Bob Paisley Liverpool - The Quiet Genius

the shy reluctant leader has been persuaded that this is his position on his last day here climax of nine remarkable seasons in charge of liverpool football club [Applause] but he stands back [Music] to allow his captain graham souness to accept the league championship trophy but the captain immediately passes it to the boss [Music] the reason why you get success or failure is if you get more decisions right then you do wrong they won't have a chance to be successful and he got an awful lot right and again you must have seen something in me that no one else did have you had any more ambitions left in this game yeah we need next year he was the one that made him confident [Applause] his genius was to remain an ordinary man amid great regret that mr shankly has intimated that he wishes to retire from active participation in league football legend has it that many years ago whenever a first-class football club in the north or midlands wanted a player the club manager just went to the nearest coal mine and shouted down the pitch shaft sure enough up would come a fit lad good enough to play in any first class side nowadays club manager seeking talent don't go to the pit instead they go to the local football ground well i came from a mine and family my father was a minor it was happy enough i've always been able to always had a meal a good meal and and had good health fortunately and these are two things you've got to be grateful for and i was able to carry on from right from the school and days encouraged by my family and father and brothers in the footballing world the population would be about 12 000 but of course they were just mad about football and we're fortunate at school to to be very keen i was brought up nearly at school on on professional lines because when we were at school the the teacher there was a he played a bit of football we had an old professional as a caretaker and during the lessons you would be brought out and told to go and see the caretaking where you would be given a mustard bath and a massage and the egg and surely this at schoolboy level is bored and unprofessional born in county durham in 1919 bob paisley's football talent ensured his escape from a life working in the coal mines signed by amateur side bishop auckland in 1937 where he won the amateur cup two years later paisley moved to liverpool in 1939 but the outbreak of world war ii meant a weight of seven years before making his debut in his first full season for the club he helped them to their first league championship in 24 years but three years later came a setback which would shape his entire management career he scored one of the goals that took liverpool to the 1950 fa cup final but he was dropped for the final and he said that really taught him a lesson paisley eventually retired in 1954 and joined liverpool's backroom staff by this time he was renowned throughout the country for his skills as a physiotherapist sportsman far and wide came to be treated john conte the boxer for example athletes dancers and one lovely story one sunday morning bob's in the boot room and uh the steward knocks at the door and said mr paisley hi he said there's a lady at the uh in reception with the dog she laid there so he goes and said can i help you and the woman has this greyhound he said oh mr paisley hi she said could you have a look at my dog he's got a saw paw he said i don't do dogs paisley moved through the ranks eventually becoming bill shankly's right-hand man it was a perfect double act but in 1974 shankly's retirement brought paisley to the front line [Music] ah [Applause] come on [Applause] all i wanted to do though at the end of the day was to check on the staff see their reaction and you know because you don't want to be battling against them or anything and they were all you know fours and that bill shackley was the extrovert and bob was the the introvert if you like and so they blended you know really well so from my point of view uh it didn't change an awful lot tactics the way you know bob slotted players in he could mold you know them as a team and that was a you know fantastic thing that the both of them had he certainly couldn't communicate with the press and even with the players as much as shanks but we knew him and we knew how good and how well he actually knew football there wasn't anything about football whether it was on an injury side or a football inside that he didn't know so we were confident that things would just carry on we're all sort of looking at each other thinking well how is he going to deal with us all you know and he came in and quite simply said he said look lads you know shanks has gone none of us wanted that certainly i didn't want it but he has and somebody's got to take this club on and he said i'm the one that's going to do it but he said what i'm going to do is i'm not going to change anything we're going to continue doing exactly what shanks would have wanted us to do and then we're going to try and do it better [Music] an early sign of paisley's management skill was his handling of ray kennedy bill shankly's final signing was a striker but paisley saw potential elsewhere it proved to be the first of many master strokes bob had this thing about him being a midfield player for some reason and bob even tracked down his school master in the northeast and said can you tell me about the kennedy fellow he said oh yeah at school he said he played in midfield bob said right [Applause] and he became outstanding for us scored you know 10 or 12 goals a season for us from midfield i mean he was just a fantastic left-sided player and every foreign coach liverpool came up against the first question they asked is ray kennedy playing they were frightened to death of it paisley's first season in charge was trophy-less but that was rectified in some style in 1976 liverpool secured their ninth league title and a second uefa cup against belgian side fc bruges the home game was pretty comfortable i thought the away game we needed the kevin keegan equalizer to uh together as a result in bruges but bruges um i didn't think were the best side in the world i have to say and um um i think it was a game that we would have expected to win and we did win quite comfortably in the end the following season saw paisley lead the club to even greater heights the league was one comfortably but liverpool lost the epicup final to manchester united there was no time to dwell on the defeat just four days later came the biggest match in the club's history their first european cup final in rome against borussia monchengladbach everybody was so excited this was a culmination of everything that what bob and the board had all worked for and you just knew on the day once you've seen that embankment of fans at the far end there's no way we're gonna lose this game we were told that eleven the weather was good the fans were impeccable