Thirty years on from his passing, we celebrate some words of
wisdom from our most iconic manager.
1. 'Some people believe football is a matter of life and
death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I
can assure you it is much, much more important than
that.'
2. 'If you are first you are first. If you are second you
are nothing.'
3. 'Liverpool was made for me and I was made for
Liverpool.'
4. 'The trouble with referees is that they know the rules,
but they don't know the game.'
5. 'Son, you'll do well here as long as you remember two
things. Don't over-eat and don't lose your accent.' - to
Ian St John when he signed for Liverpool.
6. To a journalist who suggested Liverpool were
struggling - 'Ay, here we are with problems at the top
of the league.'
7. Talking to a reporter about Roger Hunt - 'Yes Roger
Hunt misses a few, but he gets in the right place to
miss them.'
8. Explaining to Kevin Keegan what's expected of him at
Anfield - 'Just go out and drop a few hand grenade s
all over the place son!'
9. 'I know this is a sad occasion, but I think that Dixie
would be amazed to know that even in death he could
draw a bigger crowd to Goodison than Everton on a
Saturday afternoon.' - speaking at the funeral of
Everton legend Dixie Dean.
10. 'If Everton were playing at the bottom of the garden,
I'd pull the curtains.'
11. 'Sickness would not have kept me away from this one.
If I'd been dead, I would have had them bring the
casket to the ground, prop it up in the stands, and cut
a hole in the lid.' - after beating Everton in the 1971
FA Cup semi-final.
12. Addressing the Liverpool fans who turned up in their
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.'
13. After signing Ron Yeats - 'With him in defence, we
could play Arthur Askey in goal.'
14. To Alan Ball after he'd signed for Everton - 'Never
mind Alan, at least you'll be able to play next to a
great team.'
15. 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!'
16. To the players after failing to sign Lou Macari - 'I
only wanted him for the reserves anyway.'
17. To Ian St John - 'If you're not sure what to do with
the ball, just pop it in the net and we'll discuss your
options afterwards.'
18. 'In my time at Anfield we always said we had the best
two teams on Merseyside - Liverpool and Liverpool
Reserves.'
19. About the 'This is Anfield' plaque - 'This is to remind
our lads who they're playing for, and to remind the
opposition who they're playing against.'
20. 'Of course I didn't take my wife to see Rochdale as an
anniversary present. It was her birthday and would I
have got married during the football season? Anyway,
it was Rochdale Reserves.'
21. Shankly to the Brussels hotel clerk who queried his
signing 'Anfield' as his address on the hotel register -
'But that's where I live.'
22. Shankly explaining rotation to a reporter - 'Laddie, I
never drop players, I only make changes.'
23. Comparing the Anfield pitch to other grounds - 'It's
great grass at Anfield, professional grass!'
24. 'The difference between Everton and the Queen Mary
is that Everton carry more passengers!'
25. To a local barber, who in 1968 had asked 'Anything
off the top? Shanks retorted - 'Aye, Everton!'
26. On awaiting Everton's arrival for a derby game at
Anfield, Shankly gave a box of toilet rolls to the
doorman and said - 'Give them these when they arrive -
they'll need them!'
27. 'I always look in the Sunday paper to see where
Everton are in the league - starting, of course, from
the bottom up.'
28. 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!'
29. To Tommy Smith during training - 'You son, could
start a riot in a graveyard.'
30. 'There's Man Utd and Man City at the bottom of
Division One, and by God they'll take some shifting.'
31. 'It's a 90 minute game for sure. In fact I used to
train for a 190 minute game so that when the whistle
blew at the end of the match I could have played
another 90 minutes.'
32. On a wartime Scotland v England match - 'We
absolutely annihilated England. It was a massacre. We
beat them 5-4.'
33. After losing to Ajax in the 1967 European Cup - 'We
cannae play these defensive continental sides!'
34. 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!'
35. What Shanks disliked about football - 'The end of the
season.'
36. Radio Merseyside reporter to Shankly - 'Mr Shankly,
why is it that your team's unbeaten run has suddenly
ended?' Shanks replied: 'Why don't you go and jump in
the lake?'
37. On hearing a rival manager was unwell - 'I know
what's wrong - he's got a bad side!'
38. To reporters after a 3-0 defeat - 'They're nothing but
rubbish. Three breakaways, that's all they got.'
39. Talking about Tommy Smith - 'If he isn't named
Footballer of the Year, football should be stopped
and the men who picked any other player should be sent
to the Kremlin.'
40. To a translator, when being surrounded by
gesticulating Italian journalists - 'Just tell them I
completely disagree with everything they say!'
41. After winning the FA Cup in 1974 Shankly goes into
a fish and chip shop and orders a fish supper. The
woman at the counter asks - 'Mr Shankly, shouldn't
they be having steak suppers?' Shanks replied - 'No lass,
they'll get steak suppers when they win the double!'
42. To the Anfield PA during a match - 'Jesus Christ, son,
can ye no' talk into that microphone when the players
are in the penalty box. You're putting them off, you're
doing more damage than the opposition.'
43. Shankly on boardroom meetings - 'At a football club,
there's a holy trinity - the players, the manager and
the supporters. Directors don't come into it. They are
only there to sign the cheques.'
44. Talking about the Liverpool fans - 'I'm just one of
the people who stands on the kop. They think the same
as I do, and I think the same as they do. It's a kind of
marriage of people who like each other.'
45. Explaining on what the off-side rule should be - 'If a
player is not interfering with play or seeking to gain
an advantage, then he should be.'
46. 'I was only in the game for the love of football - and
I wanted to bring back happiness to the people of
Liverpool.'
47. '"If you can't make decisions in life, you're a bloody
menace. You'd be better becoming an MP!'
48. 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.'
49. After a 0-0 draw at Anfield - 'What can you do
playing against 11 goal posts!'
50. Waxing lyrical about Ian Callaghan - 'He typifies
everything that is good in football, and he has never
changed. You could stake your life on Ian.'
51. '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.'
52. '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.'
53. On the leaving of Liverpool - '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.
Source : Liverpoolfc.tv
