Liverpool and Manchester United may be the two biggest football institutions in the country (and arguably the planet) but it was not until the 1960s until the two clubs really locked horns against each other in battle for supremacy.
Their rise to prominence during that period was due to the guidance of their respective iconic Scottish managers - Bill Shankly and Matt Busby - whose influence and legacy is still felt today at Anfield and Old Trafford, the former propelling the Merseyside Reds out of eight years in the wilderness in the Second Division to league championship triumphs in 1964 and 1966 (with the club’s first ever FA Cup triumph secured in between), while the latter’s second great era of success began in earnest with title triumphs in 1965 and 1967.
Twelve months later United became the first English club to lift the European Cup that Liverpool had come so close to winning three years earlier before being denied in highly contentious circumstances, a moment of supreme triumph for Busby who a decade earlier had seen the heart of his talented young side ripped out following the Munich air disaster while being left close to death himself.
It was a remarkable achievement celebrated and respected across football and particularly at Anfield where - in addition to his close friendship with Shankly - Busby had been a much-admired club captain during his playing days before the Second World War. His association with the club could have gone on much longer had the Liverpool board given Busby what he wanted but, despite parting ways amid some acrimony, the United boss harboured no grudges and played a key role in engineering the arrivals on Merseyside of two of the most important figures in Anfield history.
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Busby initially hailed from the same Lanarkshire and Ayrshire mining villages which spawned Shankly and fellow legendary manager Jock Stein, whose Celtic team were the first British side to become European champions in 1967. Having followed his father down into the pits as a youngster, Busby was playing football part-time for Stirlingshire junior side Denny Hibs before signing for Manchester City at the age of 18 on a one-year contract worth £5 a week in 1928. A right-half who was regarded as an intelligent and cultured passer of the ball, the Scot established himself with the Maine Road side who reached the 1933 FA Cup final where they lost to Dixie Dean’s Everton before going one better and lifting the trophy the following year after victory over Portsmouth.
Liverpool snapped him up for £8,000 two years later and he slotted into a Scottish half-back line (midfield) alongside Jimmy McDougall and Tom Bradshaw ranked as one of the finest the Reds had ever possessed, Busby’s consistent excellence soon seeing him awarded the captaincy and drawing the following praise from the Liverpool ECHO in September 1936, “Busby is the richest and most practised passer the game has ever known. Hence he appears in a blinding light when compared with some other half-backs.”
The 1930s were one of the least successful decades in Liverpool history with the club going trophy-less and unable to add their third and fourth league championship triumphs at the start of the 1920s, Busby’s first seasons on Merseyside only seeing league finishes of 19th, 18th, 11th and 11th again. The arrival of two promising young players ahead of the 1939/40 campaign hinted at better days ahead only for the onset of the Second World War three games into the season to see the regular season suspended for the duration of hostilities. But by then Busby had already played a role in the acquisition of two youngsters who in time who go on to write their names into the fabric of Liverpool FC.
The previous summer Busby discovered representatives from his former club Manchester City had been in contact with the parents of one of Scotland’s most highly-rated youngsters, Billy Liddell. On learning City’s advances had been rebuffed, Busby rang Liverpool manager George Kay to suggest ‘this Liddell lad might be worth an enquiry’ and a £200 deal was agreed with the agreement the 16-year-old could continue his studies, turning professional a year later and - after the war - becoming such a talismanic figure at Anfield during another barren decade in the 1950s that the club was often nicknamed ‘Liddell-pool’.
Liddell himself later admitted he did not know who had recommended him to Liverpool and only found out years later when reading about it in Busby’s book.
“Although a Liverpool player at the time, Matt still retained many connections with Manchester City and his former colleagues at Maine Road”, he said. “During the summer he and Alex Herd used to play golf together back home in Scotland. One day Alex did not turn up for their usual round, and upon making inquiries from him later Matt learned that he had taken Willie McAndrew, the manager of Hamilton Academicals, in his car to see my parents about getting me to sign for his old club. On being told by Alex that I had turned down the invitation Matt immediately telephoned Mr. George Kay at Anfield and suggested that this Liddell lad might be worth an inquiry. 'Liddell eventually became a Liverpool player, a very fortunate day for Liverpool', says Matt, who goes on to add some complimentary remarks about me which are best left unsaid here. But let me add it was also a very fortunate day for Billy Liddell."
The other youngster to arrive at Anfield during the summer of 1939 was a 20-year-old left half by the name of Bob Paisley who had joined from amateur side Bishop Auckland. He struggled desperately with homesickness and a lack of confidence initially and it was Busby - who had experienced similar issues when he first arrived at Manchester City - who helped him find his bearings, Paisley later saying of a man who would go on to become a lifelong friend, “Matt Busby was a man you could look up to and respect. He'd played the game and people like him weren't solely tied down with tactics, which was a valuable lesson for me.”
