Jun 7 2005
150 Years of Liverpool, by Len Capeling, Daily Post

IT is tempting to date Liverpool's true creation from the earth-shattering arrival of Bill Shankly, the most charismatic football manager ever to walk God's earth.

This is not to belittle what had gone before: including five league crowns and a magnifcent pantheon of famous sons, such as Gordon Hodgson, Elisha Scott, Harry Chambers, Dick Forshaw, Barry Nieuwenhuys, Jack Balmer, Albert Stubbins, Alan A'Court and that fabulous red fire engine, Billy Liddell.

But the Liverpool which Shanks inherited had long left the good times behind.

Rundown, and in a mess, they drifted along in the second division, never doing particularly badly, but never quite doing enough to indicate they yearned to breathe more rarefied air.

Hurricane Shankly changed all that, and so fast that you could almost believe he was sent by the angels, seizing on a favourite Hollywood plot line.

The image is an apt one. For Shankly had the strut of a young James Cagney and the iron resolve of a Harry Cohn.

Did Bob Paisley realise on that first, fateful day that a whirlwind had blown into town - a whirlwind that would propel them from the depths to the heights almost before they could draw breath?

Paisley, the faithful lieutenant until he became Liverpool's most successful manager, survived Shankly's ruthless cull, which hurried 24 players to the exit. Again, you see the hand of providence at work.

The emergence of Roger Hunt also helped Shankly in his first season - 1959-60 when Liverpool, with Dave Hickson, Ronnie Moran, Jimmy Melia and Louis Bimpson also aboard, finished a creditable third.

Hunt remains Liverpool's leading league goalscorer and his immense contribution as a dashing inside-forward alongside newcomer Ian St John would become the stuff of legend.

Shankly's first great signings were young giant Ron Yeats ("my colossus") from Dundee United and the barrel-chested, bustling St John from Motherwell.

Those with long memories - like me - will recall that the powerful Scot scored three times on his debut against Everton in a local cup competition - yet still finished on the losing side.

It was a rare loss in a glittering career that would see St John give Liverpool a shortlived anthem - When the Saints Go Marching In - and a long lease on fame.

Liverpool literally rocketed out of Division Two and quickly established themselves as one of the finest teams in the land.

Shankly's sharpshooters hit the bullseye of league champions in 1963-64 and again in 1965-66.

By now Liverpool were among the big three in the division and a star-studded team included Ian Callaghan - who would go on to play an all-time record 850 times for his boyhood heroes - the silky Peter Thompson, Gordon Milne, Willie Stevenson, Tommy Lawrence, Geoff Strong, Chris Lawler, Gerry Byrne, plus a young warrior called Tommy Smith, who appeared to have been constructed from the cobblestones that paved Scottie Road.

In full flow they were a fearsome sight and good enough - among many other things - to undo a Romany curse and an unlucky spell involving the Liver Birds to win their first FA Cup - after 73 years and 207 ties - in 1964-65, beating Leeds United with extra-time goals from Hunt and St John.

Full-back Gerry Byrne, who played most of the match with a broken collarbone, created Hunt's opener after 93 minutes.

Shankly was the Messiah. Noone luxuriating in the red half of the city doubted his genius, and yet, following another title triumph, the club suffered six lean years during which Liverpool's best finish was third.

Today, Shankly wouldn't have survived, not with European revenues so critical, but survive he did to win another league title, the UEFA Cup and, in 1974, the FA Cup, when Newcastle were eaten alive.

Then came the bombshell. At the height of his powers, Shanks quit. He'd talked before of going. This time Liverpool took him at his word and made, arguably, a greater appointment than the one that brought the craggy Scot from Huddersfield.

The contrast between the two men couldn't have been greater.

Shankly the gravel-voiced showman replaced by a Geordie wizard who used words as though they cost a fortune to produce.

By the time a reluctant Paisley switched from unsung right-hand man to Bootroom boss, some of the bricks were already in place. Kevin Keegan was a star. The team that won the FA Cup featured Liverpool's greatest-ever goalkeeper, Ray Clemence, while Phil Thompson, Emlyn Hughes, Steve Heighway, Brian Hall and John Toshack plus Smith and Callaghan, made Liverpool seem close to unbeatable.

Shankly's last bequest to Bob was the ex-Arsenal striker Ray Kennedy, a double-winner with the Gunners, whom Paisley magicked into a world-class midfielder.

From that beaten Newcastle side came another Kennedy, Alan, who became a giant, and Kirkby-born Terry McDermott, whose ability to ghost into the channels beyond defenders made him a priceless asset.

Bob took a year to ponder the possibilities - Liverpool finished as runners-up - before the least talkative of men left opponents speechless. With admiration.

