Shankly declared: I could have left a monkey in charge!
BILL SHANKLY offered little public recognition for Bob Paisley’s contribution to his own success and was such a shadow after resigning that Paisley had to ask that the Scot stay away from Liverpool’s training sessions.
Behind the club’s greatest double act lay a difficult relationship.
Paisley was in the early weeks as manager when Shankly met one of the club’s young strikers at the training ground.
‘All right, son?’ Shankly said to Trevor Birch. ‘Bob’s doing well, isn’t he?’ the teenager replied.
‘Jesus Christ, son,’ Shankly retorted. ‘I could have left a monkey in charge.’
Shankly rarely credited Paisley with anything. But Paisley’s intuition about injuries helped solve some issues.
There was a problem when Kevin Keegan complained of foot discomfort. An irritated Shankly told him he was a ‘malingerer’ — one of his favoured terms for those in the treatment room. It was Paisley who searched for a solution.
‘He interrogated me about the strangest things,’ Keegan said. ‘Did I live in an attic with a lot of stairs? Was I walking up hills? Was I going horse riding? They even asked me if I had been skiing! In Liverpool?’ Eventually, Keegan’s new car, a green Capri, was seized upon as the suspect. ‘They went out and stripped the motor. It was decided one of the pedals was too stiff. For someone who wasn’t fully qualified, Bob was as good a physio as a club could have.’
In the autumn of 1974, Shankly, sensing he had made a terrible mistake in quitting, became a presence at Melwood.
When the players arrived by coach at 10am, Shankly would be in his training kit. Ostensibly, he was there to keep himself fit. In reality, he was there because he craved his old life. ‘Morning, lads,’ he would greet them. ‘Morning, boss,’ they would say awkwardly.
Shankly then proceeded to jog around the running track with them on their warm-ups. Paisley made his feelings known to chief executive Peter Robinson. ‘It’s very difficult with him there.’
The chairman pointed out to Shankly that visiting Melwood was fine, but could he please do so when the players were not there. There was no way of avoiding causing mortal offence.
Shankly abandoned Melwood and began turning up at Everton’s training ground.