How Shanks tore up the rule book to make Liverpool great

When Bill Shankly arrived at Anfield in 1959 he didn’t like what he saw, so the Scot fought all-comers to be the catalayst for a Reds resurgence

After his first match at Liverpool, a 4-0 defeat by Cardiff at Anfield in 1959, Bill Shankly knew the team was not good enough. He immediately made up his mind that the spine of the team needed strengthening. He had inherited a large squad of over 40 players, but he had to streamline the team and then introduce youngsters like Roger Hunt.

Players liked Shankly’s new training methods and emphasis on five-a-side games, and were impressed that he was coaching them rather than simply doing exercises without the ball. He based his methods on the Preston North End model. Shankly said he didn’t want marathon runners or circus artists – he wanted footballers.

Shankly made a list of 24 players who didn’t fit into his ‘footballing’ plans, but

the clear-out was gradual rather than the immediate revolution that many players had feared. He had asked the board if he could snatch Denis Law from Huddersfield, but the directors rejected the idea out of hand as too expensive. Law signed for Manchester City in March 1960 for £65,000 – way above the £18,000 that Liverpool’s board were willing to spend. Shankly then made a bold attempt to sign Jack Charlton from Leeds. He had followed Charlton’s progress for years and was convinced that Charlton, at around £20,000, was worth every penny. The Liverpool board weren’t convinced. Shankly pleaded with chairman T.V. Williams to meet Leeds’ asking price, but the answer was a resounding no. Shankly was furious and started to think the budgetary promises made by Williams and the board to get him to join Liverpool had been a deception. In the early days Shankly had to fight and argue all the time, and on many occasions he was close to leaving. He often confided in his great friend Matt Busby, who convinced him to stick it out. At other clubs Shankly had understood their limitations, but at Liverpool things were different. He saw the potential, but had to convince the directors that they couldn’t get talented players on the cheap. He felt the directors were quite happy with things as they stood, because they were getting good gates and were in the top half of the Second Division. However, fans craved success and a return to the top flight. He compared Liverpool’s directors to gamblers on a losing streak who were “afraid to bet anymore”. But Shankly was a gambler. He knew football in the 1960s was moving into a new era ‘when the strong would become stronger and the weak would become weaker’. It dawned on Shankly that, contrary to his belief that there was a £60,000 budget for players, he had been brought in to achieve stability on a shoestring. He felt betrayed. Reporters remember him ranting and raving, threatening to resign. Things had to change. The 1960-61 season started with some optimism, as Liverpool beat the recently relegated Leeds 2-0 in front of a crowd of 43,000. However, much to the disappointment of the fans and the manager himself, Liverpool hadn’t really strengthened in the close season. They had bought winger Sammy Reid from Motherwell for £8,000, but he never actually made an appearance for the club. Shankly’s next foray into the transfer market was to sign Kevin Lewis, another winger, from Sheffield United. After the failure of Reid, the directors grilled Shankly about his target, but they knew they had to replace Billy Liddell, who was then 38 years old. Shankly once again inquired about Jack Charlton, and as Leeds had been relegated they were willing to cash in, but the price had gone up to £30,000. The board gave Shankly the same answer as before, telling him he would have to be less ambitious. Years later this decision would come back to haunt the club. Don Revie built his great Leeds team around the towering defender. Shankly’s attention turned to Gordon Milne from old club Preston. He joined in August 1960 for a fee of £16,000 – a club record – but although he proved to be a useful midfield asset to the team of the 1960s, he wasn’t the domineering centre-back that Shankly craved. Early optimism turned to gloom as Liverpool lost four of their first eight matches, and by mid-october gates were back down to 25,000. Shankly had left Huddersfield because he thought they lacked ambition, and now he was stuck with the very same problem. He looked enviously over Stanley Park at the ambition of Everton. They were regarded as the bigger club and had the backing of Littlewoods Pools supremo John Moores. Manager John Carey was spending money that Shankly could only dream of, buying players like Roy Vernon for £27,000 and Alex Young and George Thomson for a combined fee of £55,000. Shankly truly felt he had been duped into accepting the job. Then something extraordinary happened. Multimillionaire Moores had been elected to the Everton board in March 1960 and wanted to take a more active role at Goodison, but still had a shareholder interest in Liverpool. He couldn’t sit on both boards without antagonising fans of both clubs, so he persuaded the Liverpool board to accept Eric Sawyer, the financial executive of Littlewoods, as his nominee. Sawyer was appointed to look after Moores’ investment in Liverpool, but Moores, as an Evertonian, could never have envisaged that this appointment would be the catalyst for Liverpool to become the global club it is today, dwarfing Everton, who were known in the 1960s as the ‘Mersey millionaires’. Everything changed the day Sawyer was appointed. At last Shankly had a man who shared his foresight, and together they ripped up the rule book. It has emerged that a boardroom minute book from the 1950s stated the club shouldn’t pay more than £12,000 for a player, and that each new signing should be seen by at least two directors and, if possible, be at least 6ft tall. The bureaucracy and outdated policy were suffocating the club, and Shankly knew it was now or never. He must have viewed the directors in much the same way as the coal miners of hometown Glenbuck viewed the pit owners. Shankly wasn’t from their world of business, secret handshakes and local government, and he didn’t trust them. He certainly didn’t trust their views on football, and resented having to justify himself to people with a fraction of his footballing knowledge. According to Shankly, Sawyer’s appointment was the beginning of Liverpool, as he was willing to spend money. He told Shankly, “If you get the players, I’ll get you the money.” Shankly had many discussions with Sawyer about the players he needed to build the foundations of a successful club, and Motherwell striker Ian St John and Dundee United centre-half Ron Yeats were never far from his mind. Then one morning in 1961, the Sunday Post ran the headline, ‘St John wants to go’. Shankly was on the phone to his new ally on the board straight away. Assured by Shankly that St John was the best centre-forward in Scotland, Sawyer backed Shankly’s judgement with the rest of the board, and Shankly travelled to Scotland with the chairman and director Sid Reakes. St John signed on May 2, 1961 for £37,500, even after interest from Newcastle, a First Division club who St John revealed were offering more money. When he met Shankly, his “personality, enthusiasm and manner overwhelmed me. He was so charismatic, he just made you want to play for him.” Attention turned to Yeats, but after spending so much on St John, Shankly feared the price tag would prove to be a problem. The board slapped a £20,000 limit on their spending, so an initial trip to Dundee proved disappointing. But as the Liverpool contingent were about to board their train home, Terrors director Duncan Hutchinson – who had given them a lift back to the station – whispered in Shankly’s ear, “I bet you could get him for £30,000.” All the way back to Liverpool Shankly kept his counsel, because he wanted to convince Sawyer privately that Yeats was the missing piece in the jigsaw. It took Sawyer’s powers of persuasion, but the directors agreed to go up to £30,000. The rule book had been ripped up. The signings of St John and Yeats were inspirational. Shankly was so confident of their quality that he told Sawyer to sack him if they couldn’t play well. He also told Reakes, “These players will not only win us promotion, they will win the cup as well.”

“IN THE EARLY DAYS HE OFTEN CAME CLOSE TO LEAVING, BUT HIS GREAT FRIEND MATT BUSBY CONVINCED HIM TO STICK IT OUT”