As a result, he had few interests outside the game other than his family. In November 1976, Shankly was hotly tipped to take over from Dave Mackay as Derby County manager, but the position went to Colin Murphy instead. And of course some of the local lads, the Swansea lads that didn't know him, hung on every word he said. As an Everton fan, I'd always regarded him as the devil incarnate, but my view changed after meeting him.". Even a local factory threatened to go on strike if he did leave. 2nd Division Champions 1. When the Liverpool players reported back to Melwood for pre-season training, days after he had announced his retirement, they may have been surprised that Shankly was there to greet them, dressed in his training kit as if nothing had happened. He was born in Ayrshire, one of ten children, in 1913 and played his first football in the Scottish junior league. In the 1971-72 season, at home, when LFC won 3-1. "Is Matt Busby packing it in?" His impact was greatest after his exit. It was a decision Shankly bitterly resented for the rest of his days. He was always a larger than life character and he was always prepared to talk to you about your career.". Wiki User Answered 2011-09-02 21:58:45. "But he did feel that he had been let down by Liverpool; by the directors, mainly.". Shankly, says Toshack, was very much a help when he went into management with Swansea City in 1978. Canon Arnold Myers summed up the mood of the moment in his address, "Bill Shankly did not live for himself but for a team, a vast family, for a city, for an ideal". How many years in total did Bob Paisley spend at Liverpool? Top Answer. It was never as if there was a nice quiet period when we had him all to ourselves.". 1981. Money's killed it," says Tommy Smith, who laments the loss of the more innocent age in which he starred. "To a young coach, it was an incredible experience working with Shankly," says Charles Mills, who met him in 1975, when he was starting out as PE teacher at an outdoor activity centre on the Wirral. Steve Hunter @Shunter77. He stayed away for a few days before returning, and even then sullenly refused to retract his resignation letter, while carrying on his work. "The integrity of football is being ruined. Exiled from the Liverpool training ground but still deeply in love with football, Shankly began to search for other ways to slake his thirst for the game. Why did Bill Shankly retire? When there was no other game on, Shankly would head down to his local park and join in kickabouts with schoolboys. The only time you retire is when you're in a box and the flowers come out." He spent more than two years down the pit. "If you had those sort of character traits you were good enough for him." That's the way he kept going. And if they didn't believe me, they believe me now.". Yet his infectious personality and knack of developing outstanding young players, such as Denis Law and Ray Wilson, got him noticed by bigger clubs. Everyday outings with his family, to a cafe or the shops, would be taken over by fans wanting to chat. Average attendances had already dropped from around 40,000 when Shankly took over to fewer than 30,000. Shankly's words - he died in 1981, to the great grief of his friend Busby - came before Ferguson's glory. “He did leave a legacy,” Lawler added. He'd retired, they hadn't pushed him out. 51. I was once told that when Shankly was in the press box, working as a pundit, he would always leave a few minutes before the end of the game to the puzzlement of everyone there. 46. In the end, Bob Paisley, purely for his own sanity, had to say to him: 'Bill, you don't work here any more. Liverpool's chief executive, Peter Robinson, and the Anfield board of directors had grown so used to Bill Shankly threatening to resign as to become blasé about it. But while Shankly's fury burned from the page, there was no sadness about him, says Roberts. In January last year, Hicks and Gillett restructured their purchase of Liverpool, so that they loaded the club with £350m worth of debt. To ambitious young managers, such as Brian Clough and Ron Atkinson, Shankly also became a counsellor. As a player, he joined ‘Carlisle United’, an English club based in Carlisle, Cumbria. In giving up football for family life, Shankly was turning his back on what he had known: his family was dominated by women. Shankly was a fit man; but he died, in the words of the former Leeds player Johnny Giles, of a broken heart. They were "unlocked" by his widow Nessie at a low-key ceremony 11 months after his death. "He was such an overpowering figure," he says. Shankly's Liverpool won their third league title in 1973, and narrowly