100 years ago tomorrow

[LeTallecWiz]

[article=http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/144535-kenny-i-m-eternally-grateful-to-shanks]Dalglish arrived at Anfield in August 1977 - three years after Shankly had tendered a shock resignation from his post as Reds boss.

Liverpool would go on to dominate English football in the decade that followed - and Dalglish insists none of it would have been possible without the foundations Shankly laid.

"Shanks is an inspiration to anybody who has any feelings towards Liverpool Football Club," he told the Liverpool Echo.

"The club is where it is and we are what we are today because of what he did, and I don't think anybody will ever forget that. We'll always be appreciative of what he did.

"He gave everybody the standards, taught them what to do and how to behave themselves and everything he did was correct. I don't think we should ever forget that.

"The principles that he put in place when he first arrived at the club will always remain. They were good, strong and honest guidelines for people.

"I'm eternally grateful for what he did for Liverpool because I was a benefactor later on."[/article]

 

[LeTallecWiz]

Bobby Charlton on Shanks:

[article=http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/144504-charlton-recalls-shankly-home-visits]Charlton established himself at Manchester United and lifted the World Cup with England during almost exactly the same period that Shankly was guiding the Reds to unprecedented success.

The link between the pair continued when Charlton represented Preston North End as a player and manager; the club for whom Shankly had dedicated the vast majority of his own professional career.

A relationship grew between the two men off the pitch following two unexpected encounters and, in the week of the 100th anniversary of Shankly's birth, Charlton has eulogised about his old friend.

He told Liverpoolfc.com: "I'd seen Bill Shankly obviously when Liverpool were on the television, but it took quite a while before I actually bumped into him.

"It happened to be on the car park near where the statues are now at Old Trafford. He had parked his car, which you could do then. He parked his car and he got out and said: 'Come in, sit down here'.

"He just regaled me on everything good about Liverpool, he never talked about anything else but Liverpool. I'd never met him before. He said: 'Anyway, thanks very much, Bob' and off he went.

"Later on, when the World Cup was over, the Brazilians had stopped at a hotel just round the corner from where I live. I don't know why, but Bill Shankly must have thought to use the hotel.

"He did and somebody must have told him that Bobby Charlton lived just round the corner from the hotel. One morning, my mother-in-law - who lived with us - knocked on the bedroom door.

"She said: 'Bob, you have to get up - there's an intruder. He keeps looking in the window.' When I looked out, it was Bill Shankly.

"It was a Saturday; they were going to play at City, we were going to play at Everton. I said to Norma: 'You better get up, Bill Shankly is at the door'.

"She got up, went down and we had a cup of tea. We listened - because you always had to listen to Bill Shankly - and it was just such an event.

"He must have enjoyed it as well because Norma isn't what you would call a football sage - she likes the game - but she listened carefully to him.

"He then started to come to our house on a regular basis. If I was away, he would have somebody to talk to. Norma would have thought the world of him, and I thought the world of him as well."

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Bobby Charlton on Bill Shankly
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Having taken the reins at Anfield in 1959 with the club languishing in the Second Division, Shankly oversaw the Reds' rise to dominance before announcing his retirement 15 years later.

Charlton insisted that he has yet to meet a man more in love with the game of football, although played down suggestions that the legendary Scot tried to bring the midfielder to Liverpool.

The 75-year-old said: "He was a magical player and a better coach and manager of men.

"To get into a fiery situation like you got at Anfield, he was unique. He used it all, he used the opportunity to engage the crowd and all the things that away teams didn't like.

"He just loved the game; I don't know anybody, in my whole life, that I thought loved the game better than Bill Shankly. He was just sensational.

"Of course, he got the players to play well, they got into Europe, then they won the European Cup - they probably wouldn't have done it without him.

"You daren't fall foul of him. If you had a chance at goal, you had to pay the price if you wasted it. He was just magic.

"If you were on the opposing side, he would congratulate you if you played well, absolutely. He was a very fair man. If you played well, he always used to tell you.

"I played in a couple of testimonial matches - Celtic came down for a match and they asked me to play. I played for Celtic in a testimonial for one of their players at Anfield.

"Bill Shankly had a long chat with me afterwards. He didn't ask me to sign for them but he congratulated me. By then I was about 34 or 35, I considered I was nearing the end. He just wanted to talk about the game.

