up to the same total.
(Image: Photo by John Powell / Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
The Premier League’s Golden Boot, then, would be shared three ways.
“Auba scored twice again? At Burnley? Wow, I never would have expected that,” Klopp said. “So all my players, huh?”
As Mane and Salah shared the honor with their respective golden baubles, Alisson Becker was given the goalkeeper’s equivalent.
The £ 65m Brazilian had marked his first season in England with the Golden Glove having kept 21 clean sheets and just 22 goals shipped. Alisson became the first Liverpool goalkeeper to win the award since Pepe Reina 11 years earlier.
So while there was to be no glorious climax to the Premier League season for the Liverpool squad, as a whole, the three honors dished out would provide more than a hint of what was to come.
The signs were there for all to see at Anfield a year ago. Even if they were only further pointers to what was already well established – Liverpool were on the right path with Klopp.
(Image: John Powell / Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Less than three weeks later, the Reds would bring their season to a close as champions of Europe, beating Tottenham 2-0 in the final in Madrid.
It would be a fitting end to a campaign that deserved to be rewarded with tangible silverware for the entire squad.
It would prove to be the basis for the success that has followed.
“It was big to get over the line and add that first one together as a team and that then gives you all the tools to go on and push on,” said James Milner of the success in the Spanish capital on June 1.
Two months later, Liverpool would best Chelsea in a penalty shootout in Istanbul to lift the UEFA Super Cup.
The Anfield trophy room would be furnished further in December when Klopp’s players won Liverpool’s first-ever Club World Cup in Qatar.
A hard-fought couple of games against Monterrey and Flamengo saw the Reds return to Merseyside as world champions. More silver for the cabinet.
It would just be the prelude to what followed, however, as Liverpool continued to emerge clear at the top of English football.
A 25-point lead was established before the suspension of Premier League football in March. Two months on, with just six more needed, the Reds’ hopes of a first title in three decades hang in the air.
By now, there should be an acceptance that ‘null and void’ is not happening, though.
Whether football resumes or not in this country, the only thing denying Liverpool the title now is an unspeakable collapse in the final nine games.
Given the Reds have shilled away just five points in the previous 29 games, the trophy engravers are once again on stand-by.
Unlike a year ago, Liverpool will have the winners’ medals their efforts deserve.
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