Bill Shankly Bill Shankly Date of Birth: 02 Sep 1913 Birthplace: Glenbuck, Scotland First Division champions 1964, 1966, 1973 Second Division champions 1962 FA Charity Shield 1964 (shared), 1965 (shared) 1966 PROFILE: Bill Shankly is arguably the most famous figure in Liverpool Football Club's illustrious history. A charismatic man who realised his dream of turning us into English football's most dominant force, the Scot's spirit has quite rightly been immortalised in the very foundations of our club. His name is synonymous with the very meaning of the 'Liverpool way' and it is his legacy that has seen us go on and conquer Europe on no fewer than five occasions, while monopolising the domestic game for over two decades. And yet, such glory was way beyond even the most optimistic Kopites' dreams when Shanks was appointed Liverpool's ninth manager on December 1, 1959.

As the final whistle blew on his first match in charge 18 days later the prospect of Shankly's Liverpool side, languishing in 10th place in Division Two, going on to one day boast a record of three First Division titles, one Division Two title, two FA Cups and One UEFA Cup must have seemed little more than a pipedream. A 4-0 hammering at home to Cardiff City left a man who was already notorious for his outspoken comments and memorable quotes searching for the words to explain what he had just witnessed and what he must do to rectify the current state of affairs. But mighty oaks from little acorns grow... Shanks knew the side needed an injection of spirit, determination and desire to match his own and he would go on to mould a team to mirror the very same winning mentality and hunger for silverware he had had from an early age. Born into a family of 10 in the Ayrshire mining village of Glenbuck, where conditions were harsh, Shankly had found solace in his ultimate passion and would inevitably go on to realise his dream of becoming a professional footballer.

For him football in Glenbuck was the elixir of life, a blessed relief from the toil of the mineshaft. It set him on a path that would see him take leave from the town of his roots and in 1932 he signed forms with Carlisle United. Within a year, he had moved onwards and upwards to Deepdale, home of Preston North End as he carved out a distinguished playing career at wing-half that brought seven caps for Scotland. Unfortunately the prime of his playing life would be disrupted by war in 1939 and when the 1946-47 season kick-started organised professional football again in England, Shankly was 33. It was time to decide what he would do with the rest of his life and it was no surprise that his addiction to the beautiful game would see him set his sights - in true Shankly style - on becoming the greatest football manager of all time. He had already grown accustomed to what seemed like an obligatory boardroom battle as his 10-year managerial career prior to taking over in the Anfield hot-seat saw him earn his spurs with the likes of Carlisle United, Grimsby, Workington and finally Huddersfield Town.

His time with the Terriers also saw him grant a debut to an up and coming 16-year-old by the name of Denis Law. At each club he grew frustrated by the board's inability to match his own ambition and it was this single-minded approach and a lack of financial backing that saw him walk out on both Carlisle United, the club who had given him his chance as a young player, and Grimsby. This devotion to winning led T V Williams to take a keen interest in the man who had at that point been more recognised for his quick wit and acid tongue than for his success on the pitch. Shankly's ambition had been obvious when he interviewed for the Reds job in 1951 and although Liverpool felt he was not the right man at the time, he had made enough of an impression to ensure that when the job came up again, he would be the only candidate. And so to his first few months in charge of Liverpool, a time from which it is hard to understate the ordinariness of our position. Languishing in the old second division, with a crumbling stadium, poor training facilities and a large unwieldy playing staff, the challenge facing Shankly was enormous.

But typically, it was one he would relish, and after realising the need to dramatically transform the club from head-to-toe he dispensed with the services of 24 members of the playing staff. However, it wasn't just the presence of Shanks that would help sow the seeds for a future of glory. He had the good fortune to inherit an experienced and resourceful backroom staff in the shape of Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, and Reuben Bennett - a group that would form the famous bootroom. With this in his armoury, slowly but surely, Shankly's Liverpool began to move forward. The Anfield crowd sensed the change. Gates regularly topped 40,000 and promotion to the first division was imminent. The initial stage of Shankly's rebuilding programme had taken shape, thanks in large part, to the signing of two key players in Ron Yeats and Ian St John. Both were Scottish warriors, men who embodied the type of spirit and desire that would become symbolic of Liverpool under Shankly and the example by which all future recruits would be measured.

The foundations were now in place and the Reds romped away with the Second Division title in 1961-62, finishing eight points clear of their nearest rivals and amassing an impressive 62 point. All this was accomplished in the days when two points were awarded for a win and perhaps more significantly, they would achieve it all with real attacking verve - scoring 99 goals in the process. Having realised his initial target of leading Liverpool back into the topflight, Shankly set about addressing an issue much closer to home - Everton. The Blues were firmly established as the number one side in the city of Liverpool at the time and the Scottish messiah was not content to let the Toffees sustain the bragging rights for much longer. Most sides would be content with consolidation in their first season back in the topflight - but not Liverpool. The word was an unknown quantity in the Bill Shankly dictionary and by the end of the campaign he had led the Reds to the title - savouring the moment as reigning champions Everton were forced to hand over the trophy. It set the tone for the rest of Shankly's reign and led to him famously claim: "There are only two sides in Liverpool.

