Richard Keys:
isn't an easy one to write, for many reasons. If I'm honest, I've absolutely no idea where the next few hundred words are going to take me. I haven't thought about this piece or researched it very well, it's just going to be a whole lot of incoherent thoughts. So here goes. And stay with me, please.
I don't want to give the wrong impressions here. Hillsborough was never my fight, but I've always felt close to those battling for the long overdue result that they got yesterday (Monday).
Let me try and explain. I left Liverpool a couple of years before the disaster. The regular readers amongst you know I had four wonderful years in the City and made many good friends. My wife was born in Liverpool and grew up on The Wirral. We were with her parents the weekend after Hillsborough - I can't remember why - work, I think. Maybe it was just a family visit.
Obviously the mood, all over Merseyside, was sombre. You couldn't help be touched by it - nor the scenes of people snaking round Anfield, holding flowers which they were going to lay on the pitch, just wanting to be near their club and other like minded, stunned supporters.
Look. It's not my club so I had no right, but I was overcome by it all. I put on a suit, bought flowers myself and drove to Anfield. I wanted to do what everybody else was doing, but I felt somewhat of an interloper. I obviously knew people at the club, so when I slipped in a side gate and quietly worked my way onto The Kop no-one gave me a second glance. I put flowers down, drew breath, said a few words and cried. You couldn't help but cry. Everybody did.
The scene in front of me was incredible. At this time more than half the pitch was covered in flowers. Thousands were pouring in to pay their respects.
I don't know how long I was there but as I was leaving I heard a familiar brusk Scottish voice 'hey, where are you going?' Initially I thought I'd been rumbled but as I turned round I saw Kenny Dalglish. 'What are you doing here?' was the next question. Kenny loved a wind up, but surely not at a time like this! Of course, I didn't have to reply!
We stood together for a while marvelling at what was unfolding before us. I think he told me he'd been on The Kop every day since the disaster. He knew where people had left things, teddy bears and the like. He knew the people who'd left them. It had got to him deeply. Remember, he was now player/manager.
What happened next was extra-ordinary.
'Come and meet some people', he said. He took me off to the players lounge where relatives of those who'd lost their lives, players, players wives, his wife Marina, counsellors, clergy - all sorts, were sitting talking, consoling each other and unburdening themselves.
Kenny just wanted me to talk to people. I had no idea what to say or who to say it to, but it was hugely touching listening and sharing their stories.
Again, I was looking to leave. I'd got family myself at home and - can you believe - I felt I should be with them. Again, Kenny stopped me. 'We've got a service at Tranmere this afternoon', he said. 'You're coming'. This time it wasn't an invitation, it was an instruction!
He was at the heart of everything. It was incredible to see him and Marina organising everything - on the fly.
Next minute I was being ushered, with the entire first team squad, into a bus that would take us to Prenton Park. There were thousands outside Anfield. He had time for everybody. I remember someone putting an Everton scarf round him. He took half a dozen paces, took it off and gave it to another Evertonian! Brilliant. No-one was offended. I actually not sure anyone really noticed except me, but a potential minefield had been avoided!
We sat and spoke all the way there and back. Needless to say, the occasion was enormously moving.
As we arrived back at Anfield I remember thinking 'I'm touched by the day. It's been incredible. I've been extremely fortunate to have been invited into the inner sanctum, but I've got to go now'.
No chance! He had me back in that players lounge as soon as I stepped off the bus. He knew what I was thinking before I did. He always knew what other people were thinking. It's what made him such a great player - and such an awkward interviewee!
Back I went for another couple of hours to hear more harrowing tales. Eventually I had to leave. I went to find him. I thought he'd be in his office. Marina was outside so I asked where Kenny was. Here's the reply 'He's just gone into the office with a counsellor. They'll be back out in a couple of minutes and she'll be asking for help!' Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Do you know what? She was right they were. I don't know what happened to the counsellor but I'm guessing she was right again! Mind you, Marina has always been right and a little bit smarter than her husband, who would never accept that!
This time I was allowed to leave. I went with very mixed emotions. Relief, tiredness, in awe of Kenny and his wife, the whole day had been an experience like no other.
For me, it was over. Not until yesterday (Monday) was it over for the remarkable people of Liverpool, who never gave up.
Kenny went onto to make sure the club were represented at all 96 funerals of the Hillsborough victims. He and Marina were two of many remarkable people connected with the club at that time.
Two years later it all caught up with Kenny. He got ill. He's addressed what happened in his autobiography, but the bottom line was, he no longer felt he could give of his best to Liverpool, so he walked away. Typical. The club had to come first.
I've got my own theories on what Liverpool FC should've done next - but they chose to appoint Graeme Souness as his successor.
There's so much more to say on this subject, but let's spool forward to the time Andy and I turned up at TalkSPORT.
I noticed a line in the press that Hillsborough was going to be put back in the agenda. Again, my memory is a little scratchy on this, but I think there was going to be a Commons debate because an on-like petition of 100,000 people had forced one.
I went to see our gaffer, Moz Dee. Money was tight, but I told him I wanted to go to Liverpool and do a series of specials on Hillsborough. I felt that because so much time had passed a new generation of football fan should be made aware of what happened, and those that had forgotten should be reminded.
Dee, to his eternal credit, backed me. The three programmes that we - a small team - put together were incredible. That's not because we were clever, it was because real people turned up and told real stories. Those that heard those programmes will never forget them. It did the job. All of a sudden everybody was talking about Hillsborough.
Kenny didn't want to take part in those shows, but some time later he came on the programme and told of his own incredible involvement, although it wasn't easy to get him to do so. I text him on the day of the jury's judgements to say 'well done'. Part of his reply read 'only doing what anybody else would've done old boy'. No Kenny. You weren't. You never gave up. You were a focal point for everybody. You cared. You fought. You won your greatest battle, despite some really tough times at home. You are a genuine great. A legend, who's contribution to the Hillsborough cause and 'your' club will never be forgotten.
One other little story in closing. On that TalkSPORT programme Kenny told the tale of the former Sun editor, Kelvin McKenzie, calling him some time after that newspapers outrageous front page following the disaster. Liverpool fans know exactly what I'm talking about.
Kenny took the call. An agitated McKenzie explained that he was coming under pressure from his bosses because the paper was no longer selling on Merseyside. It still isn't, but McKenzie wanted Kenny's help to change that.
He asked 'what can we do'. The reply was typical 'you run another front page, in the same bold type, that reads WE LIED'. They never did, but yesterday it was proven that THEY ALL LIED.
If Kenny ever happens across this piece he'll be furious. Part of the reason we've shared so much down the years is because he knew he could trust me. Well I've broken that trust here - but with good reason. This is it.....
Down the years I've watched many sportsmen knighted, some for outstanding achievement, some because politically it suited different Governments to do so.
It's wrong, just plain wrong, that one of the perpetrators of the outlandish cover up over Hillsborough is Norman Bettison. I refuse to call him 'Sir'.
I don't know what happens to the poor souls who fought such a brave fight for the 96 - the 96 that we knew about, but there were so many more victims left behind - but I do know this. Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish should be knighted for everything he's done for the City of Liverpool down the years. And I'm sorry 'old boy' that I've been a touch indiscreet - but I've had to be. You're a giant Sir Kenny.