missed a league and cup double a year later, when they finished league runners-up, but won the FA Cup with a 3-0 win over Newcastle in a display of magnificent domination. He rammed it into us how important it was to be playing for Liverpool, how privileged we were to be playing for these people. Drawn 198. Peter Robinson initially played along, thinking he was crying wolf, but as he realised that Shankly was unmovable he started to search for ways for him to stay – in any capacity. And their ruthlessness was vindicated by an unprecedented haul of league titles and European Cups under Paisley. Lost 178. ", Holidays to the Lancashire resort of St Anne's revolved around beachside kickabouts with hotel waiters. asked Williams. The monster is still alive and well and up at Newcastle on Sunday, dressed in all red. Liverpool supporters are effectively paying the Americans' mortgage repayments for years to come. Bill Shankly's famous 'life and death' misquote and what Liverpool icon really meant. Shankly turned it around, winning promotion within a year. Bill Shankly. 1981. His wife Nessie told Kelly that Shankly would spend time in the garden, mowing and weeding. A few days later, Shankly was unveiled as Liverpool's new manager. In what year did Bill Shankly die? We really believed that.". His schooling was rudimentary, and although he displayed a fierce intelligence as a man, it lacked the polish of a formal education. His quote about football being more important than life or death, he really felt that way. "He was a very enthusiastic player and a very good player," Preston legend, Sir Tom Finney tells me when we meet at Deepdale. Shankly was fanatical about Liverpool and about football in general. "That stadium wouldn't be what it is now if it wasn't for Bill Shankly," he said in 1995. Bill Shankly. Almost from the day he announced his retirement in July 1974 he considered it the worst mistake of his life: Shankly could not live without football, but the game carried on without him. "He was always a football fanatic, you could tell from the moment he left playing that he was going to be a manager," he says. He made everyone involved believe that Liverpool were the best team in the world even at a time when they were, quite palpably, the second best in their city. A 1967 resignation letter sat in Robinson's filing cabinet, unretracted. Shankly kept himself fit and often took part in five-a-side football. ", A year after retiring, Shankly sat down and wrote his autobiography with Roberts. NEXT> 13. Who took over from Bill Shankly as Manager? The 1967 resignation letter was written after he lost out on the signing of Howard Kendall by Everton. 197 Ian Rush's first apperance for the club was on 13th December 1980. Who were the opposing team? But there was no dramatic ascendancy. But Shankly's relations with the Anfield board had frequently been acrimonious. He says that Shankly became like a father to him – Smith's own father had died shortly before he signed, and Shankly "took care" of him. Chris Carline, 39, is … "We were all Boswells, waiting for the words to drop out of his mouth. Paisley's initial pleasure to see him soon turned to polite embarrassment as it became clear that he was being undermined by Shankly's presence. Surviving the harsh conditions of his Glenbuck village, he took to football had been capped eleven times for the Scottish team. Perhaps the most candid passages dealt with Shankly's retirement. "It was difficult for Bob, having him hanging around," says Toshack. He instilled pride, discipline, loyalty and a relentless work ethic. Although the club was well supported, its infrastructure was second-rate: Anfield and the training ground at Melwood were dilapidated; directors regularly meddled in team selections. Not least for this famous quote: "Some people think football is a matter of life and death. Mr Shankly, a legend in Liverpool, was the manager who turned Liverpool into one of the finest and most successful footballing sides in Britain. Top Answer. 'Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. "But we had nothing to compare it to: that's just the way it always was. "He inspired us in every way," says Toshack, now manager of Wales, "his belief in Liverpool Football Club, the standards he set for himself and for the club, the intensity that he went about his job. Bill Shankly was always more than a great football manager. ", As a player and manager Shankly had lived in a world not just of men, but one of men's men. As at Melwood, the players took to calling Shankly, rather than Yeats, boss. Officially, cardiac arrest. "He always wanted to be associated with football and he used to turn up in all these places. 