the opposition was quite testing it helped to liberate rome in the second world war and he'd come back to rome and one of his team talk phrases in the dressing room was i beat the germans on the back of a tank now you go and do it on the field liverpool were superb winning 3-1 they became only the second english club to be crowned champions of europe [Applause] the way liverpool played that night was fantastic and it showed you how far they developed from the team shanks had left behind in 74. three years later there was this fantastic team much more sophisticated than the one shanks had left we went to the holiday instant pizzas afterwards after this wonderful win and bob is sitting in a cardigan drinking orange juice he said i'm saving every minute of this and he did he drank orange juice and all around him though having fallen off taylor champagne put out a window everything going off and there was bob sitting in his cardigan sipping orange juice tremendous you know words words fairly i've got no voice but uh tremendous after coming off wembley like they did and then to put a show like that tremendous that was something special but i wasn't begrudging them but i want to have all my faculties about it and then remember the you know the day and what had been done well we came home we had a cup of tea and we went to bed i mean he was thrilled to bits inside him but he wasn't talking a lot about it no he never did if liverpool were at the top of the tree in england paisley soon faced another challenge star player kevin keegan left the club to join german side hamburg we wondered um how the clever bob paisley would replace him the only reason i was wanting to move his forsaken ambition and and as you say i'm delighted to join liverpool and just a little bit there's a lot of success here how vital was it that liverpool should buy a star like kennedale glee to replace the star of kevin keegan well it is vital in in as much that uh the tax would have won the money would have gone to the government and unlike any other professional manager players is what it's all about and the money was there available from kevin no one said anything when the stall the well they didn't steal him they paid for him but they took him away there was no there was no cry from this side of the country like about them taken out there so all that money was available and the board instructed me to try and get the best and this is what i think in kenny i've got to get the best i'm hoping so anyway they talk about this he can do that he can go both ways and you know and all the jargon that comes with him but he's a good all-around player and all purpose playing that he's skillful he can finish he can read the game and this all adds up to good players and i like good players in my side and i think the more good players you get the better chance you have of winning swimming well in fact he replaced him with a different type of player he would have probably looked for someone else and bob paisley thankfully came in and decided he wanted me and uh let's say kevin was fantastic for liverpool football club but they moved on and i was asked to move in along with other players that he was to introduce bobby wasn't fearful of breaking up a winning formula paisley had pulled off another master stroke for a british record fee of 440 000 pounds kenny dalgliesh was signed from celtic and became quite simply the greatest player ever to represent the club [Music] he was a better player you've got to say that kenny was if anything a better player than kevin king totally different kind of player playing bob wanted him because he said we've got a passing team and we want a player who's going to play in a passing team and that was kenny paisley brought him two more scots to make up the new spine of his side central defender alan hansen and midfielder graham souness bob paisley would be the best judge of a football player um that i've known not because he just picked me and kenny douglas and allen throughout his career as a manager or throughout his career at liverpool you know the players that he brought to liverpool um even before he became manager he was responsible for scouting players as well he he was a great judge of a football player he would look at any player from the opposition and he would he would support weakness i remember six weeks into liverpool we're playing chelsea douglas is sitting next to me he comes to kenny and he says i've been watching some tapes occasionally the chelsea goalkeeper is a bit too far off he's lying six minutes into the match he's playing any kenny's feet he turns he doesn't even look up chips a goalkeeper who's on the six yard line everything he ever said was almost always right and when you have that sort of knowledge then that knowledge is respect soonest dal glich and hansen were instrumental in helping the club to a second successive european cup final in 1978 at wembley they faced fc bruges of belgium [Music] went absolutely full of liverpool fans it was only small pocket and bruges fans and it was one nil but it was one they'll go on on five or six we absolutely battered them the first time kenny got through on his own from a lovely yeah the trophy was was fantastic for zanny no for me because i scored the goal but for everything [Applause] the first british club to retain the european cup fantastic and of course by then bob was recognized not just as the man who followed shankly but the greatest manager possibly liverpool have ever had i thought i would be judged on bill's standards and if anybody goes into life and the judge done on his work and that then you know bob paisley had set his own standards but not every decision was an immediate success alan kennedy arrived from newcastle in 1978 and made an inauspicious start it was queens park rangers we hadn't played that well and to be fair like i was the worst of the lot of them i came at the dressing room and you know and i could see bob like you know looking at me he said i think they shot the wrong kennedy the personnel changed the principles did not bob made sure in my first few games that you know this you play in the liverpool way just if you see a red shirt just give it to them and and just support we all knew where we stood we had this passion and movement way of doing things at liverpool is is never standing still and we had that drummed into us throughout the week and bob knew exactly how to get the best out of us 1979 saw liverpool win their 11th league championship paisley's third in four years along the way they broke all records 68 points 85 goals scored just 16 conceded as a group of players we were ultra confident 78.79 was just sensitization because we just went up and down a country battering everybody into submission a record number of points record number goes four and a record number goals against and he came in and just and somebody said who's played 13 league games stipulated