Shankly Brings Me Up When Football Gets Me Down

As a child of the ‘60s I consider it one of the greatest privileges of my time on planet earth to have witnessed a large part of the life and times of the great Bill Shankly.

Much of what follows may not be new to the reader, but for that I make no apology. You see, in the mixed-up world of modern day football,  we sometimes need to take stock, retreat to a safe place and reassure ourselves that the sport we love still has a soul, a meaning in life...that it’s worth our continued addiction and that we’re not just making fools of ourselves.

In moments when my faith is challenged—and the catalysts for challenging "the faith"’ are legions these days (overpaid egoists, debt-ridden owners, corrupt governing bodies, inept referees...I could go on!)—I need an antidote and when those moments arrive I think of Shankly.

I should clarify that this is not the nostalgic musings of a wounded Liverpool fan, they who have had more than their fair share to contend with in recent years, but the reflections of an addicted Manchester United fan (since 1965) and one who has lived that bitter rivalry as much as the next guy!

No, this has nothing to do with fan rivalry but everything to do with a unique man who transcended all that.

This man was impossible not to admire—even as a rival fan—to like...or to love. I loved Shankly.

The only thing he failed to do was change my allegiances and, typical of the man, he wouldn’t have wanted to anyway. Hyperbole infiltrates football (and life) like a rash that we constantly have to attend to, but in Shankly’s case the vocabulary is lacking. To say he was a giant of a man, a true visionary and a man of the people understates his true qualities.

Shankly’s wit and wisdom live on in history and some of his most famous observations are repeated regularly, but when you examine even a subset of his insights into the game, particularly in the context of today’s very different '‘playing field,"  it is clear that he was a man ahead of his time.

Shankly is most often quoted for his wit, but as time goes by it is the wisdom behind the wit that is most profound and defines the man as a true visionary, unmatched (not even close) by any manager since.

Nobody I have known, either before or since Shanks, ever had the charisma, the nous, the charm or the plain intelligence to make a point with such a combination of wit and insight; never offensive, mostly endearing and always from the heart. 

What follows is an analysis of just some of the immortal Shankly quotes and an attempt to put some of them into context in terms of the game as we know it today. 

Shanks on Football

“They say Football's a matter of life and death—but it's more important than that”

Probably his most immortal quote and you can’t help but feel that he meant it!

"If you can't make decisions in life, you're a bloody menace. You'd be better becoming an MP!”(politician)

Classic Shanks!

“A lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are.”

Ferguson at Manchester United seems to have picked this one up from his fellow Scot. Some other of today’s managers should take note.

On Liverpool

“This city has two great teams—Liverpool and Liverpool reserves.”

Mischievous but probably correct at the time!

“We murdered them 0-0.”

No moaning about the referee, bad tackles or the pitch. Straight to the point was Shankly’s style!

“Liverpool was made for me and I was made for Liverpool”

Never a truer word spoken! The man had little education but he knew a hell of a lot about chemistry.

Addressing the Liverpool fans who turned up in the thousands to welcome the team home despite losing to Arsenal in the 1971 FA Cup final—“Chairman Mao has never seen a greater show of red strength.”

Shankly had a "huge" relationship with the Liverpool fans and he never failed to acknowledge them.

To a translator, when being surrounded by gesticulating Italian journalists—“Just tell them I completely disagree with everything they say!”

"It was the most difficult thing in the world, when I went to tell the chairman. It was like walking to the electric chair. That's the way it felt." (On leaving Liverpool)

 That may sound like an exaggeration, but I doubt that it was.

 "They said we were predictable. Well, I think anybody who is unpredictable is a waste of time. Joe Louis was predictable. He would knock a man down on the floor. Goodbye! We were predictable, but the opposition couldn't stop us!"

 People talk endlessly about tactics these days and "Plan B" has become part of the lingo. Shankly knew better. If you're good enough, you’re good enough!

 “We were always confident, but we were never overconfident. Being cocky is a form of ignorance. It means you are talking too much and if you are guilty of that, an opponent will bring you down to earth.”

 I’d list the modern day managers and players who should take note, but I haven’t got all night!

 After a 0-0 draw at Anfield—"What can you do playing against 11 goalposts!”

