Alex Ferguson never made any secret of his main priority when he took charge of Manchester United.
Knocking Liverpool off their fabled perch looked a mountainous task when the Scot arrived at Old Trafford in November 1986 but by the time he began the final season of his 26-year reign, he had engineered the Red Devils past Anfield’s seemingly unsurpassable total of 18 league championships and would extend that further the following May.
Ferguson’s stature, authority and influence within the game exuded a power which reached far beyond his own dressing room and club, with many Liverpool supporters having longed bemoaned the failure of many to face down and challenge the firebrand manager.
So when on his final visit to Anfield as Manchester United manager, one of Liverpool’s young players took it upon himself to wag a finger towards Ferguson while sending some admonishing invective in his direction, it raised a few few admiring eyebrows and even won the respect of the recipient himself.
Jonjo Shelvey had arrived on Merseyside a little over two years earlier with a burgeoning reputation as one of the most exciting midfield prospects in the country.
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After playing for youth teams at Arsenal and his boyhood club West Ham United, the Londoner had become Charlton Athletic’s youngest ever player when making his debut against Barnsley aged just 16 years and 59 days old in April 2008.
He became the Addicks’ youngest ever goalscorer as well the following January when bagging against Norwich City in the FA Cup and soon after, amid reported interest from a number of Premier League clubs, turned down Chelsea to sign his first professional contract at The Valley, displaying even at such a tender age the kind of view of how his career path would best be served that would ultimately lead to the Anfield exit he later regarded as hasty.
He got the game time at The Valley he suspected he wouldn’t have had at Stamford Bridge, making 49 games and scoring eight goals while helping Charlton reach the Championship play-offs in 2009/10, which won him his move to Anfield at the end of that campaign for an initial fee of £1.7m rising to a potential £3m depending on domestic and international appearances, with comments from Addicks chairman Richard Murray highlighting their mixed emotions at having to part with their midfield starlet.
“It is with the greatest reluctance that we have accepted an offer for Jonjo from Liverpool”, he said.
"No club likes to lose such a talented prospect, but the overall package is one we couldn't refuse, and one which was very attractive to Jonjo.
"Liverpool are going to develop him over the next few years to be a top player, and I can't think of a better place for him to go to."
Shelvey could hardly have picked a more inopportune moment to move to Anfield however.
The manager who signed him, Rafa Benitez, was only weeks from the end of his six-year LFC tenure and, with the club soon replacing him with Fulham manager Roy Hodgson, Liverpool were about to embark on one of the most turbulent seasons in their entire history.
The 18-year-old made his Liverpool debut as an extra time substitute on a bleak, rain-sodden Anfield night with the Reds struggling in a League Cup third round tie to overcome a League Two Northampton Town side laying 69 league places below them who Hodgson had described before the match as a ‘formidable challenge’ .
With the match going to penalties after a 2-2 draw, Shelvey got his first Liverpool goal of sorts by converting successfully from twelve yards but, after misses by David Ngog and Nathan Eccleston, the Cobblers triumphed 4-2 in the shoot-out to condemn the Reds’ to arguably their most embarrassing cup defeat since the 1959 FA Cup exit at non-league Worcester City and plunge Anfield into further gloom with court cases looming to determine the future ownership of the club after the catastrophic ownership of Tom Hicks and George Gillett had brought LFC to the brink of bankruptcy.
Fenway Sports Group had completed their takeover by the time of Shelvey’s first Liverpool start a month later away to Napoli in the Europa League and all four of the young midfielder’s starting shirts in that debut season would come in Europe, although a healthy number of substitute showings meant he could look back on a fairly respectable number of 21 appearances in total.
By this stage, Kenny Dalglish had taken over from Hodgson in the manager’s chair and the iconic Scot - who had already made a positive impression on Shelvey while chaperoning the youngster on European trips early the previous season while a club director - would go on to be a major influence the following campaign.
After an early sub appearance at Exeter City in the League Cup, Shelvey became the third Liverpool player in quick succession after Gerardo Bruna and Tom Ince to join Blackpool when being sent to Bloomfield Road on loan, Dalglish assuring the youngster the opportunity of regular game time would be very much to the 19-year-old’s benefit.
“Jonjo’s a very promising player for us, but the difficulty for us is to get him a game”, Dalglish said.
“He needs games and it’s a fantastic opportunity for Jonjo to do that. Blackpool have got a good quality of player and it’s educational for us because we’ll get to see him play.
“It’ll also be educational for Jonjo because he’s playing at a good level with a good club – and another real bonus for him is he doesn’t have to move house.
