... and if you know your history

Though he accepted the task of managing Liverpool Football Club on 1 December 1959 Bill Shankly didn't take charge of the club until almost a fortnight had passed. His mission was to take Liverpool from a club mired by second division mediocrity to one that would quite literally become the country's finest.

Something emphasised by the quote below.

This article was first published two years ago but in the present circumstances and given the weekend's opposition it perhaps seems appropiate that it should be reprinted now.

It is the first in a series over the next two weeks.



“My idea was to build Liverpool into a bastion of invincibility. Napoleon had that idea. He wanted to conquer the bloody world. I wanted Liverpool to be untouchable. My idea was to build Liverpool up and up until eventually everyone would have to submit and give in.” Bill Shankly



A few years ago anyone approaching Anfield from the other side of Stanley Park or if a person had a mind to cast an eye in the direction of Goodison Park would have seen a huge banner draped from the top of the Bullens Road Stand. It could hardly fail to be noticed and simply read - “and if you know your history”.

The Blues put it up there to commemorate their 125th year and no doubt to make a few points about their senior status within the City. It’s not the only missive they have addressed in such a pithy manner but history is important to football fans. As those who follow Chelsea are reminded whenever they encounter Liverpool it’s something that cannot be bought. It has to be earned.

There is no debate about Everton’s credentials but there should be an appreciation that the statement can be read or interpreted many ways and that each is as pertinent as the other.

It literally all depends on your history.

On coming to Liverpool Rafael Benitez was considered to use - at least by comparison to English standards - revolutionary, almost visionary methods of thought and practice which extended to training, preparation and many other matters relating to not just the game itself but the club. However, maybe it is more accurate to say that Rafa is as much of a football historian as he is a revolutionary. He is a man with genuine fascination about the past and pours over its relevance with as much fascination as he does the future.

He is fortunate enough to work in an age where technology ensures detailed analysis is at his fingertips. During the bootroom era the staff kept a huge handwritten book or rather set of huge books in which they noted and recorded every detail of the day’s events. Points about upcoming opponents would rarely be included. Scouts carried out that work and made meticulous reports. Other means were also employed - a seemingly friendly drink for visiting managers who would have their brains picked over while they thought they were enjoying nothing more than some hospitality rather than an interrogation. They were off their guard and all too often let information about their own club or any other slip.

Facts and figures filled the pages but not from match days. It was events at Melwood such as the five-a-sides and physical training. Any injuries being carried would be jotted down along with the treatment. There was nothing left to chance and everything no matter how slight or even trivial it may have seemed was entered into the tome. Even the weather and conditions underfoot were noted.

Over the years those dusty volumes became little short of a bible or technical manual used to diagnose problems and more importantly remedy them. It reduced lay-offs, stopped niggles before they become major injury worries, shaped training and methods far beyond the year Joe Fagan started to put pen to paper and long after Joe himself retired from management almost three decades after Bill Shankly was appointed.

If Shanks and his staff had been born in the latter half of the last century rather than first and been coaching now they would have used a computer to do exactly the same thing though it may not make finding the matter they wished to pour over any quicker than leafing through the dusty volumes. Knowledge of the entries was almost encyclopaedic.

Gathering data in the current day is little different as an exercise. Prozone, OPTA indexes and even the most basic match statistic such as shots on goal would be put into some catalogue or other with the information gleaned put to just as good a purpose.

The facts are you can learn a lot from history. More than you often expect and just as crucially not just your own.

During Bill Shankly’s first years of Anfield management he had little choice but to consolidate. His appointment was mid-season and he needed to ensure The Reds didn’t drop. Simultaneously he started putting things right off the field such as training and facilities. It was only then that he turned towards his personnel bringing in key signings and shaping a team which was kept intact. Additions were usually only made when somebody better than the player who already held the role became available or time had simply caught up with a player. There was one key requirement - each player had to fit into the team ethic. They didn’t need to be best friends off the pitch as long as they were a band of brothers on the field.

