Tommy Smith
Liverpool captain called the ‘Anfield Iron’, though his hard-man reputation belied considerable skill
TOMMY SMITH, who has died aged 74, was the indomitable and intimidating captain of Liverpool in the early Seventies as Bill Shankly’s side began to attain first domestic dominance and then European glory.
A Liverpudlian himself, Smith made his debut in 1963 at 18 but only established his place in the side at the start of the 1964-65 season, when Liverpool had become First Division champions. Playing initially at righthalf, he was in the team which won the FA Cup in 1965, beating Leeds in the final, but which lost the Cup Winners’ Cup that season to Borussia Dortmund in extra-time.
Yet although they remained challengers for trophies in the five years which followed (for instance finishing runners-up to Leeds in the league in 1969), Liverpool claimed no more silverware. By 1970 Shankly had determined on a clear-out and made Smith (in whom he saw a reflection of his own gritty temperament) the new club captain.
In later life Smith regretted that his considerable abilities as a footballer had been overshadowed by his reputation for ruthlessness (given outward expression by the Mexican bandit moustache he sported). Yet at the time he embraced the challenge of personifying a team spirit which might be described as unyielding.
Even the likes of Norman Hunter and Jack Charlton acknowledged the strongly built Smith as the “hardest” player they had ever bounced off. Shankly famously quipped that Smith was “not born but quarried”, while the nickname bestowed on the centre-half by the Kop was the “Anfield Iron”.
Playing against the Swiss side Servette, Smith’s leg was laid open to the bone. He ignored it until the other players begged him to have it seen to. This led to his being given a mere half dozen stitches an inch apart by the team doctor (who downed the brandy brought to stiffen Smith’s resolve), and a prescription for penicillin. “You’re going to need it,” he was told.
Smith’s armoury included psychological as well as physical ploys. “When Jimmy Greaves came out at Anfield one time I handed him a piece of paper. He said: ‘What’s this?’ I said: ‘Just open it.’ It was the menu from the Liverpool Infirmary.”
“I didn’t go round knocking the hell out of people and I’ve never been sent off in football for a bad tackle,” observed Smith to Sue Mott of The Daily Telegraph in 2008. (He was sent off just once, for swearing at referee Clive Thomas.) “The only leg I ever broke was when I was 15 against a lad
who played for Newcastle. Forgotten his name, but I sent him a card.”
He went on: “The other tackles I put in were for the ball and if that meant hurting people in the process, well, so be it. It means next time I went in for the ball, he wasn’t there. I’d warned him. It was football. It was a game for men, not kids.”
Led by Smith, Liverpool’s golden years began in 1971, when they reached the FA Cup final (only to lose to Arsenal and Charlie George). Two years on, they took the league title ahead of the Gunners, and won the club’s first European trophy – the Uefa Cup – by beating Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Shankly had decided, however, that the team needed to be better at building from the back if it was to prosper in Europe. Phil Thompson accordingly started to displace Smith as Liverpool began to find the blend of British competitiveness and Continental skill that would lead to international success over the next few years.
Smith also lost the captaincy to Emlyn Hughes. While he eventually forgave Shankly for the snub, he never had the time of day for the chirpy Hughes. When Liverpool (now managed by Bob Paisley) won the FA Cup in 1974, the older players, who remained loyal to Smith, pushed him to the fore during the celebrations at Wembley.
Another league championship and Uefa Cup followed in 1976, although Smith was being used more sparingly, often as a full-back, and spent part of the season on loan to Tampa Bay Rowdies. The following campaign, driven by Kevin Keegan, Liverpool retained the First Division title – Smith’s fourth – and narrowly lost the FA Cup final to Manchester Utd. Then, in their 61st game of the season, they claimed their first European Cup by beating Mönchengladbach 3-1.
The decisive goal in Rome was a leaping header from Smith, who was only playing as Thompson was injured. He had announced beforehand that it would be his last match for Liverpool. In the memorable cry of the commentator Barry Davies: “It’s Tommy Smith! What an end to a career!”
An only child, Thomas Smith was born in Liverpool on April 5 1945 and grew up near Anfield. His father was a foreman at the docks but he died of pneumonia when Tommy was 14.
Thereafter, he and his mother depended on council handouts for food. When the gates at the ground would be opened near the end of a match in anticipation of spectators leaving, Tommy would sneak in to watch his idol Billy Liddell play for a few minutes.
At 15, he was taken to the club by his mother, who told Shankly to look after him. He was taken on to the ground staff, where his jobs included digging the manager’s garden. Though Tommy was originally a striker, Shankly saw him as a defender.
He turned professional at 17, having made his mark in training by beating the formidable Ron Yeats to a header. In 1963, he was part of the England side which took the World Youth Cup, although he would only go on to win a solitary full cap.
Smith in fact played for another season with Liverpool after their European Cup triumph, but he missed the 1978 final after dropping a hammer on his foot at home. He did collect a League Cup runners-up medal that year and was also appointed MBE; his salary at the time was £30,000 (about £160,000 now). He had turned out for Liverpool on 638 occasions and scored 48 goals.
He then had a spell with the Los Angeles Aztecs, managing George Best for a few matches, before helping John Toshack’s Swansea to win promotion to Division Two. Subsequently, from 1979 to 2014, he worked as a football writer for the Liverpool Echo.
His reputation suffered later when he gave an interview in which he revealed racist sentiments, notably towards black footballers such as Liverpool’s Howard Gayle. There was also controversy when, in 1996, his incapacity benefit was temporarily docked after he took a penalty at Wembley for charity.
By then, Smith’s hip had been replaced along with both knees and elbows and he could barely walk – the price of his sporting exertions. Was it worth it, he was asked? “Course it was. Football gave me my life. To be part of Liverpool for those 18 years, when we won so many things and I was captain of the team, I don’t regret it. I would go through it all again.”
His wife Sue, to whom he was married in 1964, died in 2014 from the effects of Alzheimer’s disease, with which Smith himself was then stricken. Their son and daughter survive him.