Today (2nd September) is the birthday of Liverpool FC's most respected manager (born in 1913).

Shankly became the manager of Liverpool in December 1959.

In 1959, Liverpool was a club in the bottom of the old Second Division, with a crumbling stadium, poor training facilities and a large and poor quality playing staff. The only quality was in the backroom staff, with Joe Fagan and Reuben Bennett, added to by the recently retired footballer Bob Paisley, whom Shankly admired.



The training ground at Melwood was in a terrible state, overgrown and with only one mains water tap. Shankly turned this into a strength, by getting the players to arrive instead at Anfield, and then bus them over to Melwood - this created team camaraderie.

At Melwood Shankly introduced fitness training including diet assessment, and skills training including using an artificial goal painted on a convenient wall, split into eight sections which he would demand the players hit each time. For playing practice, Shankly introduced five-a-side games that so defined his football thinking - pass and move, keep it simple, a creed taken from the daily matches played by the miners of Glenbuck. After training, the team would all bus back to Anfield together to shower, change and eat a communal meal. This way Shankly ensured all his players had warmed down correctly and he would keep his players free from injury.

As a result, in the 1965-1966 season Liverpool finished as champions using just 14 players and two of those only played a handful of games.

Due to his working class background, Shankly had a strong feeling for how the fans followed the team and wanted them to perform. He felt he was letting the fans down when the team didn't do well.

When he wasn't managing a football club, Shankly was usually at his typewriter, personally replying to the letters which arrived at Melwood. Shankly even called some supporters at home to discuss the previous day's game, while the accounts of him providing tickets for fans are endless.[2]

One of the most iconic images of all was caught on television, when a Liverpool scarf which had been thrown at Shankly during a lap of honour was flung to one side by a policeman, in April 1973, when he and the team were showing off the League Championship trophy to the Kop. Shankly pounced on the scarf and reprimanded the copper, uttering the immortal words "Don't do that. This might be someone's life".



After his retirement he said: "I was only in the game for the love of football - and I wanted to bring back happiness to the people of Liverpool."

The journalist John Keith, who wrote the play "The Bill Shankly Tribute Story", commented that Shankly knew how important the fans were to a successful team, and that even after his retirement, at the 1976 second leg of the UEFA Cup final in Brugge: "A fan came over and said he didn't have a ticket - so Shanks went and bought him one."

On the morning of 26 September 1981 Bill Shankly was admitted to Broadgreen Hospital following a heart attack. While in hospital he insisted on being nursed in an ordinary ward not a private one. "That is where he wanted to be," a hospital spokesman told the Liverpool Echo newspaper.[2]. His condition was stable and it appeared that he was going to make a full recovery. There was no suggestion that his life was in danger. The switchboard was jammed with concerned fans and prayers were said for him in the Sunday morning and evening services at both of the Anglican and Catholic Cathedrals.

However, late on 28 September Shankly unexpectedly took a turn for the worse and died, aged 68, at 1.20am on 29 September 1981. He was cremated, and his ashes buried at the Anfield Crematorium on 2 October.

You'll Never Walk Alone in Heaven, Sir William.