Sir Kenny Dalglish has spoken fondly about his move to Liverpool and how one man in particular should be thanked for the decades off success the Anfield club has enjoyed for generations.
The legendary Scottish striker left Celtic for Merseyside in the summer of 1977 and never looked back, winning six league titles and three European Cups before going on to manage the club to a league and cup double in 1986 before winning further league titles in 1988 and 1990 as well as the FA Cup in 1989.
And in an interview with Peter Hooton for BT Sport, Dalglish recalled how he first came to Liverpool as a 15-year-old but but not actually sign for the club until 11 years later.
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Dalglish, who went onto have two spells in the Anfield dugout, said: " I was down when I was 15 and it was brilliant. I really enjoyed it. I know it was 11 years later when I came back but when I’d made my mind up that I was wanting to go, Liverpool would have been my first choice. And I’m not saying that retrospectively, I’m saying that because I knew what it was like when I came. When I came back down it was just exactly the same. The humility, the humbleness of the people, the city itself was very similar to Glasgow, with two teams - one good, one not so good. And then you’ve got the docks and the industry and people with a sense of humour. It was just perfect fit for us."
The Reds signed their new number 7 for a £440,000 fee from Celtic to replace the departing Keven Keegan. Despite the weight of expectation on his shoulders, Dalglish found the transition to his new environment an easy one and was soon buying into the club's already well-established winning mentality.
"It was fantastic. The first day at training and the players are all looking forward to the new season and to win something again, after winning the European Cup and the league championship and just missing out on the treble with the result at Wembley. I thought, 'this does me fine this', he said. "They’ve still got the hunger and the desire. That was a very important part for me. Leaving Glasgow was to try and get a European medal and they just got it. Once you’ve won something once you get a great taste for it. It’s even better when you do it the second time."
Liverpool's continuity of success was built in the club's infamous 'Boot Room', where the likes of Bill Shankly, Bon Paisley, Joe Fagan and Ronnie Moran would discuss players and tactics and masterplan victories. It was a place that Dalglish holds dear to his heart, but would never venture in off his own accord when he was just a player.
Dalglish said: "I would have thought that when I was 15 it was still there, although I was never going to venture into it. When you’d won European Cups you wouldn’t venture into it either. It was a fantastic place for the staff to be, to have somewhere to go after training, mix and talk and get things done. It was an iconic place. The furniture - you wouldn’t get it sold second hand. But it’s not about the luxuriousness of it, it’s about the people in it and the people in it were unbelievably knowledgeable about what football was and should be and how it was done. They chewed the fat in there and you cannot say they did badly.
"But they were very humble and that goes right through the history of Liverpool Football Club - the humility of the people. They just used to go in there and have a good chin wag. Obviously there was a bit of liquid involved as well but you would go in there only if you had to go, not because you weren’t welcome but because it wasn’t your place."
When it comes to the real secret to how Liverpool turned from Second Division also-rans into the kings of Europe, Dalglish believes the all followers of Liverpool should still be thanking one man - Bill Shankly.
He added: "With Shanks, anyone who has any kind of allegiance to Liverpool, you’ve just got to look back and he’s the one that everyone has got to thank. Even the ones that succeeded him and were hugely successful, Bob, Joe, Ronnie - even right up to present day. It’s because of Shanks and the things that he did and the things that he installed. It’s down to Shanks and maybe you should say that it’s down to the person who appointed Shanks, because without Shanks Liverpool would not have been the same.
"I think most of the time now when someone leaves a football club, they’ve not got a structure set in place have they? Shanks’ was set in place for looking after young boys, not just the first team. Certainly when I was down at 15 it was apparent to me that he cared about the young boys.
"Nowadays, if somebody gets the sack the whole structure’s gone. I think it’s a different ball game now. You have your first team and you have the academy. So there’s two sections. You have staff for that department and you have staff for the development of the kids. There’s no continuity anymore. If a new manager comes in, there’s five or six people out of the door and five or six more coming in. And that’s only staff. They bring everything.
"Shanks came in on his own. It worked really well for us. It’s all different now to what it was back then. A lot different."