"I don't know whether he did all this to every player at Liverpool, but he certainly dropped them all when he started talking to me and my wife. He was a fantastic man.

"We used to have quite a few chats; when there was just the two of us he would call round and say hello. He was a wonderful football man, that's all I can say."[/article]

 

[LeTallecWiz]

Lfc.tv have reproduced the unforgettable Scot's final interview before his untimely death in September 1981.

[article=http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/144499-bill-shankly-the-final-interview]The piece was published by the Liverpool Echo on July 13, 1981, seven years after Shankly had shocked the world of football by announcing his resignation as Liverpool manager.

During 15 remarkable years at the Anfield helm, Shankly had dragged the club from the Second Division to two league championships and a first ever FA Cup triumph, in addition to completely renovating the stadium and Melwood.

In his final interview, he outlined his unique approach to training and preparing for matches and revealed the secret to the incredible success Liverpool achieved through his methods.

On his training methods...

During serious training a football player sweats. But you must still wear a sweater or top to train in, particularly if it's a cold day. This is to cover and protect your kidneys. If you haven't worn one, you must put it on as soon as training is finished to keep warm.

Instead of stripping, training and showering at Melwood, eating there and then going home, we stripped at Anfield and went down by bus. When it's pre-season and you are hot and perspiring, you don't want to be leaping into the bath five minutes after you've finished.

If you do, you'll sweat all day. After training I encouraged the boys to have a cup of tea and even a walk around. It takes 15 minutes or so to get to Anfield from West Derby. About 40 minutes would have passed from training until they actually got into the bath.

This is probably one of the reasons why we were always fitter than the rest. Most of the other clubs report directly to their training grounds, strip there and come straight off the pitch into a hot bath - which I always disagreed with. Our lads never felt uncomfortable. They never had their lunch with sweat pouring off them. In my opinion, this was very important and a key part of Liverpool's fitness. It actually prevented injuries from happening.

Footballers normally train for an hour and a half, but it doesn't mean they work for an hour and a half. Some might be demonstrating a function while the others are watching. And then it's your turn. It's not how long you train, but what you put into it. If you train properly, 35 minutes a day might do.

We built Liverpool's training on exhaustion and recovery with little areas of two-a-side, three-a-side and five-a-side in which you work like a boxer, twisting and turning. Training was based on basic skills: control, passing, vision, awareness.

If you are fit, you have a tremendous advantage over everybody else. It's important to try and give everyone a touch of the ball as quickly as possible once the match starts. If it comes to you, you chest it down simple and you roll it to your mate. It doesn't look much, but it's something. If you try to do something clever and it breaks down, it can take the confidence out of you. That's not my way.

On his preparation for matches...

After all the training was complete on Fridays, we always had a talk about the impending game. All the players and subs attended. One of the staff would have watched the opposition and would bring their report in. All I wanted to know was the formation. Was it 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or whatever? And did any of the opposing players have any little characteristics we might want to stifle?

I never, ever discussed the opposition at length. The last thing you want to do is build up your opponents and frighten your own players. We might have been playing Manchester United that weekend, but I wasn't going to be singing the praises of the opposition. I can remember overhearing one of the lads coming out of a meeting and saying: 'Are Best, Law and Charlton not playing?' That made me smile.

In the main, we were only concerned about us and our collective approach. The message was: 'Keep everything simple. Be patient, even if it takes 89 minutes to score.' The number of times we won a match at the death was unbelievable. And when you sneak one like that, it's heartbreaking for the opposition.

I always tried to have a joke up my sleeve to boost our lads and knock down the opposition. We took our football seriously, but we always tried to get a laugh out of the team talks. And I would always keep a few bombs for Saturday. I might say to the old guy on the Anfield door: 'Here's a box of toilet rolls. Hand them to the opposition when they come through the door.'

Often I'd say it just as our opponents were walking in. We didn't lose many, but when we did we were always ready to learn. We were always confident, but we were never overconfident. Being cocky is a form of ignorance. It means you are talking too much and if you are guilty of that, an opponent will bring you down to earth.

On the art of football...

A football match is like a relay race. We realised at Liverpool that you can score a goal by playing from the back. We learned this through playing the Latins in Europe.