Spot on, Shanks! When did this "parking the bus" nonsense show up? Ah yes, if I remember correctly it was one of those noveau, arrogant managers not fit to be in the same room as you!

“'Fire in your belly comes from pride and passion in wearing the red shirt. We don't need to motivate players because each of them is responsible for the performance of the team as a whole. The status of Liverpool's players keeps them motivated.”

 The great man must be restless in his grave observing the current crop at Anfield!

 On Rivals

“I always look in the Sunday paper to see where Everton are in the league, starting, of course, from the bottom up.”

“If Everton were playing down the bottom of my garden, I'd draw the curtains.”

“There's Man. Utd and Man. City at the bottom of Division 1, and by God they'll take some shifting.”

All delivered with a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his lips!  Inoffensive and hilarious. Today’s purveyors of sniping mind games should take note. It’s about class. You either have it or you don’t.

On Players

“If you're not sure what to do with the ball, just pop it in the net and we'll discuss your options afterwards.” (to Ian Callaghan)

To Tommy Smith after he'd turned up for training with a bandaged knee—”Take that poof bandage off, and what do you mean YOUR knee, it's LIVERPOOL'S knee!”

To Chris Lawler during a training session at Melwood—“Was it a goal? Was I offside?' Lawler replied—"You were boss." Shanks then quipped—“Christ, son, you've been here four years, hardly said a word and, when you do, it's a bloody lie!”

To Tommy Smith during training —“You son, could start a riot in a graveyard.”

Shanks and Tommy Docherty were at a game. There was a player every other club coveted on view. Docherty said to Shanks—"100,000 wouldn't buy him." Shanks retorted—“Yeah, and I'm one of the 100,000!”

Shankly was once asked how a top star of the 1970’s compared to his former Preston North End teammate Tom Finney: "Aye, he's as good as Tommy, but then Tommy's nearly 60 now.”

A scout told Shanks about a young player who he'd given a trial at Liverpool.
"He has football in his blood," the disappointed scout complained. “You may be right,” Shanks said, “but it hasn't reached his legs yet!”

 “Tommy (Smith) was never a young man. He always knew what he wanted. He was far older than his years even when I first put him in the team as a kid. He was 18 years old when he was born."

The above may emphasise Shankly’s sense of humor but, for me, they give more of an insight into his ability to relate to (bond with) people and his belief in his own judgement. Was there ever a better man manager?

On The Game

“If a player isn't interfering with play or seeking to gain an advantage, then he should be!”

How much has been written on the changes to the offside law since Shanks passed and yet has there been a more intelligent observation?

“Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple.”

One of my personal favorites! 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-5-1 etc etc. Tactics, coaching, Plan A, Plan B, Plan C. I have no doubt that if Shanks were here today he’d laugh at it all, and rightly so. Arsenal, please take note!

“If you are first you are first. If you are second you are nothing.”

Yes, underpinning the great man was an insatiable desire to win!

“The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game.”

Said long before rain forests were cut down to fuel ridiculously complex debates on the issue!

“What a great day for football, all we need is some green grass and a ball.”

Shanks could touch everybody. As a football-crazy kid I knew exactly what he meant. In fact, I wondered if he might turn up for a game!

Shankly explaining rotation to a reporter—“Laddie, I never drop players, I only make changes”'

Fair enough, it may be a different game these days but did Rafa, Fegie or Arsene ever come up with this simple wisdom?

Shanks the Scot

“Denis Law could dance on eggshells.”

On playing for the Scotland national team, Shankly remarked—"It's fantastic. You look down at your dark blue shirt and the wee lion looks up at you and says 'Get out after those English bastards!'"

"If you've got three Scots in your side, you've got a chance of winning something. If you've got any more, you're in trouble."

Shanks never took himself too seriously, but he had the rest of us rolling in the aisles.