All three served their country during the World War II, while playing football as and when they could in the war-time fixtures which still took place and often saw players guesting for whichever clubs were closest to where they were stationed. As the conflict mercifully drew to a close in the early years of 1945, Paisley and Liddell - still in the early 20s - were able to look forward to resuming their playing careers with their best years still in front of them but it was a different story for Busby who would turn 36 later that year. Having been a football coach in the Army PT corps, he now felt ready to take on a more senior position at Anfield and was eyeing the manager’s role but the club directors only offered him the job of assistant coach under current incumbent George Kay.
Manchester United meanwhile, who had tried to sign Busby from City in 1930, were looking for a new manager and their ‘fixer’, Louis Rocca, had become good friends with the Anfield skipper. On learning Liverpool had offered the Scot a job but not the one he wanted, he encouraged the United board to approach him and, once Busby received assurances he would have overall control over training, picking the team and buying and selling players - a level of control which was unprecedented in the English game at the time - he agreed to take charge at Old Trafford. Busby’s decision to leave angered the Anfield board so much they denied him the traditional farewell exhibition game which was customary for players of his standing and longevity, a slight which Busby was said to have found more hurtful than his actual departure from the club.
Busby made an immediate impact at his new club, leading United to second in the league behind Liverpool in the first official post-war season of 1946/47 before winning the FA Cup with a 4-2 win over Blackpool twelve months later - the club’s first major trophy since 1911 - being league runners-up again in 1948, 1949 and 1951 before becoming champions in 1952. With his side now beginning to show their age, Busby embarked on a rebuilding process having laid the groundwork in previous years of an outstanding youth development scheme and the emergence in the coming years of talented youngsters like Bill Foulkes, Jackie Blanchflower, Albert Scanlon, David Pegg, Billy Whelan and midfielder Duncan Edwards - rated to be the finest English player of his generation - formed the basis, alongside signings like goalkeeper Harry Gregg and forward Tommy Taylor, of the ‘Busby Babes’ who soon looked set to dominate English football for much the decade and beyond.
They won the league championship in 1956 and 1957 and became pioneers when becoming the first English club to take part in European competition. Despite the disapproval of the Football League who feared it would damage the integrity of the English game, Busby led his side into the 1956/57 European Cup where they would reach the semi-finals before being beaten by reigning champions Real Madrid who would win the trophy for the first five seasons of its existence. The following year, United had just successfully eliminated Red Star Belgrade to reach the semi-finals again when disaster struck.
Having stopped off in the German city of Munich on the way home from Belgrade to refuel, United’s 47-seater Air Ambassador ‘Elizabethan class’ charter flight crashed when attempting to take off for the second time on a snow-covered runway, the impact and subsequent explosion of fuel ultimately killing 23 of the 44 people on board. Eight of the United players - Geoff Bent (25), Roger Byrne (28), Eddie Colman (21), Mark Jones (24), David Pegg (22), Tommy Taylor (26), Liam Whelan (22) and, fifteen days after the accident, Duncan Edwards (21) - were among the fatalities, with club secretary Walter Crickmer, trainer Tom Curry and coach Bert Whalley also losing their lives.
Busby himself was severely injured and twice given the last rites, having suffered fractured ribs, a punctured and completely deflated lung and injuries to his legs which led to a member of the hospital’s medical staff informing journalists, “We do not have much hope of saving Mr Busby.”
After fighting for his life in an oxygen tent, the Scot slowly recovered from his injuries and left hospital after nine weeks but was devastated when eventually being told of the extent of the tragedy, reportedly telling his wife Jean he felt like quitting the manager’s job due to being racked with feelings of guilt over the disaster, having been the one who insisted his team should play in Europe despite opposition from the Football League (who had threatened United with a points deduction earlier in the season when delays on returning from a tie against Dukla Prague put their weekend league match in jeopardy) and for not challenging the aircraft pilot’s decision to take off in heavy snow.
He decided to continue after his wife encouraged him to do so in honour of the players who had died and, after his assistant Jimmy Murphy led the side in that May’s FA Cup final which United with a cobbled-together side lost to Bolton Wanderers, resumed his duties the following season. An inevitable period of rebuilding followed and, after constructing a new side around Munich survivors like Harry Gregg, Bobby Charlton and Bill Foulkes with new signings David Herd, Albert Quixall and Denis Law, Busby’s second era of success got underway with the 1963 FA Cup triumph at Wembley over Leicester City by which time the Manchester United manager had again given his former employers 35 miles away in Merseyside a helping hand in making a key appointment.