It still took two and a half seasons to escape Division Two though only another couple of years to lift the title. A first - coincidentally - in seventeen seasons. Had the great man been managing in the present day he may not have been given the chance to take charge at Liverpool. Even if he had there’s every chance he would have been hold to have been relatively mediocre at first.

Success of course can be bought. Blackburn Rovers and Chelsea are examples and although Chelsea cannot yet be said to have had their flash in the pan rising in this manner is usually a short term stay at the summit.

Keeping on top means a manager must build a team and ensuring a more prolonged period of time there he
must assemble more than one great side. There doesn’t have to be a total break up. Often there are at least one or two constant members.

These were the foundations which kept Liverpool at the top for almost twenty years and Bob Paisley
developed on what he in turn had learned and experienced to make The Reds even stronger. Anfield became far more than that bastion of invincibility Shanks stated as his aim and the rest virtually did give in.

The set-up and system was perfect from top to bottom. It’s something of an hackneyed phrase but from the
laundry room to the board room everyone had a job and knew exactly what they were aiming to achieve. Each cog was as vital in the wheel. The result was that Liverpool dominated the English game and used the lessons to do just the same in Europe. First winning a couple of UEFA Cups and then becoming the entire continent’s premier side.

Of course certain things ran in Liverpool’s favour. The game not to mention the world around it fundamentally failed to change. Consequently only the odd tinker was required. However, towards the end of the 1980s and very much during the early part of the next decade changes were not just occurring they were little more than seismic and included political factors such as the break up of the Soviet block plus expansion of the European Economic Community and vitally its legal influence.

UEFA took steps to exert their authority with a number of dictats such as limiting the number of foreign players able to be fielded. This in particular hit a club like Liverpool, which had drawn an extensive amount of talent from each home nation, particularly hard and although there was some notice it proved insufficient as a youth policy which most clubs subscribed to as the best way to cope with the demands had to be built from the ground up.

Like a number of their peers Liverpool bought many youngsters who held potential and when necessary managers were allowed to widen the purse strings considerably.

Arsene Wenger has succinctly been described as having a sense of failure if he has to dip into the transfer market to land experience rather than bring one of his youngster stars through. In his decade in charge at Arsenal he has kept true to those principles building and rebuilding sides. Sometimes his hand has been forced by circumstance rather than his own will but at no time has he ever wavered. He simply develops more prospects from a seemingly endless conveyer belt of youngsters. He may not have won a title since 2004 but has kept his side in the hunt maintaining a base on which he would hope to create a side able to dominate.

At the same time as Liverpool were forced to field reserves in the UEFA and European Cup Winners Cup Manchester United were blooding a clutch of home grown players which they interspersed with some more experienced names - foreign and domestic. As the immediate seasons rolled by the policy reaped more dividends. It was held that Alex Ferguson had been as shrewd in his methods as the man who built the last great United side to win titles Sir Matt Busby but in truth both managers were compelled to undertake the policy through austerity as much as foresight.

At the end of World War Two Manchester United like the country as a whole had very little money and a poorly maintained ground. The population was rationed for all manner of consumer items and supplies. Old Trafford was little more than a bombed out shell and although things were certainly better than that in the 1980s. Cities like Manchester and Liverpool both hubs of commerce during the early part of the century suffered from government policies which led to a decline in their traditional industries.

Alex Ferguson was forced to bring youngsters through. The Old Trafford board tightened its belt after a flash period during the early 1980s. The club rode a boom until it threatened to bust and by happy coincidence for his club those outside factors along with some luck and planning brought a very promising group of apprentices through which not only stayed together for a number of seasons but were hungry enough to fuel each other.

Manchester United recognised the need to induce capital and investment so became a public limited company adopting continental methods of financial organisation. In an increasingly cosmopolitan world it paid
off.

Just like Liverpool in the 1960s those at Manchester United had learned to adapt then imposed their own
order building a tradition which though some way short of a dynasty certainly kept them on top for a generation.

It was hard for anyone born during the heyday of Liverpool Football Club that almost two decades could pass without winning the championship. It rarely eluded the trophy cabinet for 12 months. Any longer away
than that and the situation would have been considered a crisis.