It might be cat and mouse for a while, waiting for that opening to appear. It's all very simple really, but it's effective. Improvisation! If your players can improvise and adjust to what's happening, you've got a chance. It's vital you conserve energy, making the opposition do all the chasing. When you play over 60 games a season you can't afford to be running flat out all the time.

The system we devised was designed to confuse the opposition. And it was economical. You want everyone to do their share. The important thing is that everyone can control the ball and do the basic things. It's control and pass, control and pass. If you delay, the opposition is all behind the ball. So you are looking for somebody who can control it instantly and give a forward pass. And that gives you more space.

You see some teams playing and it seems as nobody wants the ball. They turn their back on each other. But at Liverpool, there is always somebody to help you. That's why Kenny Dalglish was an instant success. He came to a club and he had choices. Kenny was the kind of player who could exploit that kind of thing to the full.

So this is the secret. Get it. Give an early pass. Switch the ball around. You might not seem to be getting very far, but the opposition pattern is changing. And the space opens up for the final pass. All the players must understand that when they've delivered a pass, you've only just started. You have to back up and look to help somebody else.

On the magic of Melwood...

In the early days I went down to Melwood every day for training. That lasted a season, then I stopped going. I felt I was intruding. I still go to Melwood but only for a sauna and a bath, a dip in Melwood's magic waters.

Melwood means more to me than any other part of Liverpool. It was where Liverpool was made. The first time I saw the place - an overgrown, neglected place it was too - I said to Ness: 'I'm going to see Melwood reborn, cultivated.' I did, every inch of it. If someone took Melwood away from me...[/article]

 

[Judge Jules]

Brilliant stuff, and very forward-looking in some ways (e.g.the emphasis on warm-down before it really became mainstream practice).

 

[doctor_mac]

Brilliant stuff, and very forward-looking in some ways (e.g.the emphasis on warm-down before it really became mainstream practice).

Yeah that has only became common practice in the last 10 or 15 years. And the tiki-taka at LFC is nothing new of course. Legend.

 

[gkmacca]

EMLYN HUGHES - Liverpool 1967-1979 (Shankly had wanted to sign him right away from Blackpool, but was prepared to wait for him. He phoned Emlyn every Sunday morning to tell him he'd be a Liverpool player soon.)

"I'd be just about to make short work of a plate of eggs, bacon and black pudding when the phone would ring. It would be Shanks. 'Hey, Emlyn, son, don't eat that stuff you've got on your plate there. I'll be signing you shortly. I want you lean and hungry, son. Lean and hungry!' Today, thirty years later, I still associate the smell of bacon frying with the telephone ringing at 8.30 sharp on a Sunday morning."


TOMMY SMITH - Liverpool 1962-1978 (on the unfortunate guinea pig, Jimmy Melia)
"Known to the lads as Bald Eagle, Jimmy always looked older than he was. He had this ritual of coming in for a rub-down every day, whether he was injured or not. Shanks, of course, would always be keeping any eye on Jimmy to see if he was actually carrying an injury. I was on the groundstaff at the time and in on the Sunday, as usual, to help brush the dressing-rooms and terraces as well as generally tidying things up at Anfield with the other younger lads. As usual, Jimmy was in the treatment room for his rub-down. As groundstaff boys we didn't go anywhere near the dressing room or any of the inner sanctum areas without knocking on the door and asking permission. This day, Shanks came out, wearing a beaming smile. 'Boys, put your brushes down and come in here. I want you to see the latest in football technology.'

Now he used to be proud if the toilets were given a lick of paint. Can you imagine what he was like with a new piece of equipment that had been designed to treat injuries and shorten the recovery period? He was full of praise for the German manufacturers. 'Great inventors, the Germans, amazing bit of gadgetry this. Cost us two thousand pounds, but it will be worth every penny, won't it, Bob?' Bob Paisley gave us a knowing look. He was from the old school of treating players and clearly wasn't as enthusiastic as Shanks.

'Aye', said Bill. 'It will nullify injuries. Marvellous invention.' He was clearly desperate to try it out. 'Who's in Bob?. Jimmy Melia is here again! He'll do.'

The next thing, Jimmy is sitting on a table alongside this machine and Bob is fitting the electrodes to his legs. The logic was simple. The machine sent out an electric impulse. This worked the muscle which in turn helped the flow of blood. All very straightforward. The kind of thing Bob would do with his experienced hands. But Shanks was in full flow. He had his audience, ten groundstaff lads, and we listened as he explained the way the various dials worked.