While United had been very much on the rise for much of the 1950s, Liverpool had been in decline suffering relegation to the Second Division in 1954 with only the heroics of Billy Liddell keeping them out of the Third Division North and league meetings against the likes of Accrington Stanley. Busby’s former Scotland team-mate Bill Shankly had reportedly been interviewed for the manager’s job at Anfield in 1951 while in charge at Carlisle United but turned it down before even being offered it once the directors made it clear he would not have full control over team selection and they intended to maintain the right to veto.
Eight years later however with the club mired in the second tier and having suffered arguably the most humiliating result in their history having been knocked out of the FA Cup by non-league Worcester City, the Liverpool board were looking to replace manager Phil Taylor and were encouraged to again try to get Shankly - now managing Huddersfield Town after spells with Grimsby and Workington - by the man who would soon become one of his biggest rivals.
"The way the men respected each other was phenomenal”, said Johnny Owen, the man behind the outstanding ‘Three Kings’ documentary about Shankly, Busby and Stein. “Busby got Shankly the Liverpool job and he knew he was going to be a rival and lesser men would have flinched from that. Famously Busby phoned Liverpool and told them that the man they wanted was Shankly, who was at Huddersfield at the time, even though he knew his old pal would be coming for him and Man United. He put the phone down and turned to Jimmy Murphy, his Welsh assistant and said 'I might regret that!' In that instant, the Liverpool-Manchester United rivalry as we know it today was born.”
Busby also spoke to Shankly to advise him to take the job at Anfield and the mutual respect between them was evident in Shankly’s response to Liverpool chairman TV Williams who asked him if he would like manage the best club in the country to which the wily Scot replied, “Why, is Matt Busby packing up?”
Having received the assurances he wanted over having full control of the team, Shankly became Liverpool manager on 1st December 1959 and began laying the foundations of the ‘bastion of invincibility’ he always envisaged, securing promotion in 1962 and helping establish the values and principles which still sees the Reds today as England’s most successful club. He was very clear though in who he thought was the best manager in the game.
"Matt Busby is without the doubt the greatest manager that ever lived”, Shankly said. “I am not saying I THINK he is the greatest manager, I am saying he IS the greatest manager. Facts can prove that.
“I happened to be stationed in Manchester when the Blitz came to the city. I saw Old Trafford a few days after the Blitz, and when I looked at it, I thought `That's the end. There will never be another football team here again.' Tommy Curry was trying to keep things going then, but there was not even any water running into the place to have a wash, so the players could train. It's the most amazing thing that this club, and this ground, has risen from this. It is a tribute to Matt Busby.
"The man was blessed with ability, and of course he used that ability. After the war, and I must say this, Matt was lucky to have a team that he could put out, even though most of them were veterans. Many teams were in the same position and got rid of their old players. But Matt kept his and added to them by signing players like Jimmy Delaney, who was an invaluable asset. Until Matt got his young boys, giving them time to get ready, he used his old players. Then, of course, came the Busby Babes, and look at the results Manchester United achieved. I don't think there was anything he has ever been short of, and he has never been short of courage to go and buy players with his own money, not sponsored by anybody - money that came through the turnstiles. He bought Denis Law and many other players, and was never afraid to dabble. He had tremendous courage, and his foresight and ability, everything a man needs to be a football manager, Matt Busby has."
Having added the ethereal talents of Northern Ireland youngster George Best to his developing side of the early 1960s, Busby’s crowning glory came in 1968 when United finally won the European Cup on an emotional night at Wembley with a 4-1 extra time victory over Portuguese champions Benfica which featured two goals from Munich survivor Bobby Charlton, the manager - who had received a CBE in 1958 - being knighted shortly afterwards.
Busby would soon step down as manager but remained a hugely influential figure at Old Trafford until his death at the age of 84 in 1994. Despite the historical rivalry between the clubs and cities and increased enmity in modern times, the Scot’s achievements and humanity has always been respected and admired by discerning Liverpool supporters, who voted him as captain of an all-time Reds XI poll in the 1960s despite his relatively undistinguished playing spell at the club.
And that respect was very much mutual, as evidenced not just by his assistance in some of LFC’s most important ever appointments but his assessment of the Anfield crowd who - had the LFC board gone about things differently - could have been lauding him as their own manager.
“Liverpool have solid support and encouragement from some of the finest followers in the land”, Busby wrote in his autobiography. “Only a man who has worn the red shirt of Liverpool, when the home team are attacking the Kop goal, knows and appreciates the value of the Kop supporters.”
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