In fact, he's too honest to even say he ever had a soft spot from afar for the club he now runs. He is a Real Madrid man, always has been. The Kop, 'You'll Never Walk Alone', the Shankly statue, Hillsborough, European nights at Anfield; it's all new to him. But maybe that's why it's been so fun for us Liverpool fans to have him on our bench this season. As much as he tries to win us over with his team's football on the pitch and his attitude off it ("He never used injuries as an excuse when no one would have blamed him if he had," Ian St John said recently), we try even more so to impress him from the stands. We want him to feel special and we want him to feel that we are special. Either way, the first season was a resounding success, judging by the traditional end-of-season lap of honour, after victory over Aston Villa confirmed that the Reds missed out on fourth place by just three points.