'It's marked one to ten. It's a low on one, high power on ten. Go on, Jimmy son, we'll leave it to you to take the pain strain. See how far you can go.' Jimmy turned it on to number one. No effect. He turned the dial two more notches. Nothing. He got to five and was still telling the boss that he couldn't feel anything. 'Bob', said Shanks, beginning to get annoyed, 'perhaps these bloody Germans aren't as inventive as I thought. Either that or Jimmy is immune to pain.' Melia pressed on... six, seven, eight. 'Still nothing, boss.' Suddenly the dial was all the way to ten and Jimmy was just sitting there, shaking his head, 'No, nothing.'

Shanks was furious, 'German crap', he was screaming. 'They haven't got a clue. You can send this back to Munich and tell them they can stick it up their backsides. Two thousand pounds? Get your sponge out, Bob. You might need it.'

Bob just stood there, wearing this little light brown coat that made him look more like a grocer than a medical expert. We were all dying to laugh. You could see one or two shoulders shaking as we tried to stifle our mirth. We began to back towards the door, when Shanks suddenly said, 'Christ, Bob, you haven't even turned it on!' He flicked the switch and poor Jimmy, still on a maximum setting of ten, nearly hit the ceiling. Sparks were coming out of his ears. His hair would have stood on end if he'd had any. We all ran out, exploding with laughter. As we headed down the corridor, Shanks was right behind us and shouting, 'That'll teach the Bald Eagle to come in for a treatment on a Sunday.'



WALLY SCOTT - producer of Bill's 70's lunchtime chat show on Radio City
"The biggest headaches for me came when we had a football guest, which included Joe Mercer, Ian Callaghan and Albert Stubbins. Shanks would get carried away, relive match incidents and get up and leave the microphone to kick an imaginary ball across the studio! I had to keep asking him to get back to the mike. One week we had a guy lined up for Bill's show who had just climbed Everest. I rang Bill and told him and he replied, 'No, I don't want him, you can't play football on the top of Everest!'"



TOMMY SMITH
I got caught up in an amazing post-match row after the Albion game which took place at Maine Road. We were all disappointed at the end of the match and sitting in the dressing-room when a knock came on the door. A policeman was standing there and he said: 'I want to see number four.' One of the lads said: 'You're wanted, Smithy. There's a policeman asking for you outside.'

I had a cousin called Lawrie who was in the force. I assumed it was him and went towards the door. Standing there, helmet under his arm, bike leaning against the corridor wall, was a large constable. He immediately cautioned me, saying: 'At around 9.15 pm this evening, you were heard to shout: 'Chris, give me the fucking ball!' I thought he was joking and said: 'It's a good job you were not in earshot when they scored their second goal.' The pedantic PC clearly didn't see the funny side. He said: 'I'm arresting you for using abusive language.'

I shouted for Bill Shankly who came out and said: 'What's going on?' 'Who are you?', said the constable to the most famous manager in football. 'I'm the manager of this football team', said Shanks, clearly getting agitated. 'Are you in charge of Tommy Smith?', said the constable. I've just arrested him.' 'You've what?', roared the boss. The fact that the PC was in blue didn't help. When he started to repeat this business about me swearing, Shanks went into a rage. 'You better listen to me. If you don't fuck off, I'll let the tyres down on your bike.'"



BOB PAISLEY on that Anderlecht performance in 1964"Before the game, in the dressing room, Bill talked to the lads. He said, 'You've read about Anderlecht having all these internationals and how good they are. They can't play. They're rubbish. I've seen them and I'm telling you. You'll murder them, so go out there and do it.' The boys went out there and murdered them. They won 3-0. And after the game, Bill burst into the dressing room and said 'Boys, you've just beaten the greatest team in Europe.'"



PETER THOMPSON
"It was a quarter to three on match day at Anfield and there was no sign of Shanks. Suddenly, he came in. His shirt's torn, tie undone, jacket hanging off, hair all over the place. 'What's happened boss?' 'I've just been in the Kop with the boys.' He'd gone in with 28,000 of them and they'd been lifting him shoulder high, passing him round, and he loved that."