In an age of 24-hour rolling news channels and incessant social media activity it’s hard to imagine the impact of Bill Shankly’s unexpected retirement on July 12 1974; but such was the shock at the announcement it literally stopped folk in their tracks on the streets of Liverpool and beyond with people to this day still able to remember exactly where they were when they heard the news.
Shankly quite simply was Liverpool Football Club. He’d taken the club from an underperforming second-tier outfit to become the greatest side in the land and one of the most formidable teams on the continent in his quest to make the Reds a: “bastion of invincibility,” as he put it.
Having hung up his boots as a player at Preston North End after almost 300 games in 1949 he cut his managerial teeth with Huddersfield Town before arriving at Anfield in 1959 and was responsible for bringing the Second Division championship, three First Division titles, two FA Cups and the UEFA Cup to Liverpool.
But it wasn’t just on-field success and trophies he brought with him; Shankly would be credited with changing the whole ethos at the club from the bottom up; improving the training facilities while instilling a new found confidence and a winning mentality which the club had lacked over the previous decade, not to mention forming a unique rapport with the supporters.
So when, having just won the FA Cup the previous May against Newcastle United, Shankly decided to call it a day the announcement caused shockwaves, not just across Merseyside, but the world of football.
His decision was confirmed at a packed press conference at Anfield with Shankly flanked by members of the board of directors while Chairman John Smith read from a pre-prepared statement to a room crammed full of reporters and photographers, many of whom had been summoned at late notice.
“It is with great regret that I as chairman of Liverpool Football Club have to inform you that Mr Shankly has intimated that he wishes to retire from active participation in league football. And the board has with extreme reluctance accepted his decision. I would like to at this stage place on record the board’s great appreciation of Mr Shankly’s magnificent achievements over the period of his managership.”
When TV news reporter Tony Wilson took to the streets of Liverpool to gauge reaction he was greeted with both amazement and shock from fans young and old who appeared to not want to believe what they were hearing – feelings which were shared across the city.
“I was at school in Bootle and the rumour went around that Shankly had resigned,” singer/songwriter and front man of The Farm, Peter Hooton, tells The Sportsman. “No one believed it at first as we thought it was Evertonians having a laugh. It wasn’t until I got home and saw it on the news that believed it. I was devastated. I just couldn’t take it in.
This was a view shared by long-time Liverpool supporter Les Jackson. “I saw it on a billboard on my way back to the train station,” he recalls “I convinced myself it was a sick joke perpetrated by a Blue. I got back home for my paper round and the shop staff, customers, paper boys were in mourning. It was a massive shock at the time.”
Meanwhile, Liverpool stadium announcer and “Voice of Anfield” George Sephton, who has been working at the club since 1971, still knows exactly where he was when he heard the news. “I remember being at work and someone ringing me in shock. I was traumatised!” he explains to The Sportsman.
At the age of 60 it had become clear that living and breathing football 24-hours a day, 7 days a week, had taken its toll on Shankly, who often complained of feeling tired after games towards the end of his reign and the decision was taken to allow him to spend more time with his family.
"After the FA Cup Final I went into the dressing room and I felt tired from all the years,” Shankly later revealed. “I said to a bloke who was looking after the dressing room, 'Get me a cup of tea and a couple of pies, for Christ's sake.' When I sat down with my tea and pies, my mind was made up. If we had lost the final I would have carried on, but I thought, 'Well, we've won the Cup now and maybe it's a good time to go.' I knew I was going to finish”.
Initially he struggled in the early years of retirement as living without the day-to-day involvement of the game left a huge void in his life as he attended as many matches he could simply as a spectator at a number of clubs, including Liverpool’s nearest rivals Everton; but the legacy he left at Anfield would stand the club in good stead for years to come
The foundations he’d put in place during his 15 years in charge would result in the club becoming the greatest in Europe and enjoying the most successful period in its history under his reluctant replacement Bob Paisley, who carried on the traditions of the famous Anfield boot room while maintaining the values of his predecessor; though not all Liverpool fans believed the appointment was the correct one at the time.
“When it was announced that Bob Paisley had been appointed I asked my dad what he thought about it,” Peter Hooton reveals. “He was a season ticket holder and had been going since the early 1960s. My dad told me, ‘he won’t be any good he hasn’t got the charisma or personality of Shankly he won’t last long.’ At every opportunity, I remind him of this!”
He may not have been there for the glut of domestic and European trophies which arrived in the decade or so following his retirement; but there is nobody in the game who doesn’t believe that without Bill Shankly such riches would probably never have been achieved and Liverpool Football Club would not be the globally recognised and hugely respected name that it is today.