25 mins ago Event Admin . Won 407. Stories of Shankly handing out wads of cash or tickets to Liverpool fans are legion. Shunned by his former club and increasingly bitter at his treatment, he searched unsuccessfully, during his last years, for a meaningful role in the game he loved. As Keegan later said, he put "his character into the club in every facet from the bottom to the top". Put simply, he could not live without his daily fix of football. From Quiz: History of Liverpool FC (click to play it). Shankly raised his hands and turned to his team, before facing his crowd again, arms still aloft as the staccato shouts of "Shankly, Shankly" rose in a deafening crescendo. In December 1959, Shankly became manager of Liverpool, another Second Division club trying to get promotion to the top league. ", Only after his death, perhaps, did Liverpool realise what they had lost. ... one tragically died and the other remains in hospital in a critical condition. At 14, Shankly left school and went to work at the local colliery. "Directors don't come into it. John Smith. Question by author sully430uk. The crowd let out a cheer and started chanting his name. "When he finished he thought he was going to become a director, but the directors got their own back," says Tommy Smith. Again, Shankly blamed the board and stormed out of Anfield. His attempts at domesticity failed because he just couldn't overcome his football obsession. Shanks was Liverpool; he was an institution." 29th september 1981. ", Such episodes were pardoned by Robinson, but board members were less forgiving. "He came down to help us for the day, and stood with me on the sidelines, offering me advice. A gritty right half, he made 337 appearances – a tally cut short by the war – over 16 years for the Lilywhites, including FA Cup finals in 1937 and 1938, the year Preston last won it. "He talked an awful lot about the game off the field. Heroes. Bill Shankly was born on 2 September 1913, Glenbuck, Scotland. More bizarre were banners on the Kop calling an "SOS" to Dubai International Capital, a rival investment fund about whose plans to buy Liverpool little is known, but who are somehow deemed a less worse alternative to the Americans. NEXT> 14. "Because he was always a man of the people type. "He looked at people and wanted to see himself: in terms of self-motivation, wanting to win, wanting to play football," says Brian Hall, the pocket-sized midfielder Shankly signed in the late 1960s. Defender Tommy Smith, the so-called "Anfield Iron", joined Liverpool as a 15-year-old in 1960 and was made captain in 1970. Whenever we played in the north-west I'd invite him and he'd come along to the hotel, he'd have lunch with the players and give them a boost. Shankly was a fit man; but he died, in the words of the former Leeds player Johnny Giles, of a broken heart. The Queen said to him: “You have been in football a long time.” He replied: “It’s been 42 years.”, A tribute to Shankly by the Guardian’s David Lacey appeared on 30 September 1981, Bill Shankly's life and career – in pictures, A struggling Second Division club in a vulnerable industrial city. Shankly got them into 3rd place in 1959-60. Bob Paisley. He'd go to Anfield, he'd go to matches, he'd still have the passion. Shankly replied, sharp as ever. But he started taking the training! Some of those who met Shankly in these last years have portrayed him as a man desperate for attention. He was a director, known for FA Cup Third Round Replay Liverpool FC vs Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic (1968), Fifty Bighearted Years: The Variety Club of Great Britain's Tribute to Arthur Askey (1974) and This Is Your Life (1955). Liverpool won their first FA Cup in 1965 and among the red half of the city Shankly began to assume the aspect of a god. A huge important slice had been taken out of his life, but he'd brought it about himself. Because he was so approachable, quotes from Shankly were always easy for journalists to come by. Stephen Kelly, in his 1997 biography of Shankly, calls him "the ultimate obsessive". He was a humble man, despite this reputation as a no-nonsense Scot. "It's one of those moments in time, like when Kennedy was shot," says Brian Hall. Asked by Wiki User. "It is bad enough fighting against the opposition to win points but the internal fights to make people realise what we were working for took me close to leaving many times. They are only there to sign the cheques." But such are football's mad loyalties in the 21st century, with supporters so desperate for success that they will demand it even if it involves selling the very heart