The history of Liverpool football club can be divided into three parts, the pre-Shankly, the post-Shankly and the Shankly era, this testifies to how this man of humble beginnings built perhaps the greatest football team Britain has known. The importance of this great man to Liverpool can never be overemphasized. He was born in the hardy Glenbuck mining community of Scotland, where it was either the mines or football. Luckily for Shanks and his 5 brothers it was football. He had an eventful career which included winning the FA cup with Preston North End in 1938 before the 2nd World War interrupted football. He went into management shortly after the war, and was interviewed by Liverpool in the early 50’s but he declined when he was told he would not be in charge of team selection, a common practice of those times. He went on to manage other teams until he was invited back to Anfield for another interview. He was asked if he was interested in managing the best team in England, to which he replied “is Matt Busby packing up at United?” Liverpool then in the old 2nd division, was in the shadows of United who were arguably the best team in the land with Busby rebuilding the team from the ruins of Munich a year before. Shankly got the job and was given a free hand to run the team this time. It’s hard to understate the ordinariness of Liverpool’s position in 1959. Languishing in the old second division, with a crumbling stadium, poor training facilities and a large unwieldy playing staff, the challenge facing Shankly was enormous. Liverpool’s, and his, good fortune, was that in Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, and Reuben Bennett, the club had an experienced and resourceful backroom staff, they were the foundation of the famed boot room, the last link to the Anfield boot room is Jamie Carragher, but he will retire at the end of this season. Shankly went to work reducing the playing staff and getting new players that would take Liverpool to the next level. Ron Yeats was his first signing; Yeats asked “wasn’t Liverpool in the 2nd division?” To which Shankly replied ‘Yes, but when we sign you, we’ll be in the first’. Shanks was a master motivator, few coaches in the modern era come close, perhaps Jose Mourinho. Ian St. John soon joined from Motherwell. Ian Callaghan was promoted from the youth ranks, during this period, Billy Liddell ended his playing career, he was perhaps the main reason Liverpool did not slump below the old 2nd division into obscurity, he was a Great Britain and Scotland International, and he spent his entire playing career at Anfield. It was sad he was not part of Shankly’s team that won promotion. Shankly led Liverpool to the first division in the 61/62 season after narrowly missing out by coming third in the 2 previous seasons. Liverpool had an average first season, but won the league in the following year with new signings Peter Thompson and Willie Stevenson. Shankly led Liverpool to its first FA cup triumph at Wembley in 1965, and he won the league the following year, Liverpool were narrowly eliminated in the champion’s cup at the semi final stage and lost the European cup finals during this period. He was an expert in commonsensical psychology, he suggested Liverpool put on an all red strip as opposed to red and white stating that Yeats looked bigger and would terrify the opponents in it, he placed the ‘This is Anfield’ sign on the Anfield tunnel to remind the Reds who they were playing for and the opponents who they were up against. By the mid 60’s age had caught up with his team but he kept faith with them till the 70’s before he broke up the old team and built a new one around the talents of Tommy Smith, Emlyn Hughes, Stevie Heighway, and later on Kevin Keegan. His new team got to the finals of the FA cup in 70’ but lost in extra time to double winners Arsenal. What struck me was the hero’s welcome the team received when they arrived at Liverpool, he addressed the crowd telling them that Chairman Mao the Chinese communist dictator had never seen a show of great strength and that he had told the players before that they were privileged to play for the supporters and if the players did not believe his statement before, they now do, everyone out there was hanging on his words and if he wanted he could have ordered them to riot, such was the power of the man. On the day Shanks signed young Emlyn Hughes, they were stopped by a policeman as they drove to Melwood, Shanks said ‘do you know who is in this car’, the copper replied ‘I’m afraid I don’t know you’, Hughes thought this was the old do you know who I am? routine. Shanks blasted ‘not me you fool, it’s the lad the future England captain’. Emlyn Hughes later became England’s captain. Shankly’s last official game in charge of the Red’s was the 3-0 FA cup triumph over Newcastle at Wembley. At the final whistle, he went over to the deflated magpies and had an encouraging word for each of them, Malcolm MacDonald probably felt more heartaches than the rest of his mates because he boasted before the match telling the world what he was going to do to Liverpool, Phil Thomson shackled him. Super Mac recalled that he sat on the pitch with head bowed when the game ended and Shanks walked up to him and spoke in his hardy Scottish accent words along this lines, ‘well done son don’t worry so much about today, you’ll be back son believe me, you’ll be back!’ What a gentleman. Sadly Shanks retired shortly after the game, he simply was tired, he expected a place on the board but had long alienated himself to them with statements like ‘In football there is a holy trinity of the coach, the players, and the fans the directors are not part of it, they only sign the cheques’, the board was also very aware of the way Matt Busby’s appointment as a director affected Manchester United culminating in them getting relegated, so Shankly waited but no offer came along. He soon realized he missed football too much and was regular at the Red’s training sessions, which was a bit awkward for Paisley his former number 2 man now the Gaffer, so he was politely turned away. It was a disgrace that he was even more accepted at Everton than at Anfield during his retirement. He passed on 7 years later in 1981, but he lives forever in the hearts of Liverpool supporters the world over. A statue of him at Anfield and the Shankly Gates are a memorial to the greatness of a man who made the people happy.
rerodan 