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• Deschamps signs one-year extension at Stade Vélodrome
• Frenchman had been linked to Liverpool manager’s job

Marseille’s coach, Didier Deschamps, has moved to end speculation over his future by extending his contract by a year until June 2012.

The former France captain, who led the south coast club to the Ligue 1 title last term, had been linked with the Liverpool job as a replacement for Rafael Benítez.

The Marseille president, Jean-Claude Dassier, who revealed at the weekend that Liverpool had contacted him over Deschamps, told the club’s official website: “I am very happy that Didier Deschamps has signed for another year.”

Deschamps, who has been at the Stade Vélodrome since 2009 after spells in charge of Juventus and Monaco, admitted he was “flattered” by the interest from Liverpool, but wanted to continue his work at Marseille.

“It makes me very happy,” he said. “It is not a financial question that I leave OM. After the season that we have experienced, there is still work to do. A great club asked me. I’m very flattered but when I start somewhere… If I ask for respect from my players, the least I can do is to be comparable in my commitment to the club. I owe it to the OM. I agree and I respect that commitment.”

Dassier revealed at the weekend he received a call from Liverpool’s executive director, Christian Purslow, last Thursday. “I kindly indicated to him that there wasn’t the slightest chance for him to pinch our coach. Even in his dreams,” Dassier said.

MarseilleLiverpoolguardian.co.uk

It is well known that Liverpool’s ground was once home to Everton, but in 1971 United fans called the Kop their home end

On Friday 20 August 1971 a team wearing red walked out at Anfield to rapturous applause from supporters bedecked in red and white scarves and standing on the Spion Kop. Their opponents were Arsenal, who had beaten Bill Shankly’s side 2-1 in the FA Cup final to secure the double in May of the same year. But the home side were not Liverpool. They were Manchester United.

Hidden deep within the pages of football’s dustiest history books lurks a dark secret – or so it appears. The club that now boasts 18 league titles, the same number as Liverpool, could once call Anfield its home, just as Liverpool’s great city rivals Everton did in the 1880s. In 1971, with United banned from playing their first two home matches in Manchester, after hooligans had thrown knives into the away section at a match at the end of the previous season, their opening “home” games would be played at Anfield and Stoke’s Victoria Ground.

But so forgotten is this forgotten story that even some Manchester United players who took part in the 3-1 victory over Arsenal cannot remember doing so.

A lethargic first-half performance by a United side still trying to find its feet under a new manager, Frank O’Farrell, following Matt Busby’s departure in June 1971, found themselves trailing to a fourth-minute Frank McLintock strike. United would enjoy a stirring comeback in the second half thanks to George Best’s growing influence, which led to an equaliser deftly lifted over Arsenal’s goalkeeper, Bob Wilson, by Alan Gowling. A United goal at Anfield celebrated by the home fans must be among the rarest things in football. So such a memorable occasion would be dear to Gowling, wouldn’t it?

“I can’t remember,” he says. “Who did we play?” I remind him that it was Arsenal. “United played a home match at Anfield? Give over,” he says, incredulous. So inconceivable does it seem that one can almost understand Gowling’s reaction, but a picture in the Guardian of 21 August, 1971 clearly shows him leaping over Wilson to celebrate his goal, scored at the Anfield Road End.

Would David Sadler, who commanded United’s defence, recall the occasion?

“Was I playing?” he says. “I just can’t remember. Alex [Stepney, the Manchester United goalkeeper] might recall it. He’s better at remembering matches than me.”

Stepney tipped a shot from the diminutive Arsenal winger George Armstrong against the bar at the Kop end in the second half to keep United in the game at 1-1. Did he enjoy being the only Manchester United goalkeeper in history to feel the full support of United’s fans emanating from the Kop?

“I vaguely remember that we had to play two games away from Old Trafford, but I can’t recall that match,” says Stepney, who made over 400 appearances for United. Perhaps there’s some kind of conspiracy to hide the truth.

“I thought I’d only ever won one match at Anfield, when we beat Liverpool 4-1 [in December 1969] – so I can add a second win now,” he says. “The only one I remember playing away from home was when we played a home match at Plymouth [Uefa banned United from playing their home leg of a Cup Winners' Cup match against St Etienne within 200km of Manchester, following crowd trouble during a 1-1 draw in France in 1977].”

The Manchester United captain, Bobby Charlton, scored his team’s second goal at the Anfield Road End with a free-kick curled around the wall and into the left-hand corner of the net. Brian Kidd, who is now Manchester City’s assistant manager, wrapped things up with a goal in the dying minutes.

One man who can just about recall the match is the “Voice of Anfield”, George Sephton, Liverpool’s stadium announcer who had started the job a week before. “I can still see the half-empty ground,” he says. “It was spooky. I had just started, it was an extra match, it was Friday night so a bit of piece and quiet, I thought.”

And what of Liverpool’s famous anthem? Surely United’s players didn’t run out as the home team at Anfield to “You’ll Never Walk Alone”?

“It was only the third game in my career,” says Sephton. “I couldn’t swear on the bible but I’m almost certain I didn’t play ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ at the game. It’s been ‘our’ song since 1963! It was weird because Anfield felt like a neutral ground but from my perspective I was just happy that I had an extra couple of quid in my pocket because I was young, just married and was saving up for a house.