to get a medal came in with a box and he started throwing the medals a bit like you know put your hands up and you get the medals and then paisley goes to the door and says yeah congratulations you're a great team have a good summer the hard work starts when we come back here on july the 12th and that's what was all about you know if there's one word that paisley hated there was a seaward complacency i remember him talking to stevie highway one day where stego had a particular good game everybody was praising him after the game and bob just came up behind him and whispered in his ear he said don't forget steve a pat on the back is a very short distance from a kick up the back side didn't matter whether we'd won five nil against man united or we'd won three nil against southampton or whatever come monday morning it was back to work forget about that next saturday is is the big game have you had any more ambitions left in this game yeah when it next year it was the liverpool way epitomized by their manager play win move on winning was everything the medals were not important half the time he never knew where the medals were or anything else in the house i still don't know where the thing was for the european cup i found a medal in the end but they always got little trophies well i've never found never saw that i never found that one and uh no he was delighted with them he was thrilled with them but it was the actual material things you know that it didn't worry him the first for glory was never quenched the league title was won again in 1980 and the following season liverpool operate wound up in heaven because they're playing the great liverpool sea we were bigger than them in world football liverpool ran out one nil winners with the goal coming from a very unlikely source in those positions you get a bit of a rush of blood and you think yourself oh just have a go [Applause] being a liverpool fan being able to realise a dream and hold that cup aloft was just a sensational feeling with that victory bob paisley became the first manager to win three european cups missing out on that 1950 fa cup final had given paisley a ruthless streak reputation meant nothing if it impacted on the team as the man who lifted that european cup found out just six months later i just got called into his office and i thought oh what's this went in there and he took the captaincy off me he said because your captain you feel as though you're responsible so i want to take that away from you maybe hopefully it will help your game and i'll tell you what we went on and i think we only lost one more game between then and the end of the season we absolutely raced away with the league so it had its impact and that's what man management is all about ian rush became another example of paisley's genius the young striker had signed from chester but started poorly afraid to be selfish in a team of stars paisley goaded the young welshman saying he was scared of the responsibility rush responded by scoring 30 goals as liverpool claimed the league yet again in 1982 the partnership between the youthful rush and the experience dalglish was arguably the best the club had ever seen his movement was brilliant his pace it was really sharp and it could finish anyway right or left foot even in there i knew where he was going to put the ball and um i think that gave us an advantage uh over the midfield and the defense as well and obviously because i had a bit of pace then i think then suddenly i found myself you know three or four yards one-on-one with the keeper he educated himself really really well and he's probably as good as finishers with what you've seen but no just to finish up a center forward just as he did with many of his players paisley instinctively knew when to call time on his own career he announced that he would retire at the end of the 1982-83 season but not before liverpool returned to wembley for a third consecutive league cup final manchester united were beaten 2-1 in paisley's last major final and in a fitting tribute his players led by graham souness insisted bob collected the trophy himself graham smith was brilliant in what he did there and say to him listen you know we've done it for you without you we wouldn't be here and that was that was a great tribute from graham to say to uh bob you know thanks very much for all you've done for us you know we'll never forget what you've done may the 7th 1983 was bob paisley's final game at anfield thank you and fans thank you very much indeed for making this harder than it really should be someone just asked me before if you know how i felt on my last home game and i thought it really hasn't dawned on me yet but when i think around the managerial world there'll be quite a few that won't know the quality fittingly paisley's final act as manager was to pick up yet more silverware his sixth league title and 20th trophy in only nine years a phenomenal achievement [Music] what a record what a blinking record it's a hard act to follow god bless him god bless and happy retirement happy return happy retired [Music] the state of affairs from wemb earned 10 pounds a week in the winter and eight pound in the summer and we thought we were doing quite nicely i mean the whole state of living for anybody has changed from then but for bob it's changed tremendously but those of us made any difference really i was going to say those of us who don't know him obviously as well as you do would think that he's hardly changed at all as a bloke in all those years you haven't have you yeah i still give the same house keep them on here [Laughter] in 1986 kenny dalglish now player manager led liverpool to the league in fa cup paisley had taken an advisory role alongside the young scott yet throughout that season had remained largely in the background but full time at wembley saw the old stadium lit up by the smiles of the two men as the master and the pupil shared an emotional embrace [Applause] paisley remained on the board at liverpool until 1992 when ill health took its toll forcing him to step down from the club he loved [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] liverpool oh he's got three deltas liverpool to wembley for the 11th time in the last seven seasons [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey [Applause] [Music] stars with jackie bye [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Applause] [Music] i always wanted to be connected with football and you know when when i started i thought well if i can kick a ball until i die that'll do me and that's the way football has gone and i hope it keeps like that there's no way that i would have changed it that i they would i had i had to do it all over the game i would do just the same

Channel: Killie 150

Views: 129,872

Keywords: Liverpol, Liverpool, Bob Paisly

Id: Y7fvgVB1Ahs

Length: 29min 21sec (1761 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 25 2022