Al Jazeera Correspondent

John Aldridge: ‘The only thing we had was football’

John Aldridge, a former Liverpool FC player, describes how the landscape of British football has changed.

Britain’s football clubs were once at the centre of their communities, but a generation of fans who grew up watching football in the 1970s and 1980s now feels disconnected from their teams. Liverpool’s anthem is You’ll Never Walk Alone, but has this franchise left their supporters behind? 

John Aldridge, a former Liverpool FC player, grew up supporting the club and became a crowd favourite during the time he spent playing for the team between 1987 and 1989.

In an interview with Al Jazeera’s Andrew Richardson, he speaks about his generation of football players and fans, rivalry between the clubs, and the changing face of British football.

“You look at the dark days of Liverpool … unemployment was rife, we had nothing, all you had was get to Anfield or get to Goodison and watch our teams and that would lift you through the bad times,” Aldridge says.

“And whenever we won a cup – which thankfully we were then – people walked around with a smile on their face [although] the city was in a mess, remember the riots down in Parliament Street, and that was just what everyone was going through. The only thing we had was football.”

For more watch the 2011 Al Jazeera Correspondent documentary Net Losses: Searching for the Soul of British Football