Book excerpt: As Liverpool F.C. reach their 125th anniversary, amidst the celebrations, doubts persist. Are they still elite? Can their prolonged title drought be ended? Foreign owners say they came to win but the trophy cabinet lies bare. Where to next for the reds? Lost? explores the gloried past, the moneyed present and the uncertain future of both Liverpool F.C. and the English game at large. Have they lost their way? Liverpool F.C.’s most famous manager, Bill Shankly, declared that the club ‘exists to win trophies’ and for many years this maxim proved true, as Liverpool became one of the most successful clubs in European football and dominated the scene in England for over two decades. Yet recently, the victories have dried up and Liverpool have not won the league title in over a quarter of a century. Football is also in a state of flux as major TV deals have made the Premier league the wealthiest in the world, but the gap between the elite clubs and those striving to catch up widens. Has the game lost it’s soul? Who will rise and who will fall as a new uncharted era in football unfolds? Lost? captures exclusive interviews with key figures including former Liverpool managers, Brendan Rogers and Roy Evans, the Shankly family and a whole host of footballing legends, past and present. The book also includes reflective pieces on an array of Premier League clubs from both a sporting and cultural perspective, looking not just at the team in isolations, but also at the communities and landscapes that shape them