Over the next eight years, his unstoppable teams would win six championships, three European Cups, one UEFA Cup, one European Super Cup, three League Cups and Charity Shields galore. An incredible 19 trophies in all.

During those glory years, in came Melwood-raised David Fair-clough, Phil Neal, Joey Jones, Jimmy Case, Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness, Alan Hansen, Sammy Lee - a youth product - Mark Lawrenson, Ian Rush, Ronnie Whelan and Craig Johnston.

All would add lustre to the Paisley years, all would make their own bit of history with Dalglish and Rush in particular providing the end product to the creative process.

And just to prove there was life after Bob the Brilliant, along came his assistant Joe Fagan, unfussily to deliver Liverpool's third successive league crown as well as the League Cup and European Cup, all in his first season as manager.

Among new arrivals were Michael Robinson, John Wark and Paul Walsh to add to the mix, to be followed later by Jim Beglin and Jan Molby, who would be a plus for Kenny Dalglish.

Heysel and its horrors left Joe Fagan in tears. He retired and Dalglish took over.

It wasn't a shock. Kenny was the obvious candidate and with an outstanding team in place he continued playing for a while and he looked, with three league titles - including the Double of league and Cup in his first season plus another FA Cup - to be in for the duration. Agonisingly, two more Doubles slid away from Kenny at the last moment.

But the Hillsborough disaster cast a terrible shadow over Liverpool and Dalglish showed his true greatness by his unstinting involvement with the victims' families.

Like Fagan after Heysel, the tragic events at Hillsborough hit Kenny especially hard. Whether it solely contributed to his eventual resignation is open to argument, but his obvious distress when he made the announcement remains a vivid memory.

We didn't know it then, but Dalglish's departure signalled the start of a steady decline at the club built by Bill and Bob.

Graeme Souness returned and won an FA Cup but wasn't up to the job, although he gave two young stars, Robbie Fowler and Steve McManaman, their big break, and brought on Jamie Red-knapp. His chief coach and Boot-room stalwart, Roy Evans, took the reins, landed a League Cup, but generally struggled to cope with the egos and, Mr Anfield - outstanding chief executive Peter Robinson - brought in French manager Gerard Houllier - a longtime Liverpool fan having taught in the city - to partner him..

It didn't work, at least not for the likeable Roy who, honourable man that he is, decided to leave the club he'd given his life to. Houllier initially rose to the challenge, went head-to-head with some of his more recalcitrant players, grafted on some backbone via Sami Hyypia and Dietmar Hamann, brought in the magisterial Gary McAllister, and promptly won the UEFA Cup, the FA Cup and the League Cup in one stunning season.

New heroes had previously emerged. Robbie Fowler would be known to his team-mates as God - scoring his first hundred goals faster than the phenomenal Ian Rush - until falling to earth and departing.

McManaman beat him to the exit, leaving hardly amicably for Real Madrid. But Liverpool, as ever, discovered a brand-new hero in the goal-hungry England wonder-boy Michael Owen.

As if that wasn't enough, another giant talent emerged in the shape of Steven Gerrard. And things seemed wonderful.

They weren't.

The league, the greatest prize of all to Liverpool, proved beyond Houllier, just as it had proved beyond Souness and Evans. Houllier was sacked, expensively, along with his combative assistant, Phil Thompson, one of Shankly's greats.

And so to life after Houllier as Liverpool looked to Spain and Rafael Benitez. He will enter the new season hoping for less of a hospital emergency-look to proceedings, yet buoyed by adding an unforgettable fifth European Cup to the honours list.

Coincidence abounded as Liverpool triumphed in Istanbul. Next season will mark the centenary of Liverpool's capture of the second of their 18 league crowns. They had also won the first title of the 20th Century, nine years on from their acrimonious split with Everton.

Their first side was packed with Scots - a half--dozen in all - and although they were six years behind their bitter rivals in getting to the Football League, they took only six years of first division football to win their first championship, and followed that in 1906 with their second.

Records paint a picture of a roll-ercoaster club, one year up, the next year down.

They were destined to claim back-to-back titles in 1922 and 1923 and then won nothing until 1947 when a team containing Jackie Balmer, Albert Stubbins and the young Liddell and a certain powerful wing-half called Paisley took the championship, in a season extended into June by a blizzard of a winter.

Liddell became an enduring legend, so much so that the team he represented became known as Liddellpool. Alan A'Court was another star at the time, and faithful servant Ronnie Moran was also around. Liddell scored lots of goals and won thousands of admirers for his lung-bursting endeavours, whether as winger or bustling centre-forward.

But Liverpool never reached those dizzy heights again - one Cup final apart - until Shankly arrived at a rundown Anfield to make the dead walk and along with Bob Paisley make Liverpool the best team in Europe. Bar none.