“For Jonjo it’s a chance for us to see him, and for him to develop and push harder for a first-team spot here.
“We’ve put him out because we want him educated and to see him develop, not because we want to see him go. It’s purely progress for him.”
Six goals in ten Championship matches for the Tangerines including a hat-trick against Leeds United showed Shelvey was benefitting from regular game time as Dalglish had hoped and, much to the player's delight, his six-month loan was ended early when he was brought back to Anfield after serious injuries to Lucas Leiva and Steven Gerrard left the Reds boss short of numbers in midfield, the Scot immediately handing the Londoner his first Premier League start in a 2-0 win at Aston Villa.
“The manager has put a lot of trust in me, and I thank him for that, but I feel I’ve deserved the chance to start a Premier League game”, he confidently declared afterwards.
“I didn’t want to come back and just play reserve football. I wanted to force myself into the team.
“I want to start playing. I’m nearly 20, I want to play football and there’s nothing better than to do it for Liverpool.
“I have now started a game and I feel I took the chance and Kenny said I did well so hopefully I can start on Wednesday.
“He came up and watched a few games at Blackpool - I think in the ones he watched I didn’t perform very well! But I did enjoy my time there and it’s given me the confidence to come back to Liverpool and fight back for a place.
“I asked Kenny if I could go away and get a few games and match fitness - there is nothing worse than training all week and not playing on a Saturday or a Sunday.
“It was an honour to play for Blackpool but now I’m back here and want to try and force my way into the first team.”
A first official Liverpool goal would follow in his next start nearly a month later against Oldham Athletic in the FA Cup but, with the Reds on course to reach the final of both domestic cup competitions that season, he would suffer the frustration of not being handed another starting shirt until early April with Shelvey’s ambition and belief in his own ability clearly demonstrated with his remarks about the League Cup medal he received after the Reds’ Wembley win over Cardiff City but felt he didn’t earn.
“Even though a kid of my age should be happy winning a medal, I wanted to play”, he said.
“It feels like less of a medal than the next one I hopefully get.”
That next medal was potentially on the horizon with Liverpool beating Everton in the FA Cup semi final to set up another Wembley showpiece this time against soon-to-be-crowned European champions Chelsea and while Shelvey didn’t get off the bench against Roberto di Matteo’s men, he did start seven out of the Reds’ final eight Premier League matches of the campaign, scoring a memorable goal from 45 yards in a 4-1 Anfield win over Chelsea just days after the FA Cup final defeat.
That led to a new long-term contract being offered which Shelvey was delighted to sign and take the opportunity to build on the progress he felt he had already made.
"Tactically I have become a lot better and technically too”, he said.
"When you're working with people like Steven Gerrard and people like that, you're learning things day in, day out and it's an honour."
His Anfield education would continue under a third manager in as many seasons with Brendan Rodgers having replaced Dalglish during the summer and, with the Northern Irishman’s difficult start to life at Anfield seeing Liverpool take only one point from the first nine available, Shelvey got his first Premier League start under the new boss away at Sunderland as a late Luis Suarez equaliser salvaged a draw.
The Londoner was back on the bench for the midweek Europa League trip to Switzerland to face Young Boys, perhaps a sign of his increasing stature within the squad with Rodgers naming a second string side featuring three debutants, but was introduced midway through the second half with a topsy-turvy game locked at 3-3 and made a major impact at the start of what was with hindsight the most telling three days of his Liverpool career.
Shelvey proved to be the matchwinner in Bern, putting Liverpool back in front with a smartly taken half-volley from six yards after Fabio Borini and Jordan Henderson had opened up the Swiss defence and he put the seal on a 5-3 victory two minutes from time after driving through the centre of midfield and dropping a shoulder to beat the final despairing defender before thumping home left-footed from the edge of the box.
A delighted Rodgers hailed his young charge afterwards, saying "He is still only 20 and is developing all the time. You can tell his confidence is growing and he is going to be a big player for Liverpool” and backed it up by handing Shelvey a start in the following weekend’s home clash with Manchester United.
It was not just the biggest game of the season so far but a highly significant Anfield occasion being the first home match since the landmark publication of the Hillsborough Independent Panel report eleven days previously.
After a series of pre-match commemorations involving mosaics on three sides of the ground, the release of 96 red balloons and Sir Bobby Charlton presenting Ian Rush with a bouquet of red roses, the timeless dispute that is Liverpool versus Manchester United resumed with the home side still searching for a first league win under their new manager and the visitors seeking a first victory on enemy territory in nearly five years.