of the club they claim to love. And so, he busied himself in the only way he knew – by throwing himself back into the sport he loved. Manager. She could rely on him to clean … When did Bill Shankly die? You wonder what Shankly would make of the current state of Liverpool, since American businessmen Tom Hicks and George Gillett purchased it for around £300m in February 2007. He talked as if he wanted to give the impression that he'd be fit for the next match." John Roberts, the Daily Express journalist who became Shankly's ghostwriter, rebuts this suggestion. In 1962, for instance, Johnny Morrissey was sold to Everton without Shankly's knowledge, and more than a decade later he was still furious about it. At a press conference on Friday 12 July, Shankly made public his decision. ", In Shankly's mind, Liverpool belonged to the people – not the directors, shareholders, or – inconceivable though it might have seemed in the 1970s – a faceless overseas investment fund. Football, even in an age when players' earnings were deflated by the maximum wage, was a way out. They were just businessmen.". Shankly was, however, a man of his word. On Fridays Shankly played five-a-side in Stanley Park with ex-pro Johnny Morrissey, famous for "crossing the park" from Liverpool to Everton. In these moments of despair he would talk of "finishing", of walking out on the club and retiring. If he wasn't watching it, he'd be talking about it or playing," says Gill. League Champions 3. His tragedy was always more oblique than that. John Toshack, who was signed as a 21-year-old striker from Cardiff City in 1970, says he was in awe of Shankly from the moment he met him. In September 1981 he suffered a heart attack and died, aged 68. But he felt that he'd be annexed to Liverpool FC for life, in some capacity, and that didn't happen. Around 50 of Glenbuck's sons, including Shankly's four brothers, made it as professional footballers in the first half of the 20th century. "I couldn't believe it because he was so besotted with the game, with Liverpool Football Club, and with the fans. He was football's Muhammad Ali: a charismatic maverick whose utterances had an unexpected, undeniable poetry. "Even when he was having lunch the whole table would turn into a massive football field and he'd be moving objects around. In September 1981 he was taken ill and rushed to hospital where he died only a week later. Finney says that he made a big impression on himself and the younger players. "I don't like that attitude. Indeed, on being exiled from Melwood, he began turning up at Everton's training ground, Bellefield, where he trained and sometimes helped Everton's club captain, Mick Lyons, coach the junior teams. "In his mind he was still the professional footballer who'd played for Preston or Scotland. See Answer. He would die within barely four years, only 68. Never did a Shankly team finish higher than 12th in the Second Division during this time. "But they never went up until he was dead.". Shankly did not manage to get Huddersfield Town back into the First Division finishing 12th (1956-57), 9th (1957-58) and 14th (1958-59). But he was still full of good humour. Shankly signed for Carlisle United in 1932, but it was with Preston North End, whom he joined a year later, that Shankly made his name as a player. Three days later, on 29 September, he had a second, massive heart attack and died that morning. One of 10 children, Bill Shankly was born in the Ayrshire coalmining village of Glenbuck in 1913. In July, despite the credit crunch, Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia agreed to refinance the deal. "At a football club, there's a holy trinity – the players, the manager and the supporters," he once said. But they give the measure of exactly what Sir Matt achieved. Harder still was that Liverpool became an even more formidable force, and later banned him from their training ground at Melwood, where the newly retired Shankly had tried to rediscover some of the camaraderie that once filled his life. Equally the actions of some fans would have dismayed Shankly: Hicks's son, a Liverpool director, was spat at and jostled when he tried to explain himself to supporters in an Anfield pub and the businessmen have also received death threats. I can assure you it … He was addicted to football and struggled to function without his daily fix, but at the highest level, where he belonged, he was considered yesterday's man, or, worse, an embarrassment. On away trips he would circulate among Liverpool supporters like a concerned uncle, ensuring they had tickets or the fare to return home. 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