It could be said that the Reds had a corner shop approach compared to the supermarket that the Red Devils eventually adopted. Anfield was rarely a hub-bub except on match days unlike Old Trafford. It worked for a long long time as the expertise and quality of service offered exceeded the philosophy but in a world when supermarkets removed themselves from the High Streets and urban life in favour of purpose built out of town sites Liverpool became unable to compete or make the most of conditions.

Roy Evans showed that old values were still good ones but fell short. The teams he assembled should have achieved far more than a single League Cup triumph. Not only could more silverware been lifted they should have been perennial challengers for the Premiership rather than consistent European qualifiers.

That inability to go further did prompt The Reds to follow not only Arsenal but so many clubs across Europe
for guidance and appointing a foreign manager.

It may be common place now but those who had experimented with the practice such as Aston Villa hadn’t met with any success. Appointing Gerard Houllier was a huge departure from tradition. More so than Rafael Benitez as it marked the first step along that route. The sale of the club to Tom Hicks and George Gillett was a clear indication that the club will tread any path that yields success and competitiveness.

The 2001-02 season excepted when only Arsenal’s form and results matched that of Liverpool’s stride for stride little impression has been made in the league.

Though Manchester United have changed hands and are also owned by an American concern starkly it’s now they who are the exception to each of the other ‘Big 4’members. Had Alex Ferguson retired a few seasons ago there seems little doubt that his job would have gone to someone outside these shores and there is no doubting that some of their recent forays in to the transfer market domestic and worldwide have been follies - sometimes expensive ones. There has not been an aversion at Old Trafford to paying high prices and though the youth policy us still active it hasn’t brought through the same block of players since that of the 1990s and there simply isn’t time or the financial flexibility for Manchester United to have the luxury of treading water while a team is nurtured.

Rafa is aloof with his charges but so was Shanks. Players out of the first team could be virtually ignored until they were ready to return but could always be sure that Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, Ronnie Moran or Roy Evans would be warmer characters though able to provide a kick up the backside if need be until some of that number took over. Ian St John a man who possibly felt as close to Bill Shankly as any other player was dropped from the side in his early 30s which at the time meant he was never likely to return. There would seem no colder shoulder offered than that. 
 
 
Postscript - written 1 December 2009
 
These are not the only similarities to current day events.

There were huge fights not to mention horse trading with those holding the purse strings at Anfield in the 1960s. These only eased when one man director Sidney Reakes took up battle on the manager's behalf.

Criticism came in the shape of letter's to the local paper and one or two Annual General Meetings when shareholders openly questioned decisions, signings or performances.

Rafael Benitez may not be a man able to interact so freely with the fans as Shanks did. He may never address a packed crowd outside the Town Hall and command silence merely by lifting his arms to signal that hush is in order but the Spaniard has an shares ability to communicate in equally simple if less eye-catching ways.

There is little opportunity to answer thousands of emails which would cram any inbox and prepare a football team.

Nor could Rafa wheel out the trusty old typewriter of the kind Bill used to bang out letters to fans who took the time to make direct contact and while those precious items of correspondenced are still treasure by those lucky enough to have received them they would no doubt appear in newspapers, websites or round the clock TV channels.

In the internet age when anyone on the globe can pass an opinion or create blogs which are written by numbers and media screachings rather than considered if critical debate. Not to mention days of post-match radio phone-ins deliberately staged when emotions are high it is intruiging to consider how the pressure would have built on a weekly rather than daily basis.

The man who has to be considered the architect of Liverpool's domination of European football may have either resigned or been forced out by directors keen to beat the malcontents off their backs. It was something considered by those at the top but so too was a voluntary departure when it seemed backing would not be forthcoming.

Liverpool would be a very different club to the one it is now and may have hosted a very moderate standard of football. The trappings of success absent and with it a city which though passionate about the game is considered one of very ordinary acheivement.

How events pan out in years to come and what history tells us in 2059 remains just as fascinating.