Liverpool and Liverpool reserves." The title was just reward for years of hard work behind the scenes, where Shanks introduced the five-a-side games that so defined his football thinking at a completely revamped Melwood. Pass and move, keep it simple, a creed taken from the daily matches played by the miners of Glenbuck all those years ago. His success was built upon a new routine whereby the players would meet and change for training at Anfield and then board the team bus for the short trip to Melwood. After the session they would all bus back to Anfield together and perhaps get a bite to eat. This way Shankly ensured all his players had warmed down correctly and he would keep his players free from injury. It was also a routine that instilled a tremendous team spirit. In the 1965-66 season Liverpool finished as champions using just 14 players and two of those only played a handful of games. The first FA Cup win in 1965 was followed by some magical European exploits across the continent as the Reds established a passing style that became the envy of the watching world. Amidst all this, stood Shankly, a man who had found his spiritual home.

He was perfectly in tune with the Kopites, knowing and understanding how they felt about football and the pride a successful team gave them. His love affair with the Liverpool people is best summed up by the great man himself when he declared: "I'm just one of the people on the Kop..." While all good things must come to an end, the decline of the great 60s team was not the end for Shankly, who set about constructing his second great Liverpool side. Out went Hunt, St John, Yeats and Lawrence, and in came Keegan, Heighway, Lloyd and Clemence. Success followed success as the football world was given a taste of Liverpool as a relentless winning machine. The first European trophy arrived in 1973, in the form of the UEFA cup, a much heralded success that was won in tandem with the club's eighth league title. In 1974 the FA Cup returned to Anfield after a breathtaking Wembley performance against a hapless Newcastle United. Shankly had reached for the stars and made his dreams a reality. He was at the pinnacle of his profession - a man exuding charisma and a manager who was deservedly worshipped by his loyal followers in the stand.

And so the events that transpired on a warm July day back in 1974 would rock not just the very foundations of the club but the entire football world. The great Bill Shankly, a name interwoven into the very fabric of our club, had tendered his shock resignation, citing the reason that, at the age of 60, he wanted to spend more time with his wife Ness and their family. The fact he left the club on a high and in such capable hands speaks volumes for the man. But how do you follow Bill Shankly? The answer would be found within the mythical walls of his famous Bootroom, with the modest figure of Bob Paisley providing an almost seamless transition from coach to boss. There is no doubt that Paisley's era as manager would prove more fruitful than Shankly's in terms of trophies won. Some may also suggest that much of what Shankly achieved would not have been possible without Bob Paisley's calm influence and knowledge of the game. But it is equally likely that without the driving force and sheer charisma of Shankly, Liverpool's spell in the doldrums in the 1950s would have reached long into the 60s.

And perhaps Bob Paisley would never have become manager at all. The fact the club contrived to bring them together at all in those dark post war days, is something the fans will be forever grateful for. Shanks may have left the club all those years ago, but his spirit will always live on, and when he died unexpectedly in September 1981 after suffering a heart attack, his loss was greatly mourned by both Liverpool and the football family. In fact his good friend Sir Matt Busby was so upset when he heard the news that he couldn't even answer the telephone that morning. In the years following his resignation, to the disbelief of the fans, relations between him and the club he so loved had become somewhat strained. But there was no such problem on the terraces. In the first game at Anfield following his funeral, a huge banner was unfurled on the Kop which read 'Shankly Lives Forever'. Indeed, his spirit is just as strong at Anfield to this day, where a statue to the great man stands before his beloved Kop and the Shankly Gates bear the immortal words "You'll never walk alone".

Bill Shankly: Life, death and football | Football | The Guardian The Observer Bill Shankly: Life, death and football Liverpool were a second-rate football team until the arrival, 50 years ago, of Bill Shankly. His drive led them to dominate English football and then Europe. When he retired, the club continued to prosper – but Shankly found they were quick to forget the man who made them Bill Shankly salutes the Anfield faithful after his Liverpool side win the league in 1973. Photograph: PA James Corbett Saturday 17 October 2009 19.27 EDT First published on Saturday 17 October 2009 19.27 EDT Share on Messenger Close In the early autumn of 1981, Bill Shankly suffered a heart attack and was rushed to Liverpool's Broadgreen Hospital. The former Liverpool manager was 68 years old and otherwise in rude health; he neither drank nor smoked, and exercised daily. Even at such a grave time there was an aura of invincibility about him.