“I don’t remember any trouble on the night. The enmity with United wasn’t as bad in those days as it is now so it was nice to turn up and watch a game which you weren’t bothered about in terms of the result. If it happened nowadays of course, I’d be cheering Arsenal on. But now they would just play the match behind closed doors.”

The FA’s decision to send United to play at Anfield in the wake of a hooliganism incident seems hare-brained now, but at the time hooliganism happened at most games and in any case, as the former Liverpool club secretary Peter Robinson, who helped organise the fixture, explained last year, the animosity didn’t exist as it does today.

“When I started at Liverpool in the 1960s the great rivals were always Everton,” said Robinson. “The rivalry has changed. It turned into Manchester United when they had this terrific emergence but before that I can remember them being relegated [in 1974] and having some really difficult times. I can also remember United supporters standing in the Kop. It wouldn’t happen today, would it?”

The rivalry between groups of hooligans was still fierce however, even if the antipathy felt between real football supporters of both sides was not, and the front page of the Guardian the morning after the match carried the usual depressing news of trouble. “About 100 fans” were ejected from Anfield, according to the report, the windows of some houses in Anfield were smashed and “600 skinheads” were said to have been “kept in check” by police after throwing bricks at the United supporters as they were frogmarched back to Lime Street station and on to trains back to Manchester.

The Guardian correspondent Eric Todd’s match report brimmed with frustration at the behaviour of the fans in the Kop and of the wider trouble that was prevalent in football in the 1970s.

“Once again, certain sections of the crowd, whatever their places of origin were the villains of the piece,” he wrote. “And those psychiatrists, amateur or professional who spend many hours trying to explore the minds – the word is used quite loosely of course – of certain members of the footballing public would have enjoyed last night.

“As soon as the teams arrived on the field the Kop vomited scores of young ’supporters’ of both sexes who ran down the field to the end where United were warming up. The police, although hopelessly outnumbered, did their best and removed as many as they could capture. When the invaders discovered that United would attack the Kop end they retraced their steps and suffered further losses.”

United would suffer further losses too. Liverpool were given 15% of the gate receipts from the 27,649 fans who attended the game and United were instructed by the FA to pay Arsenal compensation, as the gate was below the 48,000 that attended the fixture at Old Trafford the previous year. (Until the 1980s, gate receipts for league games were shared). Even Everton stood to benefit if the crowd at Goodison Park was below 46,000 the next day, for their match against Sheffield United.

You can stop whispering now. The secret is out.

LiverpoolManchester UnitedArsenalGregg Roughleyguardian.co.uk

• Benítez believes players who were injured will now be stronger
• Attacking options boosted by return of Torres and Benayoun

Rafael Benítez believes the injury problems that contributed to Liverpool’s dismal early season form could work in their favour in the contest for Champions League qualification, as Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard are not exposed to the fatigue that may afflict their rivals in the race for fourth place.

Liverpool could reclaim fourth place in the Premier League with victory at struggling Wigan Athletic on Monday night as Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Aston Villa are all without a game in the competition this weekend. Despite losing Martin Skrtel and Fábio Aurélio to foot and thigh injuries respectively, Benítez’s attacking options have improved significantly thanks to Torres’s recovery from hernia and knee problems plus Yossi Benayoun’s return from a broken rib.

With Gerrard’s form also improving by the game and Glen Johnson in contention for his first appearance of 2010 at the DW Stadium, the Liverpool manager says there can be some solace to be taken from the earlier absence of key players during this campaign.

“The players we have coming back now, and how fresh they are, can have an influence on the run-in for sure,” Benítez explained. “If we don’t have any more injury problems this season, and already we have lost Skrtel and Aurélio in the last week, then it could be that our players will be fresher and have more energy than the other teams for the final games of the season. Hopefully it can work out in our favour. Hopefully.

“Because of the injury situation we couldn’t change too many players this season and some players have played too many games because we couldn’t give them a rest. We have had to manage in a different way but I still think we can be strong as usual in the second half of the season.”

Johnson has not featured since damaging knee ligaments at Villa in December but, in a timely development for both Liverpool and England ahead of the World Cup, will be considered for the Wigan game. Benítez added: “He trained yesterday, it was a full training session, and I think he will be OK to go in the squad for Wigan. We have two more training sessions before then so we will have to see, but I think he will be OK.”

Liverpool also have Sotirios Kyrgiakos available following the completion of a three-match suspension while Torres, who followed up his match-winning start against Blackburn last Sunday with 45 minutes for Spain against France on Wednesday, is free of the injuries that have plagued his season.

“The good thing with Fernando is that he has no injuries now, he is fully fit, the only problem is his lack of match fitness,” said the Liverpool manager. “When you have a player out injured for a long time it is very difficult trying to bring them back. If you push them too hard too soon it is dangerous for the player, but at the same time if you don’t push them they won’t regain match fitness.”

Rafael BenítezLiverpoolSteven GerrardFernando TorresPremier LeagueAndy Hunterguardian.co.uk