On Fitness/Diet

“On the day of the match, three hours before the kick-off, they could have a steak or chicken or poached eggs. They did not have a cooked breakfast as well. It was simple diet and the word "simple" came into most of my football thinking in training and playing as well. I ate the same sort of food all my life and I've always been a fitness fanatic. The food players had before a match is to preserve their strength, not build it up. Players find what suits them best by trial and error. If their demand fell within the limits I laid down, that was all right. I also expected them to eat properly when they were not at the club, not to eat stupid things when they were out of control. Most of them did that but I invariably knew when any of them had stepped off the rails in any way. In any case, it usually told on their performance."

Today we have dieticians and sports psychologists! Shankly was both of those, as well as everything else with no extra fee involved!

On Coaching

Shankly never cared for FA coaching badges
"When people ask me my credentials for being a manager or a coach I have one answer... Bill Shankly. They're my qualifications, the way I was born. And that's all the qualifications anyone needs in the game I'm in. I didn't think it was necessary to take an FA coaching course. I didn't think it was going to make me any better. If I take a course am I going to be a better man six days later because I've got a piece of paper? That's nonsense.”

“As manager of Liverpool I got two FA Cup winner's medals, three championships and a Second Division championship, one UEFA Cup, three Charity Shields and six Central League winner's medals... that's 16 in 15 seasons. So I'd like them [FA coaches] to come to my coaching school! I'd have probably failed some of them."

I can’t even begin to overstate my agreement with those sentiments in the light of toady’s demands that prospective managers (ex-players) qualify for their coaching badges and cries for a return to grass roots coaching every time England tanks at an international tournament. Shanks taught me long ago that it’s about the quality of the man, screw the qualifications, and I’ve never doubted it since.

On Self

“I'm a people's man—only the people matter.”

Bill Shankly to the awaiting TV crews and journalists for the press conference to announce he was retiring from Liverpool—"Hold on a minute, John Wayne hasn't arrived yet."

Self deprecating to the last despite his pain in the moment!

When told he had never experienced playing in a derby—“Nonsense! I've kicked every ball, headed out every cross. I once scored a hat-trick; one was lucky, but the others were great goals.”

There isn’t a fan alive who can’t relate to that nor another manager who can relate to it!

I apologize if some of the above has been lost in translation because so much of Shankly was about his persona. The mischievous smile, the tongue in cheek, the animated face, the flapping hands! Shanks was pure box office, a man who could have held an audience in the palm of his hand for an entire night at the London Palladium, or any other venue you care to mention.

But most of all Shankly was a man of the people.

Not just"his" people but ALL people. In the true sense of the phrase, he was one of a kind, a genius and a personality it was impossible not to warm to.

The word legend is much overused in football, especially nowadays. In my lifetime of being a passionate football supporter, I qualify few for that level of elevation. Shanks, though, is undoubtedly one. If I rack my brains I might add Pele, but after that I need a glass of wine and some time on the patio, and even then I’m not sure that I can find anyone else worthy of gracing the same page.

Shankly felt that he should have won more trophies as Liverpool manager but the legacy he left transcends all legacies. Does anyone out there doubt that the success of his successors was not down to the foundations that he laid, the belief of the "boot room" culture that led Liverpool to be the most successful force in the history of English football? I don’t. Without Shankly none of that would have happened, period!

I read the ongoing debates about who's the greatest manager in the history of the English game., who won the most trophies, who lasted longest, Paisley, Ferguson, Busby, etc. Or, in the modern parlance Mourinho, having "done it" with different clubs. It’s all laughable and about none of those things. It’s about greatness, a trait that rises above definition and one that applied to Shankly above all others.

Who was the greatest English club manager in history? Shankly. No question. Close the book now! 

You see, Shankly wasn’t just about football, he was about life and humanity and understanding. He was about honesty and ambition, humor and the common touch.

In truth, I’m not sure I can define exactly what he was about other than to say that he touched my life, he understood me and he entertained me, and for all those things I loved him.

I’ve saved one final quote that for me, more than any other, sums him up:

"It’s the greatest thing in the world, natural enthusiasm. You are nothing without it."

He was enthusiasm personified and much, much more,  but maybe it was his infectious enthusiasm that set him apart. Yes, I know it’s all been said before and I understand that few of the quotes will not have previously been digested by the reader but, as I said, when football gets me down I need a catharsis, and memories of Shanks do the job every time!

When football gets me down I think of Shankly.

Thanks Shanks!!