Death had been a recurring theme in his rich litany of sayings; "When I go, I'm going to be the fittest man ever to die," he would promise, but – as with his periodic threats to quit Liverpool, through the 1960s and early 1970s – nobody believed that he would ever pass on. Shankly was, however, a man of his word. Three days later, on 29 September, he had a second, massive heart attack and died that morning. To a city still reeling from the Toxteth riots and beset by mass unemployment, news of Shankly's death was a huge blow. Like the murder of John Lennon in New York nine months earlier, his passing touched the entire city; Shankly transcended the great Liverpool-Everton divide. Bill Shankly was always more than a great football manager. He was football's Muhammad Ali: a charismatic maverick whose utterances had an unexpected, undeniable poetry.

Between his appointment as Liverpool manager in December 1959 and his retirement 15 years later, he transformed a second-rate club, stuck in the lower ranks of the Second Division, into the finest team of its generation, winning three First Division titles, two FA Cups, a Second Division title and a Uefa Cup. He led Liverpool like a revolutionary leader, casting his personnel not just as footballers but soldiers to his cause, and became a folk hero to the fans. At the same time he laid the foundations of the team that dominated the First Division and European competition for the decade that followed his retirement. Yet by the time of his death Shankly was a tragic figure, the forgotten architect of Liverpool's footballing supremacy. 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. 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.

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. "It was," said Kevin Keegan, "the saddest, saddest thing that ever happened at Liverpool." Shankly was a fit man; but he died, in the words of the former Leeds player Johnny Giles, of a broken heart. One of 10 children, Bill Shankly was born in the Ayrshire coalmining village of Glenbuck in 1913. It was a poor upbringing. His schooling was rudimentary, and although he displayed a fierce intelligence as a man, it lacked the polish of a formal education. At 14, Shankly left school and went to work at the local colliery. He spent more than two years down the pit. Football, even in an age when players' earnings were deflated by the maximum wage, was a way out. Around 50 of Glenbuck's sons, including Shankly's four brothers, made it as professional footballers in the first half of the 20th century.

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. 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 was a very enthusiastic player and a very good player," Preston legend, Sir Tom Finney tells me when we meet at Deepdale. "He talked an awful lot about the game off the field. He was always a larger than life character and he was always prepared to talk to you about your career." Even as a player, Shankly's destiny seemed to be in management. Finney says that he made a big impression on himself and the younger players. "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. In 1949, when Shankly was 36, he returned to manage Carlisle. But there was no dramatic ascendancy.

A qualified success at Brunton Park, he managed in the lower leagues for a decade, with spells in charge of Grimsby, Workington and Huddersfield. Never did a Shankly team finish higher than 12th in the Second Division during this time. Yet his infectious personality and knack of developing outstanding young players, such as Denis Law and Ray Wilson, got him noticed by bigger clubs. In November 1959 Shankly was approached by two men at the end of a Huddersfield game. One was Tom Williams, the Liverpool chairman, the other Harry Latham, a director. "How would you like to manage the best club in the country?" asked Williams. "Why?" Shankly replied, sharp as ever. "Is Matt Busby packing it in?" A few days later, Shankly was unveiled as Liverpool's new manager. To imagine the state of Liverpool FC in 1959, you must conjure something entirely different to today's institution.

It was, recalled Shankly's successor as manager, Bob Paisley, a "happy-go-lucky, slap-happy" place, with the directors content for the club, then below Shankly's Huddersfield in the Second Division, merely to get back to the top flight "and go along three or four places off the bottom". 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. Funds for transfers were rarely forthcoming. Although Shankly would transform Liverpool, the messianic qualities that brought him fame and adoration were not immediately evident. At the club's AGM after failure to win promotion in 1961, Solly Isenwater, chairman of the shareholders' association, having demanded to know if Shankly had been letting his teams take it easy, tried to hold a vote of no confidence in the board. Average attendances had already dropped from around 40,000 when Shankly took over to fewer than 30,000. Shankly turned it around, winning promotion within a year.

Supported by his clever coaches, the boot-room staff – Paisley, Joe Fagan and Reuben Bennett – that would enter club lore, he transformed Liverpool through sheer force of personality. As Keegan later said, he put "his character into the club in every facet from the bottom to the top". He instilled pride, discipline, loyalty and a relentless work ethic. He bought astutely and galvanised those new players, while ruthlessly ridding himself of those who had kept the club in mediocrity. 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. Remarkably, the First Division title was won in 1964, just two years after promotion, and again in 1966. 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. Defender Tommy Smith, the so-called "Anfield Iron", joined Liverpool as a 15-year-old in 1960 and was made captain in 1970.

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. The father-son relationship was common in Shankly's dressing room. 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. "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. His quote about football being more important than life or death, he really felt that way. He rammed it into us how important it was to be playing for Liverpool, how privileged we were to be playing for these people. We really believed that." At the decade's end Shankly refashioned his team, rebuilding it around outstanding youth team players and hungry unknowns, such as Keegan and Ray Clemence, whom he had plucked from the lower leagues.

