Just the very mention of the word Istanbul will always unleash a whole range of emotions for Liverpool supporters.
It may be not far short of 18 years ago now but the Reds’ unlikely and exhilarating run to the Champions League final having seen off the might of Juventus and Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea, the extraordinary fightback from three goals down against Carlo Ancelotti’s star-studded AC Milan and the wild celebrations which followed are seared forever into the fabric of LFC and, for all the glories that went before and would later follow under Jurgen Klopp, May 2005 will be revered forever and is regarded by many as arguably Anfield’s most iconic triumph.
Emotions inevitably are mixed however for some people: those (of little faith) who gave up at 0-3 and left the ground or pub ; the regular match-goers who for whatever reason couldn’t make it over to the Turkish capital and were left to rue missing the experience of a lifetime ; and, sadly, some members of Liverpool squad who might not have kicked a ball in the Ataturk Stadium but played important roles in helping Rafa Benitez's side get there and were shabbily treated in the aftermath and missed the homecoming parade, including one local lad who battled serious injury setbacks to even get to wear the shirt of his boyhood team but was so disheartened at what happened to him and his mates it hastened his departure from the club he loved.
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Ormskirk-born and raised Stephen Warnock grew up in a family of Evertonians but there was only ever one club on Merseyside he dreamed of playing for. “My father and brother used to be Everton fans, they used to have season tickets and as a boy I sometimes went with them - although I used to support all the away teams!”, he recalled. “Then a friend told my parents he had a Liverpool ticket if I wanted to join him, and I remember just standing on the Kop, the atmosphere, the singing. Everything about it was just amazing. Afterwards I went to as many games as I could, whenever the ticket came up and I had the opportunity to go. I used to sit on the Kop next to Leon Osman, who used to be a Liverpool fan. Myself and Leon used to play against each other when we were younger as we live in the same area, so we used to go to games together. I think I was just addicted to the Kop because I found the atmosphere and everything about it amazing.”
Having turned down - to the dismay of his dad and brother - an offer to join Everton at the age of 10, he talented young left-back was soon living his dream by training with the Reds after being spotted and recommended by one of the most celebrated former Liverpool players to play in his position, two-time European Cup winning legend, Alan Kennedy. "I remember Stephen being at one of my soccer schools and he really stood out as being a brilliant prospect”, the Geordie recalled. “I got on the phone to Steve Heighway and Roy Evans and said you have got to take a look at this boy. I really like him as a left-back. He has a great left foot and can pass the ball and get forward.”
Working his way up the ranks within the Liverpool academy and the England youth set up, where he won international recognition with the schoolboy and under-16s sides, Warnock had to show real character and determination before making his Anfield breakthrough after suffering three leg breaks in his teenage years. “We shared the pain and the agony he endured”, former Reds academy director Steve Heighway remembered. “Watching him go through six months of rehabilitation from a broken leg, then watch him break his leg immediately again and go through a further six months rehab and then get another slight break after that...I don't think people realise what he has achieved."
Having put his injury problems behind him, the 22-year-old Warnock was sent out on loan to Coventry City in the 2003/04 season and, after winning the Sky Blues Fans’ Player of the Season award, returned to Anfield and made his first appearance for the Reds as a late substitute for Steven Gerrard in Rafa Benitez’s first game as Liverpool manager, the 2-0 victory away to Austrians’ AK Graz in the first leg of the Reds’ Champions League qualification play-off.
“That moment meant everything because I got bad injuries from the age of 15 till 19”, Warnock recalled. “Then going out on loan, I knew I wasn’t fit enough to train and play with the first team at Liverpool. Playing my first game just took me back to standing on the Kop for the first time, falling in love with the club and thinking, ‘I hope one day I get to play here, I hope I’ll get to play for Liverpool one day.’ Once I ran onto that pitch, I thought, ‘That’s my dream, I’ve tried my hardest to get here and I’ve done it.’ It’s probably one of the best days I ever had, one of my proudest moments.”
A full Premier League debut followed at Bolton Wanderers before the end of the month and weeks later he was a Champions League starter for the Reds in Greece in the group stage away fixture against Olympiacos. With the experience of John Arne Riise and Djimi Traore still usually preferred by Benitez on the left, much of Warnock’s involvement for the majority of the season came as a substitute or when one of his seniors was unavailable although he started all of the Reds’ early League Cup games against Millwall, Middlesborough and Tottenham and, having featured as a substitute in the two-legged semi-final victory over Watford, was disappointed not to make the bench for the extra-time defeat to Chelsea in the final in Cardiff.
Ten days later however Warnock hoped he had turned the corner when an injury to Traore prompted Benitez to put him in at left-back for the second leg of Liverpool’s last-16 Champions League clash away at Bayer Leverkusen. The Reds had been three goals clear courtesy of Luis Garcia, Riise and Dietmar Hamann going into stoppage time of the Anfield first leg only for a stoppage time spill from goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek to allow França to pilfer an away goal and put the tie back in the balance with memories still fresh of Gerard Houllier’s side’s shocking late collapse at Leverkusen’s BayArena only three seasons earlier.
