Bill Shankly

AN ARTICLE BY SUPERSUB

For many of us who were around at the time, this day (29^th September) was, 40 years ago, what’s often been described as our ‘JFK moment’……we’ll always remember where we where, when we heard the news that Bill Shankly had died.  We all knew him, we all loved him, he was part of our family & his passing left a huge hole in our lives & in our hearts.

There’s very little that can be said about the man, that hasn’t already been said, so there’s no intention here to go into too much detail about his life, or what he did for this football club (& the city), but it’s just a few words to say that he’s still very much a part of our lives, every time we think about anything connected with Liverpool Football Club and, quite often, life in general.

I think it’s fair to say that without Shanks, it’s extremely unlikely that any of us would be here today, sharing our thoughts on an internet forum.  Everything that’s happened to bring supporters together from across the planet, all stems from this one man from Glenbuck, East Ayrshire.

When it came to what was happening on the pitch Shankly freely admitted that he wasn’t the greatest tactician in the world.  He was often quoted as saying that, if a footballer needed to be told what to do on the pitch, then he had no place at a professional football club. Shanks’s pre match team talk, would often just consist of him calling the opposition useless & telling the lads to just go out & play football against them & the better side would win.  Then, after we’d gone out & beaten them, he’d congratulate everyone for beating a fantastic football team. 

In the art of psyching his own players up, or psyching out the opposition, he was a true master.  Managers playing their ‘mind games’ these days, wouldn’t have stood a chance against Shankly.

There’s SO much that can be said about Shanks, that it’s practically impossible to cover everything here.  There’s his version of ‘socialism’, which resonated with many in this city at the time (and still does today, and to many more across the world).

That, in itself, has been the subject of entire books.

He’d often sort out tickets for big games for supporters who couldn’t get them & he’d also pay train fares for supporters coming home from matches.  He really was ‘one of the people’.

And there’s the ‘stories’.  Shankly stories abound & one of my favourites is maybe not as ‘out there’ as some of them, but says a helluva lot about the man himself.

Shanks often used to like to start the day with a read of the sports pages in the daily newspapers.  One time, a newspaper had gotten together with some ‘computer boffins’ & simulated a match between the current Liverpool side & an ‘England XI’ with players from the 1940’s & 50’s.

In the simulation, which Liverpool ‘won’ btw, there was also an ‘incident’ where Tom Finney (Shankly’s favourite ever player) had to be substituted, coz he was injured by a tackle by Emlyn Hughes. The Liverpool players were all in the changing room, getting ready for training, when Shanks stormed in, carrying the newspaper, which he hurled at Hughes, telling him that, if he ever harmed Finney again, he’d punch him on the ‘bloody nose’….   Then storming back out, leaving behind a bemused Emlyn Hughes, wondering what the hell he’d done.

William Shankly. He was like a God, but he was still one of us.

There have been many documentaries about Shanks and, if I was forced to recommend just the one, it’d be a tough choice, but I’d have to go for  ‘Shankly: Nature’s Fire’.  If you haven’t seen it, please do.  It’s probably the most in-depth insight into the man himself and, with contributions from his family & friends, is probably the one that brings you closer to Shanks as a person  …It’s a great (and sometimes revealing) watch.

On another note…..  We had a Champions League game last night & this was obviously written before that game was played.  I hope that we’re remembering this great man, alongside celebrating yet another victory for this great bunch of players & manager that we have right now.  Without Shankly, who knows where we’d be as a football club right now.

RIP Shanks mate & thank you for everything.