"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. "If you had those sort of character traits you were good enough for him." 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. At the end of that game a Liverpool fan ran onto the pitch and threw himself at Shankly's feet so that he could kiss his shoes. He did not know that Anfield's messiah had just managed Liverpool for the last time. 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. A 1967 resignation letter sat in Robinson's filing cabinet, unretracted. Every summer, during the long football-less months, a kind of depression consumed Shankly. Put simply, he could not live without his daily fix of football.

In these moments of despair he would talk of "finishing", of walking out on the club and retiring. Then the players returned for pre-season training and the despondency lifted and Shankly was his ebullient self again. But in the summer of 1974, Shankly insisted that he was quitting. "I think that perhaps it was tiredness, that football had taken its toll on him," says his granddaughter, Karen Gill. 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. At a press conference on Friday 12 July, Shankly made public his decision. "It's one of those moments in time, like when Kennedy was shot," says Brian Hall. "I couldn't believe it because he was so besotted with the game, with Liverpool Football Club, and with the fans." Hall believes that the pressures of being not just a manager but an icon had taken their toll on Shankly.

"He put enormous pressure on himself," he says, "because every time he stood up in front of people, whether it be the media boys, or fans at a dinner or a school function or whatever he did, he had to produce a performance that was Shankly-like. It had to be dramatic, it had to be poignant, it had to hit nails on heads. I just have a sneaky feeling that the pressures of football management and the pressures of who he was and how he had to perform in front of people became too much in the end." "He was always on stage," says John Keith, who as the Daily Express Merseyside correspondent, knew him well. "We were all Boswells, waiting for the words to drop out of his mouth." As a player and manager Shankly had lived in a world not just of men, but one of men's men. In giving up football for family life, Shankly was turning his back on what he had known: his family was dominated by women. His attempts at domesticity failed because he just couldn't overcome his football obsession. "He lived and breathed football from morning to night. If he wasn't watching it, he'd be talking about it or playing," says Gill.

"Even when he was having lunch the whole table would turn into a massive football field and he'd be moving objects around. He couldn't get football out of his mind." Holidays to the Lancashire resort of St Anne's revolved around beachside kickabouts with hotel waiters. Everyday outings with his family, to a cafe or the shops, would be taken over by fans wanting to chat. Bill always had a word. "It was kind of annoying," says Gill. "But we had nothing to compare it to: that's just the way it always was. It was never as if there was a nice quiet period when we had him all to ourselves." Shankly soon realised that in leaving Liverpool he had made a terrible mistake and started to rail against his self-imposed exile from the game. "Retire is a terrible, silly word," he said. "They should get a new word for it. The only time you retire is when you're in a box and the flowers come out." And so, he busied himself in the only way he knew – by throwing himself back into the sport he loved.

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. This might seem unusual, but both Merseyside clubs at the time had an open door policy at their training grounds, welcoming former staff to use their facilities. Shankly, who believed physical activity to be redemptive, had come to join training with his former colleagues and stay fit. But the players still greeted him as "boss", while his reluctant successor, Bob Paisley, was just "Bob". 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. "He started taking the training," says Tommy Smith. "Prior to that, as a manager, he didn't actually take the training, he'd walk around and talk to Reuben Bennett, Joe Fagan and Bob Paisley and tell them what to do. But he started taking the training! In the end, Bob Paisley, purely for his own sanity, had to say to him: 'Bill, you don't work here any more.

This is my team here, I've got things I want to do.'" "It was difficult for Bob, having him hanging around," says Toshack. "We're not just talking about any member of the coaching staff who's retired, who just came to Melwood to have a bit of jogging around and a shower and that was it. Shanks was Liverpool; he was an institution." Eventually, with Paisley threatening to resign, Shankly was asked to stay away by the club chairman, John Smith. It was a decision Shankly bitterly resented for the rest of his days. Shankly often drew a contrast in his treatment by Liverpool and Matt Busby's at Manchester United. When Busby retired in 1969, he was given a place on the Old Trafford board and continued to play a role in the running of the club. But Shankly's relations with the Anfield board had frequently been acrimonious. "At a football club, there's a holy trinity – the players, the manager and the supporters," he once said. "Directors don't come into it.

They are only there to sign the cheques." Not normally a man to harbour grudges, he seemed to have been governed by a different set of principles in his dealings with the boardroom. 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. The 1967 resignation letter was written after he lost out on the signing of Howard Kendall by Everton. Again, Shankly blamed the board and stormed out of Anfield. He stayed away for a few days before returning, and even then sullenly refused to retract his resignation letter, while carrying on his work. "I used to fight and argue and fight and argue and fight and argue until I thought, 'Is it worthwhile all this fighting and arguing?'" Shankly said. "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." Such episodes were pardoned by Robinson, but board members were less forgiving. "When he finished he thought he was going to become a director, but the directors got their own back," says Tommy Smith.

