Liverpool Legend Bill Shankly
A Biography of Bill Shankly, Liverpool Manager 1959 - 1974
Bill Shankly OBE was Liverpool Football Club’s first great manager, bringing a team who had for years played in the second division of the Football League to glory at the top of English football. He was the club’s most successful manager up until that point and was only outlasted in the job by Liverpool’s second manager Tom Watson. Shankly established a team worthy of the championship crown in England and left a team who would bring Bob Paisley, Liverpool’s most successful manager to date, unrivaled glory in Europe.
Shankly (2 September 1913 - 29 September 1981) was born and raised in Glenbuck, a mining village in East Ayshire, Scotland. He played football from a young age, the game being a way in which to escape the mines, and in his 17 year professional playing career appeared in seven matches for Scotland almost three hundred for Lancashire club Preston North End.
Shankly's Early Management Career
He started his management career in 1949, a month after retiring as a player, returning to where his professional days as a player had begun in 1932, Carlisle Utd. In the ten years before Shankly arrived at Liverpool he managed four clubs, most notably Huddersfield Town, where he signed a young player by the name of Dennis Law. Having already established his disdain for club board-members, when he was forced to accept a £45,000 transfer fee from Everton for the player he warned them that, “one day, Dennis Law will be transfered for £100,000”. Law would later be signed by Manchester Utd from Torino for £115,000 in 1962.
Bill Shankly took over from Phil Taylor as manager of Liverpool FC in 1959. He inherited a team struggling in the bottom half of the second division with poor facilities. His backroom staff, however, included future Liverpool managers Joe Fagan and Bob Paisley, and with them he created a training regime which soon brought the club back to the first division. Shankly insured full control over his team in training by insisting that they turn up at the club’s stadium, Anfield, and be bussed over to the training ground Melwood, where he checked his players’ diets for fitness and assessed each player’s accuracy. He did this by painting a goalmouth on a wall and splitting it into eight sectional targets.
Liverpool's Rise to the Top
Liverpool gained promotion into the first division after Shankly’s second full season in charge. With the team-changing signings of striker Ian St John and winger Peter Thompson (who would continue to influence the team’s attacks for eleven years), Shankly successfully fulfilled the goal upon which he had first set his sights; challenging the dominance of the blue side of Liverpool. Championship holders Everton were beaten to the top of the table in ‘63/’64, with Liverpool leading the blues by five points and bitter rivals Manchester Utd by four points. This brought Shankly’s club their sixth title to date, and their first in 17 years.
The next season saw Liverpool lift their first FA Cup after a stunning header was scored by Ian St John against Leeds Utd. The next season saw them finish first in the League once again, 6 points clear of the mighty Leeds. The last half of the sixties saw Liverpool’s first respectable campaigns in Europe, their blistering runs only being halted by European giants Inter Milan and Ajax. They were beaten in the Cup Winners Cup too by Borussia Dortmund, and Shankly and his lads now had their first taste of a European final.
Dominance in the 1970s Under Shankly
The seventies saw some older players leave and younger ones come in, players who were determined to continue Liverpool’s rise to the top. In 1972/’73, with a team which included Kevin Keegan, Steve Heighway and Ray Clemence, Liverpool won both the League title and the Uefa Cup, their first European silverware. Having put London side Tottenham Hotspur out in the semi-finals they went on to defeat German side Borussia Monchengladbach, winning 3-0 at Anfield in the first leg with goals from Keegan and Lloyd and doing enough to take the trophy with a 2-0 defeat away in Germany. This would mark the start of a long campaign in Europe which would eventually make Liverpool FC England’s most successful club
Bill Shankly's Legacy
His last season in charge, 1973/’74, brought the club their second FA cup trophy in a 3-0 win against Newcastle Utd. He likened going to tell the chairman of his retirement to facing the electric chair, and on the news spreading strikes were threatened throughout the city of Liverpool. This is a testament to how close he was to the fans, having been known to give away tickets to regulars who couldn’t find the money to attend a match. Indeed, before the 1976 second leg of the Uefa Cup final in Brugge, John Keith, writer of the play “The Bill Shankly Tribute Story”, tells us that “a fan came over and said he didn’t have a ticket, so Shanks went and bought him one”.
In a famous televised incident during a lap of honour at Anfield in April 1973, the team were parading their eighth League trophy and a scarf was thrown at Shankly. A policeman swept it to the side and Shankly, telling him “don’t do that, this might be someone’s life”, picked it up and put it on.
The fans were distraught at their most successful manager to date’s retirement. But what they weren’t to know, at this stage, was that Liverpool FC were left in the very capable hands of one Bob Paisley.
Shankly Statue at Anfield
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