Liverpool legend Craig Johnston was left in tears during an heart-warming interview as he made a long-awaited return to Anfield for the Reds’ 2-2 draw with Fulham. The 64-year-old made 271 appearances during seven years with the club, scoring 40 goals.
A five-time league champion with Liverpool, he also scored in the Reds’ 3-1 FA Cup final victory over Everton in 1986, won the European Cup in 1984 and lifted two League Cups.
However, his Anfield career came to a premature end in 1988 as he essentially retired to instead look after his sister, Faye, who had fallen seriously ill and suffered a brain injury following a gassing accident.
He would briefly return to Liverpool in 1989 following the Hillsborough Disaster. After being devastated by what had happened, he not only raised £40,000 in his own country for the families of the victims, but also willingly flew half-way across the world to attend the memorial service at Anfield seven days after the disaster and stayed on to help counsel the bereaved families.
Although rarely back since, Johnston has now returned to visit Liverpool and was back at Anfield for the Reds’ 2-2 draw with Fulham. And the Australian was unable to hold back the tears during an emotional interview with LFC TV’s Peter McDowall prior to the match.
“Just hearing you speak makes it emotional,” he admitted as his voice broke throughout. “I kind of left in a bit of a hurry and obviously there is obviously a lot of stuff underneath that I never talked about and never discussed and never been back.
“So unfortunately it is emotional. People might think I’m a bit soft, I’m not soft. I just appreciate living in this city for so long, nine years, and all of the stuff that happened while I was here. It’s just magic.
“I can’t find the words sometimes to describe it. But it’s certainly emotional. But once I get through the emotion, I’m okay. But just hearing your voice and being here, it just makes it very real, you know?”
Johnston would go on to see a number of his former team-mates at Anfield, but he would joke that he was not emotional about being reunited with them – teasing that a number of them still owed him money from their playing days together.
“I won’t be emotional about seeing them, I’ll knock them out actually, some of them!” he said. “Some of them owe me money!
“So it’s a different thing, the city, the culture, that timeframe where we were the best team in the world by a long, long way.
“That’s the stuff that gets me, and the family stuff, you know? But seeing the boys, like I said, I’ll knock them out when I see them!”
Meanwhile, Johnston was full of praise for Arne Slot’s side as he predicted that Liverpool could go on to win the Premier League under the Dutchman this season.
“Dare I say it, dare I say it,” he said. “It was 30 years before we’d won anything in between and Jurgen Klopp has done such a brilliant job as well.
“And now with Arne on top of it, hallelujah! Let’s not forget we won nothing for 30 years. That’s interesting.
“I look at Alex Ferguson leaving Man United and how that decimated the club for years. We all had those suspicions but that hasn’t happened and hasn’t been realised at all.
“Just the opposite. We’re top of the league and it’s Christmas time! So bring it on!”
If you want to know more about Craig Johnston, former ECHO employee Dan Kay, who sadly passed away in May 2023, wrote a memorable and popular long-read about his Liverpool career.