"I don't think they were out to get him, but I think there was an opportunity whereby Bill Shankly had retired and they said: 'Right, that's it, we've got rid of him at last.'" Smith says that Shankly's predicament was an accumulation of mistakes by the board, that stemmed from their inherent misunderstanding of football matters and their treating him as a mere employee. "They didn't realise that he was a god on Merseyside because they didn't mix with the fans," he says. While Liverpool was an "ego trip" to them, for Shankly it was his life. "They knew nothing about football. They were just businessmen." John Keith believes that Shankly's huge charisma also worked against him and that Liverpool's board could not be blamed for wanting to keep him on the outside, having previously gone "on bended knee" to retain him. "He was such an overpowering figure," he says. "He wasn't like Paisley, who [later] went on the board and let the manager manage." Besides, Matt Busby's time as a Manchester United director had been a disaster, with the club relegated in 1974. Could Liverpool have risked their own back-seat driver?

While the club's treatment of Shankly at first seems shameful, in shunning him they were merely following the same relentless winning ethic that Shankly himself had instilled. And their ruthlessness was vindicated by an unprecedented haul of league titles and European Cups under Paisley. 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. Unsurprisingly, given his gift for a quip, he flourished when given media work, which, by the standards of the era, came fairly frequently. For a period, he presented his own chat show on the Liverpool station Radio City, interviewing such figures as Harold Wilson, Freddie Starr and Lulu. Sometimes he worked for the same station as a match pundit, working in the commentary box with a young Elton Welsby. Because he was so approachable, quotes from Shankly were always easy for journalists to come by. Sometimes he was manipulated: after Liverpool beat Borussia Mönchengladbach to win the European Cup in 1977, Shankly was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying his former club were not the best team in Europe.

And so the schism deepened and the discontent between club and former manager rumbled on. Some of those who met Shankly in these last years have portrayed him as a man desperate for attention. 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. It was deduced that this was so that he could position himself by the entrance of the Anfield boardroom and be seen by all the old faces – board members, former opponents, journalists – as they made their way in after the game. John Roberts, the Daily Express journalist who became Shankly's ghostwriter, rebuts this suggestion. "He was never short of an audience," he says. "Because he was always a man of the people type. I don't go along with the 'dying of a broken heart' thing. He still had a great sense of humour. A huge important slice had been taken out of his life, but he'd brought it about himself. He'd retired, they hadn't pushed him out. But he felt that he'd be annexed to Liverpool FC for life, in some capacity, and that didn't happen.

But he was still full of good humour. He'd go to Anfield, he'd go to matches, he'd still have the passion." A year after retiring, Shankly sat down and wrote his autobiography with Roberts. Perhaps the most candid passages dealt with Shankly's retirement. On his treatment by Liverpool, he wrote it was scandalous and outrageous that he should have to issue complaints about a club he had helped to build. But while Shankly's fury burned from the page, there was no sadness about him, says Roberts. Indeed Shankly remained an ebullient man. "But he did feel that he had been let down by Liverpool; by the directors, mainly." Shankly also revealed his shock that he had found solace at once-hated rivals Everton. "I have been received more warmly by Everton than I have been by Liverpool," he wrote. 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. To ambitious young managers, such as Brian Clough and Ron Atkinson, Shankly also became a counsellor.

He briefly took up advisory roles at Wrexham and Tranmere Rovers, where he helped his old protégé, Ron Yeats, who was starting out as manager. As at Melwood, the players took to calling Shankly, rather than Yeats, boss. 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. Shankly, says Toshack, was very much a help when he went into management with Swansea City in 1978. "He was in the dressing room with us at Preston when we went up that first year. 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. I can remember him walking into a room, and saying 'Jesus Christ, John, who you going to leave out, what a team you've got.' And of course some of the local lads, the Swansea lads that didn't know him, hung on every word he said." While Shankly seemingly enjoyed these experiences, they remained mere interludes.

Without more concrete roles within the professional game, he resorted to the grassroots of Merseyside soccer to get his football fix. "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. "He came down to help us for the day, and stood with me on the sidelines, offering me advice. He was a humble man, despite this reputation as a no-nonsense Scot. As an Everton fan, I'd always regarded him as the devil incarnate, but my view changed after meeting him." Shankly's modest 1930s semi-detached home on Bellefield Avenue became a place of pilgrimage for supporters and schoolboys. The Shanklys always treated such visits with patience and kindness, inviting people in for a cup of tea and passing out signed photographs to anyone who asked. On away trips he would circulate among Liverpool supporters like a concerned uncle, ensuring they had tickets or the fare to return home. Stories of Shankly handing out wads of cash or tickets to Liverpool fans are legion.

