Bill Shankly citater
Bill Shankly
“Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude.
I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.”
Bill Shankly on boardroom meetings
“At a football club, there’s a holy trinity – the players, the manager and the supporters. Directors don’t come into it.
They are only there to sign the cheques, not to make them out.
We’ll do that, they just sign them.”
Bill Shankly on his relationship with the fans
“I’m just one of the people who stands on the kop.
They think the same as I do, and I think the same as they do.
It’s a kind of marriage of people who like each other.”
Bill Shankly on Tommy Smith
“If he isn’t named Footballer of the Year, football should be stopped and the men who picked any other player should be sent to the Kremlin”
Bill Shankly
“Fire in your belly comes from pride and passion in wearing the red shirt.
We don’t need to motivate players because each of them is responsible for the performance of the team as a whole.
The status of Liverpool’s players keeps them motivated.”
Bill Shankly
“Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available
to receive a pass. It is terribly simple.”
Bill Shankly to a Liverpool fan
“Where are you from?”
“I’m a Liverpool fan from London.”
“Well laddie . . . . What’s it like to be in heaven?”
Bill Shankly
“Of course I didn’t take my wife to see Rochdale as an anniversary present.
It was her birthday. Would I have got married in the football season?
Anyway, it was Rochdale reserves.”
Bill Shankly on offsides
“If a player is not interfering with play or seeking to gain an advantage, then he should be.”
Bill Shankly
“If Everton were playing at the bottom of the garden, I’d pull the curtains.”
Bill Shankly to Tommy Smith
“You son, you could start a riot in a graveyard.”
Bill Shankly on the day he signed Ian St John
“Son, you’ll do well here as long as you remember two things.
Don’t over-eat and don’t lose your accent.”
Bill Shankly to Kevin Keegan
“Just go out and drop a few hand-grenades all over the place, son.”
Bill Shankly on Brian Clough
“He’s worse than the rain in Manchester.
At least the rain in Manchester stops occasionally.”
Bill Shankly to Tommy Smith, who tried to explain that his bandaged knee was injured
“Take that bandage off.
And what do you mean about YOUR knee? It’s Liverpool’s knee!”
Bill Shankly to the journalist suggesting Liverpool were in difficulties
“Ay, here we are with problems at the top of the league.”
Bill Shankly to a translator, when being surrounded by gesticulating Italian journalists
“Just tell them I completely disagree with everything they say!”
Bill Shankly about the “This is Anfield” plaque
“It’s there to remind our lads who they’re playing for, and to remind the opposition who they’re playing against.”
Bill Shankly to Alan Ball, who’d just signed for Everton
“Don’t worry, Alan. At least you’ll be able to play close to a great team!”
Bill Shankly to a barber when asked if he wanted anything off the top
“Aye, Everton.”
A scout told Shanks about a young player who he’d given a trial at Liverpool
“He has football in his blood,” the disappointed scout complained.
“You may be right,” Shanks said, “but it hasn’t reached his legs yet!”
Bill Shankly at Dixie Dean’s funeral
“I know this is a sad occasion but I think that Dixie would be amazed to know that even in death he could draw a bigger crowd than Everton can on a Saturday Afternoon.”
Bill Shankly when told he had never experienced playing in a derby
“Nonsense! I’ve kicked every ball, headed out every cross.
I once scored a hat-trick; One was lucky, but the others were great goals.”
Bill Shankly after beating Everton in the ’71 cup semi
“Sickness would not have kept me away from this one.
If I’d been dead, I would have had them bring the casket to the ground, prop it up in the stands and cut a hole in the lid.”
Bill Shankly to a photographer who suggested Brian Clough was outspoken
“Laddie, that man scored 200 goals in 270 matches – an incredible record – and he has won cup after cup as a manager. When he talks, pin back your ears.”
Bill Shankly
“A lot of football success is in the mind.
You must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are.
In my time at Liverpool we always said we had the best two teams on Merseyside, Liverpool and Liverpool Reserves.”
Bill Shankly
“If you are first you are first. If you are second, you are nothing.”
Bill Shankly
“The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game.”
Bill Shankly to a reporter in the 60’s
“Yes, Roger Hunt misses a few, but he gets in the right place to miss them.”
Bill Shankly after signing Ron Yeats
“With him in defence, we could play Arthur Askey in goal.”
Bill Shankly after a hard fought 1-1 draw
“The best side drew.”
Bill Shankly after a 0-0 draw at Anfield
“What can you do, playing against 11 goalposts?”