The German side had topped their group to reach the knock-out stages, beating Real Madrid, Roma and Dynamo Kiev at home in the process, but there was to be no repeat with Benitez’s men matching the first-leg scoreline to stroll into the last eight 6-2 on aggregate and Warnock putting in what he felt was the finest performance of his whole career, reflecting “I’ve been fortunate to play some amazing games, but the most perfect game I felt I ever played was for Liverpool against Leverkusen away in the knockout stages of the Champions League. We won the game 3-1 and I believe everything went very well for me that night against an opponent that was having a great run.”
He kept his place for the goalless draw with Blackburn Rovers a week later and the following Sunday’s vital Merseyside derby against Everton at Anfield, playing his part in a gritty and important victory as the Reds dug in after Milan Baros’ second-half sending-off to secure a heartening thee points which kept their hopes alive of chasing down David Moyes’ Toffees in the race for a top-four finish. Warnock was back on the bench for the quarter-final against Juventus but made four more starts in the Premier League as Liverpool’s season build to its European crescendo, and was named on the substitutes bench for both legs of the epic semi-final victory over Chelsea.
So, while obviously delighted, the young defender felt he was in on merit when Benitez’s squad for the final in Istanbul against AC Milan was announced with him in it, and was left devastated and angry after being told shortly afterwards his name had been included in error and in fact Spanish defender Josemi - who had made only one appearance since mid-December, in the final league fixture against Aston Villa - was chosen instead of him.
"When I hear Istanbul described as being one of Liverpool's greatest ever nights, it leaves a very sour taste," he admitted. "It still hurts now, actually - the way it was handled was absolutely shocking. I was in the original squad when the team sheet up was put up at the training ground a few days before the game, and I was absolutely ecstatic. I went home and told my parents to get their flights booked. They were over the moon. Then a couple of hours later, I got a call from Rafa Benitez's assistant, Pako Ayesteran, saying there had been a mistake. Josemi was in instead. Even that was poor - the fact that Rafa did not have the bottle to ring me himself. My head went. I was angry. I wasn’t given a reason why I was out other than a mistake had been made. Rafa put Josemi in the squad. He’d been out injured for most of the season. None of my family travelled to Istanbul. They were gutted for me. Boarding the flight on the morning of the game with the other lads not involved, I was still fuming. I’m a local lad — a Liverpool supporter. Not many players get to be involved in a Champions League final.”
Warnock and the other players not involved in the match day squad were positioned high up in the stands as Paolo Maldini’s first-minute opener and Hernan Crespo's brace gave the Italians’ a seemingly-unassailable first-half advantage and, like everybody else, watched agog at the extraordinary six-minute whirlwind of goals from Steven Gerrard, Vladimir Smicer and Xabi Alonso which drew the Reds level before Jerzy Dudek’s heroics at the end of extra time and in the penalty shoot-out ensured the European Cup was coming home to Anfield for keeps. Yet Warnock’s pride and joy in what his team-mates had achieved for the club he had supported all his life was understandably compromised by the sense of loss he felt at being frozen out of what he and everyone knew was one of the greatest moments in Liverpool’s history.
“Don't get me wrong, it was never to the point where I wanted them to lose, because Liverpool were my club and they were my team-mates out there”, Warnock said. “But it hurts when you are not involved and I was sitting there in the stands thinking about it the whole time. You almost switch off from what is happening in the game. A dozen of us were in the stands and we were trying to get onto the pitch after we had won but the stewards were getting in the way, even though we all had our tracksuits on. Fernando Morientes stepped forward and tried to convince them and behind him, a load of fans were saying, ‘Do you know who they are?’ Fernando had won the competition a couple of times before with Real Madrid but the stewards didn’t recognise him. Fortunately, one of our backroom staff spotted us and sorted it out. That was when Rafa came over to me and sort of apologised but it was a half-apology. He was caught up in the moment but I was not in the mood at all and still angry with him. I was seething. I just thought there was no respect shown to me as a player or as a person from the manager. I was delighted for the lads and when each goal went in, I celebrated. But on a personal level, I felt like something had been taken away from me.
“Maybe the experience sat differently with me compared to other players because I’d grown up supporting the club. It wasn’t a nice feeling. It was the way it was handled. You’ll struggle to find me on any of the photographs when the trophy was lifted. I stood at the back. I felt like I wasn’t involved, which is sad really because I’d played in six of the games on the way to the final. I guess I had played a role. But it didn’t feel right. In the changing rooms, I stood out of the way. As bad as it sounds, I felt sorry for myself. I was still p***** off. I was seething. It was different for other players.