On Fridays Shankly played five-a-side in Stanley Park with ex-pro Johnny Morrissey, famous for "crossing the park" from Liverpool to Everton. "Sometimes when I asked how he was, he'd rub his knee or shin, and say 'Ah, I've got the odd twinge here, but I'll be OK, I'll be OK!"' says John Roberts. "In his mind he was still the professional footballer who'd played for Preston or Scotland. He talked as if he wanted to give the impression that he'd be fit for the next match." When there was no other game on, Shankly would head down to his local park and join in kickabouts with schoolboys. "There were always kids coming up to the front door, asking if he could come out to the bottom of the road and have a kickaround," says Karen Gill. "It was his life, he couldn't not do it, it was part of him. That's the way he kept going." The personal demons – drink, depression, poverty – that consumed other forgotten stars never afflicted Shankly. His tragedy was always more oblique than that.

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. "He was a sad figure in many ways," says John Keith. "He always wanted to be associated with football and he used to turn up in all these places. But I suppose you could say he sprinkled stardust in the dark recesses of the game." Only after his death, perhaps, did Liverpool realise what they had lost. The club hastily erected the Shankly Gates, 15-foot high cast-iron gates which stand in front of the Anfield Road stand and are inscribed "You'll Never Walk Alone". They were "unlocked" by his widow Nessie at a low-key ceremony 11 months after his death. "He would have loved to have walked through the Shankly Gates: what greater honour could you get?" says John Roberts. "But they never went up until he was dead." Kevin Keegan has suggested that only renaming Anfield the Shankly Stadium would be an appropriate memorial. "That stadium wouldn't be what it is now if it wasn't for Bill Shankly," he said in 1995.

"They might still be a club with no direction as they were when he joined. The gates are not enough, nowhere near enough and the club know that." In 1997 a seven-foot tall bronze statue of Shankly was unveiled outside the Kop; not that Liverpool paid for it – the club's sponsors, Carlsberg, funded the memorial. "Bill Shankly was probably the greatest manager in the world," said their spokesman in a tawdry exhibition of commercialism that Shankly, a teetotaller and socialist, would probably have found deplorable. 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. In January last year, Hicks and Gillett restructured their purchase of Liverpool, so that they loaded the club with £350m worth of debt. In July, despite the credit crunch, Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia agreed to refinance the deal. Liverpool supporters are effectively paying the Americans' mortgage repayments for years to come.

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. 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. 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. "The integrity of football is being ruined. Money's killed it," says Tommy Smith, who laments the loss of the more innocent age in which he starred. Karen Gill agree, "It's all about making money. Things that my grandad would never have understood or approved of." 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.

After winning the FA Cup in 1974, Shankly stood on the steps of St George's Hall, opposite Liverpool's Lime Street railway station. At least 100,000 supporters stood before him, but the crowd was hushed to an absolute silence. Then, with one hand in his pocket, and his team standing behind him, he started talking: "Since I came here to Liverpool, and to Anfield, I have drummed it into our players time and again that they are privileged to play for you. And if they didn't believe me, they believe me now." The crowd let out a cheer and started chanting his name. 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. Britain's best heavyweight is preparing to fight the fearsome, 7ft 2in Russian Nikolai Valuev – so why is he so relaxed? Published: 17 Oct 2009 Fulham fan and Test cricket convert.

No Twenty20, mind… Published: 17 Oct 2009 BBC - Liverpool - Sport - Shankly - Your memories You are in: Liverpool > Sport > Liverpool FC > Shankly - Your memories Bill Shankly Shankly - Your memories The iconic Liverpool manager Bill Shankly died 25 years ago this week. Listen to archive audio and add your memories of ‘Shanks’. Bill Shankly’s Liverpool FC career 1962 – Second Division champions 1965 – FA Cup winners, European Cup semi-finalists 1966 – First Division champions, European Cup Winners Cup finalists. Charity Shield winners 1973 – First Division champions, UEFA Cup winners 1974 – FA Cup winners Manager of Liverpool from 1959 to 1974 Bill Shankly is a legendary figure at Anfield. As the man who laid the foundations for Liverpool’s success he’s still revered by Liverpool supporters. Twenty five years ago this week, on September 29th 1981, Bill Shankly died of a heart attack at Broadgreen Hospital.

Born in Glenbuck, Scotland in 1913 Shankly’s professional playing career began at Carlisle United where he made his debut on December 31st 1932, he soon moved on to Preston North End, winning the FA Cup with the club in 1938. His career was interrupted by the Second World War. In 1949 he left Preston to become manager of Carlisle, from there he moved to Frimsby, Workington and Huddersfield before being appointed manager of Liverpool in December 1959. Liverpool at the time were struggling in the Second Division. With Shankly in charge the club won promotion to the First Division in 1962. Two years later they were First Division champions. Under Shankly’s management Liverpool went on to win the FA Cup in 1965, they were First Division champions in 1966, again in 1973 the same year they won Liverpool’s first European trophy the UEFA Cup. Liverpool won the FA Cup again in 1974 against Newcastle, Bill Shankly retired suddenly in July 1974 and was awarded the OBE in November of that year.