Bill Shankly to the players after failing to sign Lou Macari
“I only wanted him for the reserves.”
Jock Stein on Shanks
“I don’t believe everything Bill tells me about his players. If they were that good, they’d not only have won the European Cup but the Ryder Cup, the Boat Race and even the Grand National!”
Bill Shankly talking to a Liverpool trainee
“The problem with you, son, is that all your brains are in your head”
Bill Shankly on Ian St.John
“He’s not just the best centre-forward in the British Isles, but the only one.”
Bill Shankly on Ian Callaghan
“He typifies everything that is good in football, and he has never changed.
You could stake your life on Ian.”
Bill Shankly on his resignation
“It was the most difficult thing in the world, when I went to tell the chairman.
It was like walking to the electric chair. That’s the way it felt”
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John Aldridge on Orlando, Florida during the mega-hot World Cup, 1994
“It gets like this in Liverpool when you’re on the ferry and the sun reflects off the Mersey.”
Anfield badge (1990)
“There’s only one United – the biscuit.”
Phil Boersma on the moment Souness told him that he was having a heart bypass
“He’s a vain bastard, I thought he was going to tell me that he was having a nose job.”
Ian Callaghan on Ronnie Moran
“I don’t know how I would have managed without him.
It was a big step up playing in the first team, and I don’t know how I would have coped without someone keeping an eye on me and helping me out of difficult situations. I soon learned that at Liverpool, we were essentially part of a team and depended on each other.”
Avi Cohen to Kenny Dalglish on the day that Cohen joined the club
“You, me, same.”
Dalglish, perplexed, just nodded. But when the next day Cohen said the same thing.
Dalglish said, “What are you talking about, Avi?” “You, me, same. Both learn English.”
Ray Clemence
“Sometimes I feel I’m hardly wanted in this Liverpool team.
If I get two or three saves to make I’ve had a busy day.”
Kenny Dalglish
“The people who come to watch us play, who love the team and regard it as part of their lives, would never appreciate Liverpool having a huge balance in the bank.
They want every asset we possess to be wearing a red shirt.”
Roy Evans
“I’ve been on this planet for 45 years, and have supported Liverpool for 42 of them.”
Roy Evans
“Anfield without European football is like a banquet without wine.”
Roy Evans on Ian Rush’s 600th Liverpool appearance
“He’s better than Brian Lara because he’s 600 not out. What a guy.”
Roy Evans on why he didn’t buy Chris Sutton, 1994
“If I’d agreed to pay a 21-year-old who hadn’t played for England 12,000 pounds, I would have had 10 guys knocking on my door saying that they were full internationals and that they wanted the same money.”
Roy Evans on Kevin Keegan at Newcastle, 1994
“There’s a bit of Shank’s in his mannerisms.
He gives one hundred percent, and if he believes in something he’ll go to the ends of the earth to achieve it.”
Robbie Fowler
“Anyone who doesn’t learn from Ian Rush needs shooting”
Robbie Fowler on how he celebrated the above feat, 1993
“After the Fulham game, I went round the chippy with my mates and got a big kiss from my mum when I got home!”
Bruce Grobbelaar
“Bruce Grobbelaar will play on until he is 40 – and at the top level.”
Joe Lovejoy on Bruce Grobbelaar
“The elastic eccentric.”
Emlyn Hughes
“Liverpool are magic …. Everton are tragic.”
Paul Ince
“I love tackling. It’s better than sex.”
Kevin Keegan
“The only thing I fear is missing an open goal in front of the Kop.
I would die if that were to happen.
When they start singing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ my eyes start to water.
There have been times when I’ve actually been crying while I’ve been playing”.
Kevin Keegan
“They compare Steve McManaman to Steve Heighway and he’s nothing like him, but I can see why – it’s because he’s a bit different.”
Ray Kennedy former Liverpool and England player, who has Parkinson’s disease
“I don’t want people to feel sorry for me. I’m not a cripple.
There are many worse off.”
Bob Paisley on Billy Liddell
“Bill was so strong it was unbelievable. You couldn’t shake him off the ball.
It didn’t matter where he was playing, though I suppose his best position was outside-left.
He could go round you, or past you, or even straight through you sometimes!”
Keith Burkinshaw on Liverpool
“People complain about the number of games, but when Liverpool were dominating Europe they were playing twice a week.”
Jim Rosenthal on Liverpool
“There’s nothing like second best, and Liverpool certainly are not!”
Steve McMahon
“I’d kick my own brother if necessary …
it’s what being a professional footballer is all about.”
