Football News: And Finally... Bill Shankly

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And Finally.....Bill Shankly

A few weeks back I did an 'And Finally' on a legendary Scottish manager whose legend was built in England, so I thought now would be a good time to do another one. While Ferguson is remembered purely for his own achievements as a manager, Shanks is a totally different kind of legend. He never had the longevity of Fergie, but the club he built did, but, despite Liverpool's domination of the game due to his foundations, Shankly has become better remembered for what he said than what he did. To be fair with very good reason.

One of his more famous quotes was: "Of course I didn't take my wife to see Rochdale as an anniversary present. It was her birthday. Would I have got married in the football season? Anyway, it was Rochdale reserves." Most people see that as being a sign of how much his wife must have suffered through being married to a footballing obsessive like Bill, however Ness was just as much a football fan. When Auntie May retired from working at Anfield, it was Ness that would take her to watch the matches, as she found out that May was not being given tickets by the club, despite having spent her entire working life at Anfield. Ness never missed a game and she loved football every bit as much as Bill did.

Which is lucky, because he would often come home from training, when he was Liverpool manager, and sit down to eat and there would be a knock at the door and the next thing Ness knows he is shouting at her to 'put my tea in the oven as I am going for a kickabout with the boys' before he disappeared out for a game with locals. He even played a kickabout with the fans while the team were waiting for a train home from an away match at Tottenham. Maybe that is why Shanks has become such a legend in Liverpool? He was just one of the boys at heart, one of us football fans, but he was just lucky enough to do it for a living.

Shankly understood that too, which is why he once said: "Pressure is working down the pit. Pressure is having no work at all. Pressure is trying to escape relegation on 50 shillings a week. Pressure is not the European Cup or the Championship or the Cup Final. That's the reward." Having come from a small mining village, he had seen what real pressure was on his family as he was growing up. Shankly's early years gave him a belief in the value of hard work: "No football club is ever successful without hard work. If everyone thinks along these lines and does the small jobs to the best of their ability, then the world will be better."

His most famous saying was actually never meant to be seen in the way it was, he actually said that football is a matter of life and death more than once, but not as a throwaway remark. For instance when looking back at his time after retirement, while questioning whether he had got the work life balance in his life. Also when discussing the Merseyside Derby he said: "I've seen supporters on Merseyside going to the ground together, one wearing red and white and the other blue and white, which is unusual elsewhere. You get families in Liverpool in which half support Liverpool and the other half Everton. They support rival teams but they have the same temperament and they know each other. They are unique in the sense that their rivalry is so great but there is no real aggro between them. This is quite amazing. I am not saying they love each other. Oh, no. Football is not a matter of life and death ... it's much more important than that. And it's more important to them than that. But I've never seen a fight at a derby game. Shouting and bawling ... yes. But they don't fight each other. And that says a lot for them."

One of his favourite sports was baiting Everton, something he did with panache: "When I've nothing better to do, I look down the league table to see how Everton are getting along." Also the famous line: "If Everton were playing at the bottom of the garden, I'd pull the curtains." Though, ironically I suppose, after his resignation from Liverpool he would often go along to watch Everton. When one of his close friends, Everton's legendary striker Dixie Dean passed away, Shankly was one of the ones chosen to speak and he opened with an immortal line: "I know this is a sad occasion but I think that Dixie would be amazed to know that even in death, he could draw a bigger crowd than Everton can on a Saturday afternoon."

Like Johan Cruyff, Shanks had very strong ideas about football: "If a player is not interfering with play or seeking to gain an advantage, then he should be." Even more like Cruyff, Shanks wanted it played simply: "Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple." Though I am not sure Cruyff would have been so agreeable with his piano analogy: "A football team is like a piano. You need eight men to carry it and three who can play the damn thing."