Listen to a special tribute programme to Bill Shankly on BBC Radio Merseyside Tuesday 26th September from 7pm. last updated: 11/10/06 Liverpool's Bill Shankly tribute hotel unveiled - BBC News BBC News Liverpool's Bill Shankly tribute hotel unveiled 13 August 2015 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Bill Shankly retired in 1974 A new £20m football-themed hotel is opening with previously unseen memorabilia of Liverpool's former manager Bill Shankly. Among items on show in the 83-bedroom Shankly Hotel are his first contract at Liverpool FC and a gift from astronaut Neil Armstrong. The hotel was unveiled earlier by ex-Reds John Aldridge and Ian Callaghan. Seventy pieces from Shankly's family's collection are on view in the former Liverpool City Council building. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Former Liverpool star Ian Callaghan will be at the unveiling The hotel features items from Shankly's time as Liverpool manager and also from his playing days with Carlisle United and Preston North End.

Exhibits include the key to the Shankly Gates, which were unveiled at Liverpool's Anfield stadium in 1982, and Nasa badges given to him by Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong when they visited the club in the 1970s. Christopher Shankly-Carline, Shankly's grandson and hotel director, said the family was proud of the venture. He added: "It really is a special moment for us." Shankly became Liverpool manager in 1959 and is credited with taking the club from English football's second tier to being a major force in Europe. Under him, Liverpool won the First Division title in 1964, 1966 and 1973, the FA Cup in 1965 for the first time in the club's history and the Uefa Cup in 1973. He retired in 1974 after winning the FA Cup for a second time.

Image caption Seventy items from the Shankly collection are on view Image caption Bill Shankly made Liverpool a major force in European football Timeline - Shankly.com - This website is a part of LFCHistory.net 02.09.1913 - William Shankly is born in Glenbuck, Scotland. 1931 - Plays for local team, Cronberry Eglinton, in Ayrshire. 1932 - Shankly moves south of the border where he joins Carlisle United in Third Division North. July 1933 - After an impressive season for Carlisle Shankly signs for 2nd division Preston North End. Preston were soon promoted as Shankly's career blossomed. 09.04.1938 - Shankly was first selected to play for his country against auld enemy England in a 1-0 win at Wembley. 30.04.1938 - Shankly's highlight as player when Preston wins the FA Cup by beating Huddersfield.

29.06.1944 - Bill marries Agnes "Nessie" Fisher 22.03.1949 - 35-year-old Shankly felt he had much more to offer as a player, but took the manager's job at Carlisle United. June 1951 - Grimsby's board felt Shankly was the right man to resurrect the club that had dropped from Division 1 to regional football in Division 3. 1951 - Liverpool interview Shankly for the vacant manager's job at Liverpool. 06.01.1954 - Shankly moves down the ladder in Third Division North, but saving Workington from extinction is a worthy challenge. 05.11.1956 - Takes over as manager of Huddersfield after coaching their reserves for 11 months. 01.12.1959 - Liverpool appoint Bill Shankly as Phil Taylor's successor in the managerial seat. 14.12.1959 - Shankly takes officially over at Liverpool after finishing his tenure at Huddersfield.

19.12.1959 - Shankly is in charge of his first Liverpool game, but it's far from an ideal start as Liverpool lose 0-4 to Cardiff. 21.04.1962 - After seven years in the 2nd division, Liverpool are promoted with five League games remaining! 18.04.1964 - Liverpool win the championship for the sixth time in their history after a 17 year wait with an impressive 5-0 win vs Arsenal at Anfield. 01.05.1965 - Liverpool win the FA Cup for the first time in the club's history. Shankly said it was his finest moment at Liverpool. 12.05.1965 - Liverpool knocked out of the semi-finals in the club's inaugural season in the European Cup. After a sensational 3-1 win at Anfield in the first leg, Inter beat the Reds 0-3 in Italy after bribing the referee! 30.04.1966 - Liverpool seal their second League title under Shankly by beating Chelsea 2-1 at Anfield.

08.05.1971 - Liverpool lose 1-2 to Arsenal in the FA Cup - Shankly delivers the famous Chairman Mao speech. 08.07.1971 - Shankly agrees a new three-year contract with Liverpool which proved to be his last. 23.04.1973 - After 7 years without a title, Liverpool win the championship by beating Leeds 2-0 at Anfield. Bill Shankly was relieved after the team's barren spell: "I think we can call ourselves champions now. I'm delighted for the players, for the club, and especially for the fans, who have again proved themselves the greatest in the world." 23.05.1973 - Liverpool beat Gladbach 3-2 on aggregrate in the two-legged UEFA Cup final, almost surrendering their 3-0 lead from Anfield. 1973 - Bill voted Manager of the year, the only time in his career! 04.05.1974 - One of the most one-sided FA Cup finals in history when Liverpool tear Newcastle to pieces 3-0 at Wembley.