Steve McManaman’s father
“We’ve another boy who’s ten and if he sees a tin can on his way to school, he steps over it.
Steven was the opposite.”
Brian Glanville on Jan Molby
“Molby looked corpulent enough to be playing darts for Denmark.”
Hugh McIlvanney on Jan Molby
“Beneath the drayman’s body, his feet remain as nimble as a ballet dancer’s.”
Bob Paisley
“If you’re in the penalty area and don’t know what to do with the ball, put it in the net and we’ll discuss the options later.”
Bob Paisley
“Still we’ve had the hard times too – one year we finished second.”
Bob Paisley
“There’s so many clubs been ruined by people’s ego.
The day after we won our first European Cup, we were back at 9:45 in the morning, talking about how we would do it again, working from that moment, because nobody has the right to win something they haven’t earned.”
Neil Ruddock on Liverpool’s 100% start to the 1994-95 season
“On those performances I reckon we would have taken Brazil.”
Neil Ruddock on a penalty awarded after a ‘foul’ by him on Tottenham’s Jürgen Klinsmann – David James saved the ensuing spot-kick
“I looked around and it was the usual prostrate Klinsmann.
In the end justice was done.”
Neil Ruddock on his love-handle weight problem
“I was in a hotel for six months and I just couldn’t get rid of it.”
Ian Rush
“It’s best being a striker. If you miss five, then score the winner, you’re a hero.
The goalkeeper can play a blinder, then let one in … and he’s a villain.”
Ian Rush after scoring at Chelsea in his final league game before joining Juventus
“See this shirt – I’m keeping it because it will be one of my most treasured possessions.
It’s only just beginning to sink in that it’s all over for me as Liverpool player.”
Ron Jones on Ian Rush
“Ian Rush is as quick as a needle.”
Ron Saunders on Anfield
“My team won’t freeze in the white-hot atmosphere of Anfield.”
John Scales
“For a bet I once ate three Mexican chillies.
I thought I was really smart after I’d eaten them and then about 30 seconds later I came out in a serious sweat and a horrible rash. But I won the bet and took the money.”
David Speedie when he joined Liverpool with talk of the club sliding into a crisis
“If you think this club is in crisis, you’ve never been to some of the places I have.”
Ian St. John on his winning goal in the 1965 FA Cup Final
“The goal looked as big as the Mersey Tunnel”
Tommy Smith
“I said to Kevin (Keegan)
‘I’ll go near post’ and he replied ‘No, just go for the ball’.”
Graeme Souness after Rob Jones’ debut at Manchester United
“It looks as if this boy is going to be some player.”
Graeme Souness
“Anybody who plays for me should be a bad loser.”
Graeme Souness on Robbie Fowler, when the press asked to talk to him [Fowler] after his 5-goal demolition of Fulham, 1993
“He’s not coming out. He says he wouldn’t know what to say.”
Graeme Souness (August 1987 as Rangers’ new manager)
My plans for Rangers can only be achieved by buying.
I don’t have time for young players to mature.
That could take five years, and by then I could be out of the door.
Nick Hancock on Barry Venison
“Barry Venison should be made to play in a motorcycle helmet.”
Paul Walsh when he joined Tottenham from Liverpool
“There is no sentiment at Anfield. When your number is up it’s up.”
Tommy Docherty on Mark Wright
“He’d get an injury of he went on Question of Sport.”
Elderly Bolton fan during their 2-0 defeat at Liverpool
It’s nice t’see t’lads playing in white socks again.
Fulham programme, trailing their Littlewoods Cup-tie, second leg, against Liverpool after losing the first 10-0
Should the aggregate score be level after 90 minutes, extra time will be played.
Bobby Robson (after Liverpool’s shock FA Cup Final defeat by Wimbledon)
I didn’t want Kenny to be criticised, but I’m amazed nobody said a word against him.
If England had lost at Wembley as unexpectedly as Liverpool, I would have been slaughtered.
Anonymous Southampton fan after the match-rigging allegations
I’d rather have Bruce Grobbelaar trying to lose than Dave Beasans trying to win.
David James
It’s not nice when you go into a supermarket and the woman at the till is thinking – Dodgy Keeper
Arsene Wenger, Arsenal manager, on Robbie Fowler’s protest to Gerald Ashby that he had not been fouled
by David Seaman at Highbury
It is a great gesture by Fowler and I would like to give him an award for fair play.
But if he got that I would also have to give the referee an award for stupidity.
