By Adam Crafton
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Victor Moses has arrived at Anfield with a twinkle in his eye and a stark warning: Liverpool are finally ready to win the Premier League title.
For a club that has failed to win a league title for over twenty-three years, so often inhibited by the burden of history, it is quite the assertion.
For those into their history, 1990 was some year. Abroad, the reunification of Germany, the release of Nelson Mandela and the beginning of the Gulf War transformed the spectre of world politics.
Confident: Victor Moses, who was speaking at an EA Sports FIFA 14 launch event, believes Liverpool can win the Premier League title this season
Ideal start: Moses, right, scored on his Liverpool debut in the 2-2 draw with Swansea
Winning memory: (left-right) Liverpool's Ronnie Rosenthal, Ian Rush, Ronnie Whelan, Alan Hansen and John Barnes celebrate winning the league title in 1990
Historic moment: Nelson Mandela, centre, was released from prison in 1990
Key moment: Part of the Berlin wall is demolished in 1989, with Germany being unified in 1990, the same year as Liverpool won their last league title
In the United Kingdom, we had the dismissal of Margaret Thatcher. This was the season of Michael Knighton's keepy-uppies on the Old Trafford pitch, as Manchester United finished 13th.
Added to Liverpool's last title win in May 1990, their tenth in fifteen years, these may have been happy days on Merseyside.
Moses would be born in the December. He has never seen Liverpool win the title. So why the confidence?
'Look at the way we have started so well,' Moses explained, speaking to Sportsmail at a launch event for EA SPORTS FIFA 14, 'We're still unbeaten and there are enough quality players here to win games and help us win the Premier League.
'A lot of people are saying Liverpool can be in the top four this season but we believe in ourselves as footballers. Not just me, but the other players, we are confident we can be looking beyond the top four.'
New colours: Moses, left, is on loan from Chelsea
I'm back! Luis Suarez laughs with Moses in Liverpool training
Top of the table after three wins and a draw, including a victory over Manchester United, and with last season's 30-goal talisman Luis Suarez - described by Moses as a 'top lad and an amazing striker' - still to return, the winger may not be alone in wondering out loud whether this could be Liverpool's year.
As the Manchester sides adapt to life under new regimes and the divorce lawyers ink up their pens as Jose Mourinho's marriage of convenience at Chelsea faces teething problems, Liverpool sense an opportunity.
'This year is a lot different. If you look at the way the table is at the moment, anyone can win the league. It's not only about two teams that have always been up there, so why not Liverpool?'
Indeed, why not? Brendan Rodgers has quietly constructed a formidable side, ushering out the misjudgements of Kenny Dalglish's second coming and strengthening shrewdly.
On the ball: Moses in action for parent club Chelsea, left, and former employers Wigan
Focussed: Suarez is intent on hitting the ground running for the Reds
In the transfer market, Rodgers has found a balance between exciting ball-players, like Moses, Coutinho and Luis Alberto while also adding wisely to the defence, with newly-arrived goalkeeper Simon Mignolet joined by three summer signings at centre-half: Kolo Toure, Tiago Ilori and Mamadou Sakho.
For the career of Victor Moses, it marks a three hundred and sixty degree turn, for this summer's loan move from Chelsea was not the first occasion he had been approached by Brendan Rodgers.
Their relationship can be traced back almost eight years, when a 14-year-old Moses, then on the books of Crystal Palace, became a target for the Chelsea academy, where Rodgers managed the youth team.
A move was agreed, only for Moses to suddenly reconsider.
'I've known the gaffer from when I was 14 and he wanted me to go to Chelsea when I was only little, still a teenager.
Reunion: Moses, seen here celebrating his goal against Swansea, nearly joined Chelsea when Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers was manager of Chelsea's academy
Man with the plan: Rodgers' Reds have started the season well
Upcoming release: FIFA 14 is available to buy from September 27 but can be pre-ordered
'We had a chat and I was expected to move there. He phoned and I told him I was going to go.
Moses breaks into a boyish grin and begins to giggle: 'But then I had another think about it and didn't turn up. I just didn't go. I didn't ring him or anything, I just didn't go and stayed at Palace.
'I thought there was no point going to a bigger club like that and not getting in the first team, not playing.'
Perhaps Rodgers secretly admired the strength of will from Moses, who had the courage to shy away from the bright lights of Stamford Bridge and continue his development.
So has the manager forgiven Moses for his indecision?
'I think so! I was still little then. It was schoolboy stuff. I was fourteen then. I started playing first-team when I was sixteen at Palace and I started playing in games against the gaffer's teams. I played against Reading and then Swansea so I played against him twice. I think I scored against them the second time as well! He didn't mention it. He let me off!'
While Rodgers has finally landed his man, there can be no second chance for England, after Moses opted to play for his native Nigeria in 2012.
Moses arrived in South London as an asylum-seeker at the age of 11, after his parents were tragically killed in religious riots in Kaduna.
Fledgling: Moses (centre), celebrating against Reading, first caught the eye for Crystal Palace
He went on to play for England in every age group from under-16 through to under-21 level. Last year, though, having heard little from Fabio Capello or the English FA, Moses decided to commit to Nigeria and starred in the African Cup on Nations.
'No-one gave me a call to play for England or to persuade me to play for England,' Moses recalls, 'The Nigerian manager Samson Siasia was always calling me, asking me to play for them. He kept pressuring me and so I did.
Would a phone call from Capello have made a difference? 'Yes, definitely.' he reflects, 'If he'd done that hopefully I would have played for the first-team but that's football. The Nigeria manager actually came over to England to talk to me about it.'
For England, it's one that got away. For Rodgers, it's second time lucky.
Moses admits, 'Now it's my chance to pay him back for the respect he's shown in coming for me again.'
Victor Moses appears in EA SPORTS FIFA 14, out on September 27.
Pre-order it from amazon.co.uk to receive 24 FIFA Ultimate Team Gold Packs and EA SPORTS Football Club Unlockables.
another one with the liverpool disease, The Dreamer Disease. lol lol lol.
- Twenty20thTwenty , Fergiechester, United Kingdom, 21/9/2013 18:52
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