12.07.1974 - The football world and the whole of Liverpool are astounded when Bill Shankly announces that he is retiring as Liverpool's manager. 10.08.1974 - Shankly is given the distinction of leading Liverpool out at Wembley vs Leeds in the Charity Shield despite retiring in the summer. 12.08.1974 - Bill Shankly officially ends his 'reign' as manager of the Reds in Billy McNeill's testimonial in front of 60,000 people at Celtic Park. 29.04.1975 - Shankly's testimonial against a Don Revie Select XI - an emotional night at Anfield. 25.05.1977 - Shankly was present in Rome when Liverpool won its first ever European Cup. "This is the greatest night in Liverpool's history. This is the result of planning, of simplicity, of how to play the game in a simple manner. I think the whole world realises that it's the way to play." 29.09.1981 - Shankly passes away. The front page of Echo read: SHANKLY IS DEAD.

It recorded the official hospital statement: "Mr Shankly suffered a cardiac arrest at 12.30 am and was certified dead at 1.20." Shanks had been battling for life since he suffered a heart attack early on Saturday morning. He had been making good progress until his condition deteriorated yesterday morning and he was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit. His wife Nessie was by his side when he died." 30.09.1981 - Liverpool face Finnish European Cup opponents, Oulu Palloseura, at Anfield. Reds won 7-0 and for the whole of second half the Kop sang Shankly's name to the tune of Amazing Grace. A banner in the middle of the crowd summed up the feelings of thousands "King Shankly lives". 03.10.1981 - An emotional Bob Paisley and John Toshack lead out their teams at Anfield in the league. Tosh, who was now the manager of Swansea, created quite a stir among the Swansea faithful when he revealed a Liverpool shirt underneath his Swansea tracksuit when Shankly was remembered before the game.

22.11.1981 - "A Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Bill Shankly" held at Liverpool Cathedral. Here you can download and listen to Bill Shankly‘s memorial service (play with Real Player ) that was broadcast on BBC Radio Merseyside from Liverpool's Cathedral. 26.08.1982 - Shankly Gates unlocked by Bill's widow, Nessie. 27.04.1997 - The Shankly memorial is erected - a fitting tribute to Shanks in his hometown, Glenbuck. 04.12.1997 - The statue of Shankly in front of the Kop is unveiled. June 1998 - The former Spion Kop end at Preston North's End ground was replaced by a new stand named the "Bill Shankly Kop", designed with different coloured seats providing an image of the great man's head and shoulders. 18.12.1999 - A mosaic on the Kop to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Bill Shankly's arrival at Anfield. Across the top of the stand was spelt the word 'SHANKS'.

Below were two images of Shanks' face flanking the Cross of St Andrew. 02.08.2002 - Nessie Shankly passes away, 82 years of age. 2002 - Bill Shankly made an inaugural inductee of the English Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his impact on the English game as a manager. 08.11.2004 - Bill is one of the original inductees into the Scottish Football Association's Hall of Fame. 01.12.2009 - 50 years since the Scottish legend signed his contract to become manager of Liverpool Football Club. 16.12.2009 - Anfield was the stage for an emotional parade of legends along with nine members of Shankly’s family. The sounds of ‘Amazing Grace’ – Shankly’s favourite hymn reverberated at half-time during the game vs Wigan Athletic. A "SHANKS LEGEND" mosaic was unveiled on the Kop prior to kick off.

17.12.2009 - Shankly is awarded an Honorary Citizenship of Liverpool in recognition of the 50th anniversary of his arrival as manager of Liverpool FC and his dedication to the region. The award was presented by Lord Mayor Mike Storey on stage during the Shankly Show at the BT Convention Centre in Liverpool. Shanks quote "We were getting beat 2-1 and laying siege to the Hammers' goal in the closing minutes. Bill Shankly clearly thought we were not going to score and headed from the stand down towards the dressing room, anticipating the final whistle. Then Kevin Keegan scored, literally with the last kick of the match. The boss heard the roar, but assumed it was the referee calling a halt to the proceedings. We all trooped into the dressing room, delighted to have secured a last-gap point. Shanks was already in there and looking exceedingly annoyed. He looked at the bubbly mood of the lads and started to have a go. He must have thought: 'Bastards! They've lost and they're all smiling.' He started to say: 'You should never lose to a team like this.' Bob started to interrupt him and he looked even angrier.

Then he heard Bob say: 'Bill, we've equalized in the last second. It was a draw.' Shanks' face went as red as the colour of the red tie he was wearing. He immediately said: 'Great result, lads. Fantastic. You deserved it.' We all started laughing but he couldn't see the funny side." PHIL THOMPSON - (Shankly was not too happy with his lot in April 1974 when The Reds drew West Ham 2-2 at Upton Park). All rights reserved - © LFCHistory.net - webmaster@lfchistory.net This site is in no way endorsed by or affiliated to Liverpool Football Club

Question: Which was the first English football club that Liverpool legend Bill Shankly managed ?
Answer: CARLISLE UNITED