Thompson: Shankly will always be 'Mr Liverpool' to me

Phil Thompson, the last of the Shankly boys, has led the tributes to the Anfield legend in the week that marks the 50th anniversary of the Scot’s appointment as Liverpool manager.

Tomorrow is a half-century from the day Bill Shankly was confirmed as Liverpool boss.

And the Merseyside club will be steeped in nostalgia over the coming days as they remember the man who changed the course of their history.

There will even be a one-off anecdotal play at the Liverpool Empire on December 14, the first day that Shankly took training back in December 1959.

Heroes of the past in Ian Callaghan, Ron Yeats, Chris Lawler and Ian St John will take to the stage to tell their stories of Shankly, who died in September 1981.

For Thompson, there are memories of the day Shankly signed him as a professional.

The former England international went on to captain the 1981 European Cup-winning side in Paris ahead of a spell as assistant manager at the club.

Thompson’s memories are still vivid, as the last of the young players Shankly nurtured from the club’s youth ranks before he retired in 1974.

Former defender Thompson, 55, said: “He will always be ’Mr Liverpool’ to me.”

Shankly gave Thompson his debut at 17 and saw his protege claim an FA Cup winners’ medal against Newcastle as a 20-year-old in 1974.

Thompson said: “He was everything to me. As a young kid growing up he was everything I could remember about the club.

“By the time the ’60s came around, when things started to really pick up, Liverpool was my life and Bill Shankly was my life.

“They were the two things I lived for. Football was everything, Shanks’ words just made you feel special, proud to be a Liverpool fan.

“You related the team to Shankly, that is all there was for us in those days. Liverpool were not then the super power they have become, but in Shankly’s mind they already were.

“I doubt anyone envisaged what Shankly had been sent to Liverpool to do.”

He added: “When I started there as a player, all everyone ever wanted to ask about was what Shankly had said to me.

“They thought he was in some ivory tower and nobody got to speak to him. But he took a great interest in you and your well-being.

“People said when you were injured he didn’t want to know you. But one of my greatest memories of him was when I was injured.

“I was coming up 17, and that was when you would be asked to sign professional if you were lucky enough.

“He came up to me when I was injured – there wasn’t the medical help players have now, you were almost left to your own devices.

“And he asked me how I was – he knew my birthday was due. He wanted me to know I was going to be signed as a professional.

“The feeling he gave me then was everything, fantastic. The great man had actually taken time to reassure me and tell me I was going to be signed.

“I was the last of the Shankly boys, the kids coming through the club. I was the last youngster that he nurtured through the ranks. Soon I was just 20 and playing in the cup final.

“He had brought through the likes of Tommy Smith, Ian Callaghan, Chris Lawler and all the rest. I was the last one really.

“To be playing under Shankly as a 20-year-old was just a dream for a Liverpool fan like me. To go to work every day and listen to him. To know he trusted in me was just great.”

It is 50 years since Bill Shankly took over at Liverpool where he helped transform the club and laid the foundations for their subsequent European and domestic success.

The Scot won First Division titles, FA Cups and the UEFA Cup before leaving Anfield in 1974 when his work was continued by Bob Paisley.

Shankly was also known as a maverick and here we list some of his most famous sayings:

“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.”

“Pressure is working down the pit. Pressure is having no work at all. Pressure is trying to escape relegation on 50 shillings a week. Pressure is not the European Cup or the Championship or the Cup Final. That’s the reward.”

“If Everton were playing at the bottom of the garden, I’d pull the curtains.”

“The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they don’t know the game.”

“A lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe that you are the best and then make sure that you are. In my time at Liverpool we always said we had the best two teams in Merseyside, Liverpool and Liverpool reserves.”

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

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

“It’s there to remind our lads who they’re playing for, and to remind the opposition who they’re playing against.” On the ’This is Anfield’ plaque

“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.

“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.”