Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
WHILE IDOL BILLY WAS PAID £20 A WEEK, VVD WILL TROUSER £200K
LIVERPOOL’S wage bill during Bill Shankly’s time as manager is in stark contrast to the mega salaries they pay today.
While there is talk of Anfield skipper Virgil van Dijk (below) being offered a new £200,000-a-week contract, Kop heroes of the 60s – like Billy Liddell, Ian Callaghan and England World Cup-winner Roger Hunt – were averaging just £20 a week, or the equivalent of £463 today.
Although Shankly’s own pay is not included in the account sheet for August 17, 1960, the salaries of his assistants Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan, who went on to manage the Reds, are.
Paisley, manager from 1974 to 1983, took home just under £20 that week while the pay packet for Fagan, who succeeded Paisley, was a little shy of £14 as Liverpool began to make an impression after years in the doldrums.
Under Shankly’s guidance they returned to the First Division and won the League, FA Cup and UEFA Cup.
Auditing group Deloitte yesterday highlighted the financial storm enveloping the Premier League and EFL, with spiralling wages by far the biggest expense.
Yet in 1960 a top player’s wage wasn’t a great deal more than the average worker’s – a far cry from the present day when most Premier League stars earn at least £60,000 a week. In the Kop wage sheet (below) – revealed in a book by former Anfield steward Derek Anderton, who befriended a succession of managers including Shankly, Paisley, Fagan and Kenny Dalglish – a Friendship Cup game against Nantes boosted the earnings of those selected by a whopping £4.
“Ian Callaghan was paid only £2 because he was the substitute,” said Anderton. “When you see that a Liverpool legend like Billy Liddell earned £20, it shows you just how lucky today’s players are.”