Shanks was well known for his humour, one of my favourite stories is recounted by Tommy Docherty: "Adidas wanted to present him with a Golden Boot in recognition of what he'd done. Bob [Paisley] took the call and said 'They want to know what shoe size you take'. Shanks shouted back, 'if it's gold, I'm a 28.'" However it is closely run by one of the many stories George Best used to recount about Shanks, this one was one he was told by another legend, Ray Clemence about Shanks preparing Liverpool to face Man Utd:

"Prior to the game, Shankly had received the United team sheet and he incorporated it into his team talk. His intention was to run us down and, in so doing, boost the confidence of his own players. 'Alex Stepney,' Shanks began. 'A flapper of a goalkeeper. Hands like a Teflon frying pan - non-stick. Right back, Shay Brennan. Slow on the turn, give him a roasting. Left back is Tony Dunne. Even slower than Brennan. He goes on an overlap at twenty past three and doesn't come back until a quarter to four. Right half, Nobby Stiles. A dirty little -beep-. Kick him twice as hard as he kicks you and you'll have no trouble with him. Bill Foulkes, a big, cumbersome centre half who can't direct his headers. He had a head like a sheriff's badge, so play on him. Paddy Crerand. Slower than steam rising off a dog turd. You'll bypass him easily.' The Liverpool players felt as if they were growing in stature with his every word. 'David Sadler,' Shanks continued. 'Wouldn't get a place in our reserves. 'And finally, John Aston. A chicken, hit him once and you'll never hear from him again.' As the manager finished his demolition job on United, Emlyn Hughes raised his hand. 'That's all very well, boss,' he said, 'but you haven't mentioned George Best, Denis Law or Bobby Charlton.' Shanks turned on him. 'You mean to tell me we can't beat a team that has only three players in it?' he said, glowering."

Shanks was one of the lads a lot of the time and liked to take part in the training games at Melwood. During one match he turned to Chris Lawler and asked him: "Was it a goal? Was I offside?" Lawler replied, "You were boss." Shanks then quipped, "Christ, son, you've been here four years, hardly said a word and, when you do, it's a bloody lie!" Another Melwood training session heard him tell Tommy Smith: "You son, could start a riot in a graveyard."

In another training session Shankly was giving new signing Alec Lindsay instructions about his role as a Liverpool player. "Listen son. I want you to take men on, go past them and lash in those shots that brought you the goals when you were playing at Gigg Lane." "But that wasn't me boss. That was Jim Kerr." protested Lindsay. "Jesus Christ, Bob." said Shankly to Paisley. "We've signed the wrong bloody player."

One thing he was, despite his age and in many ways being a product of his time, is forward looking in his approach to the game and training methods. As Tommy Lawrence recollected: "In pre-season you got in an at Anfield and you then put a pair of trainers on. They weren't like trainers like you have today for running on the roads. They were pumps. You need to run from Anfield to Melwood. Around Melwood three or four times and then run all the way back. Roger Hunt and I used to travel with the train from Warrington and after about three days, we couldn't even go down the steps, the backs of our calves were just gone. As soon as Shanks came he just changed it. 'You play on grass and you will train on grass.' And that was it. Then we actually saw a bag of balls. We had never seen a bag of balls."

It took the rest of English football 30 years to catch up to the changes Shankly made at Liverpool, with teams in the 1980s still spending most of pre-season with barely a touch of the ball. That is probably his big legacy, that he advanced Liverpool so far ahead of the rest in terms of training, and consequently footballing technique, that they were able to become a European force as well as dominate in English football. "Liverpool was made for me and I was made for Liverpool," he once said and I think he was spot on. He was exactly what Liverpool needed at the exact time they needed it. He may not have been the greatest manager Liverpool ever had, Bob Paisley would almost indisputably claim that title, but he was the most important.

Some of his comments could have come across as bluster and hot air from another man, but Shankly was different. Like another great English manager, Brian Clough, he walked the walk as well as talking the talk so, when he said: "My idea was to build Liverpool into a bastion of invincibility. Had Napoleon had that idea he would have conquered the bloody world. I wanted Liverpool to be untouchable. My idea was to build Liverpool up and up until eventually everyone would have to submit and give in," you took notice, because he meant it and did it.

I will leave the final word to George Best with another of his Shankly anecdotes: "Following a game against Southampton at Anfield, a young reporter from the Southern Evening Echo collared Shanks to ask him what he thought about a young Southampton winger called Mick Channon. Shanks was polite and told the reporter he thought the young Channon was a very good winger indeed. 'Would you say he's as good a player as Stan Matthews?' the reporter asked. 'Oh, aye,' Shankly said earnestly. 'As a player he's definitely on par with Stan Matthews.' The reporter thanked Shanks for his time and turned away, scribbling the quote into his notebook. Suddenly, Shanks reached out and caught the young man by the arm. 'This Channon is as good a player as Stan Matthews,' he said, 'but what you have to remember is that Stan is sixty-five now.'"

Written by Tris Burke March 26 2019 13:36:48