“The parade didn’t help my mood, either. Quite a few of us had played in big games during that Champions League campaign. Neil Mellor and Florent Sinama-Pongolle had scored really important goals. But we flew back on a different plane and the wives were allowed on the first-team plane instead of us which was shocking. We got back to John Lennon Airport later than the team and, when we landed, the victory parade had already started. You could not get to the bus because of the crowds, so I just went home. That was the moment I made my mind up that I had to leave the club. I didn’t enjoy that summer. It was only when we came back for pre-season that we got an apology. There was an offer from Blackburn that fell through but I’d made my mind up to go.”
Despite his deep upset at how his breakthrough season at Anfield had ended, Warnock would sign a contract extension the following August and went on to match his tally of 30 appearances in all competitions from the previous campaign, starting the World Club Championship final defeat to Brazilians Sao Paulo in Tokyo and scoring the first - and what would be only - goal of his senior Liverpool career by gleefully firing home in front of the Kop to seal a 5-1 victory over Fulham the following March. But Benitez’s rotation policy prevented him ever fully establishing himself in the side and, feeling the only way he would ever get the regular game-time he craved would be to leave Anfield, he joined Blackburn for an undisclosed fee believed to be in the region of £1.5m in January 2007. “I’ll always be grateful to Rafa for giving me my debut and for my 67 appearances for Liverpool, but I just felt that I had to leave to play more regularly”, Warnock said.
“I knew I was better than what I was showing. I knew from my time at Coventry there were times I’d have a bad game but follow it with six or seven great ones. At Liverpool even if I had a good game I knew I probably wasn’t going to start the next one and it wasn’t just the team, it was the same with the squad as well. It used to go up on a Friday afternoon and you wouldn’t even know who was going to be in it. It was comical sometimes. No one would have a clue why certain people were not included but the manager would keep his reasons to himself. Then Blackburn came in and they said if my form is good I’ll play every game. I got fed up of training every week and not knowing whether I’d be in the squad or not because there was myself, John Arne Riise and Djimi Traoré. It was frustrating because I missed so much football breaking my leg back then, and all I wanted to do was play football. Leaving Liverpool was tough because it was my club, I grew up supporting them, but I knew it was the right thing to go to Blackburn. When I joined Blackburn I had a different feeling, I was the manager’s choice, the player he wanted to sign.”
The 25-year-old soon nailed down a regular place at Ewood Park and made a poignant return to April 2009 when, with Rovers the Reds’ opponents for the closest match to the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster in which ultimately 97 Liverpool supporters were unlawfully killed, he laid a floral wreath in front of the Kop before the match as a mark of respect from the Lancashire club. He joined Aston Villa for £6m that summer and a year later, after helping Martin O’Neill’s side to the League Cup final, was named in the final England squad for that summer’s World Cup in South Africa although did not play.
O’Neill left Villa Park later the following summer and was replaced by former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier who Warnock had worked under years before for the Reds reserves but a falling-out led to the defender being told he would never play for the club again and led to the possibility of a return to Anfield. “Kenny Dalglish became the new manager at Liverpool and he asked me to go back and everything was getting agreed and near sorted,” Warnock recalled. “Right at the last minute of the transfer window, Aston Villa asked for more money and Liverpool weren’t willing to pay. The deal fell through and I always thought if you are not bothered about me as person or a player, you’d want me just to go and play football. I believe Houllier had something to do with blocking the deal, I ended up staying the rest of the season not kicking a ball till he left. At Liverpool he always picked the French players ahead of me in the reserves team, but I never really spoke to him back then to be honest.”
After a loan spell with Bolton Wanderers, Warnock joined Leeds United in 2013 and spent two seasons at Elland Road before finishing his playing days with spells at Derby County, Wigan Athletic, Burton Albion and Bradford City on loan before retiring at the age of 36 in 2018. He has since carved out a successful career for himself in the football media as an intelligent and articulate pundit with Sky Sports and LFC TV where his love for the Reds shines through but, like many footballers, struggled at first to adapt to life after playing and spoke candidly in August 2021 about how mental health problems - impacted also by the breakdown of his marriage - almost led him to take his own life.
“I’d planned everything, I knew how I was going to do it”, he admitted. “I remember one time I was driving down the motorway and thinking this would be an easy way out. I was on the phone to my sister in law and she said: 'Don’t you f****** dare.' I pulled over and managed to get myself together, but she was ringing me constantly afterwards to make sure I was OK. At the end of my career I felt empty, I didn’t have a purpose. It was scary. I actually looked back and thought ‘that was pretty s***’ - there was so much more I could have achieved. I know many other players who have retired who say the same. A lot of my career just passed me by in a haze. It was gone in the blink of an eye.”
If you’re struggling to cope with mental health issues, there are ways you can access help.
Samaritans (116 123) operates a 24-hour service available every day of the year. If you prefer to write down how you’re feeling, or if you’re worried about being overheard on the phone, you can email Samaritans at jo@samaritans.org