A tense opening period had seen the Reds edge a first half which had seen little incident of note until six minutes before half time when Shelvey was involved in a flashpoint, his reaction to which is remembered more than most than most of what he was able to achieve on the pitch during his time at Anfield.
The 20-year-old won a tackle against Ryan Giggs and, with the ball squirting away in the direction of Johnny Evans, Shelvey energetically launched himself into a full-blooded tackle with the United defender who also went in two-footed.
The Liverpool man was adjudged to be out of control however by referee Mark Halsey and was shown a straight red card while the United man received no punishment.
Enraged by what he felt was encouragement by visiting skipper Rio Ferdinand and the United bench towards the referee to send him off, Shelvey angrily pointed a finger and aimed some words in Alex Ferguson's direction as he passed the dug-outs before heading down the tunnel.
Ten-man Liverpool battled valiantly after the break, even taking the lead through Steven Gerrard who poignantly celebrated by pointing to the skies in memory of his cousin, Jon-Paul Gilhooley, the youngest of the 97 Liverpool supporters unlawfully killed at Hillsborough, before United hit back to win through a Rafael da Silva strike and Robin van Persie penalty to leave the Reds still in the bottom three and searching for a first league win under Rodgers.
The Liverpool manager claimed afterwards ‘the best team lost’ and that Halsey’s decision to only dismiss Shelvey had a major bearing on the outcome, saying "If Jonjo gets sent off then Jonny Evans has to be sent off as well.
"It was a tackle that both players had to go for but the Liverpool player can't be sent off and the Manchester United player stay on.
"It was very, very harsh and that's how it was throughout the game. There were a number of poor decisions that cost us."
His counterpart did not dispute United were fortunate to win afterwards but predictably did not agree with Rodgers’s assessment of the sending off incident.
"A win's a win, so we've got to be pleased with the result, but not the performance”, Ferguson said.
"I don't think Shelvey went for the ball. The boy's gone in really dangerously and I don't think there's any other decision the referee could have given.
“He was trying to blame me, I suppose. Once he looks at it he can apologise if he likes."
An apology of sorts did arrive via Shelvey’s Twitter account although was deleted soon afterwards.
"I apologise to the fans for getting sent off but no way was I pulling out of that tackle in a game of that importance. I'm sorry.
"I have also apologised to Sir Alex, just where I come from people don't grass people up to get someone sent off."
He revealed some years later that he did apologise to the United manager in person at the time and said Ferguson was actually impressed with his passion.
“I was a bit immature then and a bit silly. I pulled him aside afterwards and apologised to him and he was spot on with me”, Shelvey said.
“He said, ‘no I like it. It shows you’ve got a bit of balls about you’.
“I got a few high fives around town for the next few months, but it was silly from me on the professional stage. You don’t do something like that.
“I was young and I was starting for Liverpool against Manchester United, games don’t come much bigger.
"Growing up, I always thought the FA favoured United and things like that.
"I looked over when I got sent off and saw Fergie in the fourth official's ear. I don't think the ref was going to send me off at first because it wasn't a sending off.
"I put a picture downstairs and it shows Jonny Evans going two-footed and me just coming in from the side. It wasn't a sending off but it is what it is. I saw him looking over at the fourth official so as I was walking off the pitch, I just said, 'It's your fault I got sent off'.
"As soon as I got sent off, I got in the changing room and rang my Dad and he said, 'It wasn't a sending off, mate. Don't worry. What did you say to Fergie?' I told him what I said and my Dad's gone, 'Good boy!'
"I've seen him a lot of times since and it's just one of them things that happens in football. You live and you learn."
Having served his three-game ban, Shelvey would have to make do with a series of substitute appearances and Europa League starts until early December when he scrambled home a late winner at West Ham which was the first of four successive Premier League starts but that would prove to be his longest run in the Liverpool side.
The signings of Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge in early January ushered in an improved run of form which would eventually see Liverpool finish seventh after losing just two of their final 16 league games, with Shelvey still unable to regularly hold down a starting place.
A first senior England cap had by now come his way but, after only 31 starts in three seasons, his need for regular football meant when Swansea City came in with a £5m bid agreeable to Liverpool, the Londoner did not think twice about uprooting to South Wales.
Brendan Rodgers had scheduled a meeting with the midfielder to discuss his future but when the call from his agent came just as he was sitting down to dinner with his then-fiancee, now wife former S Club 7 singer Daisy Evans, the die was cast.
“I got home and was sitting down to dinner. My missus had cooked a pasta dish. I hadn’t had a bite when my agent came on the phone, saying, ‘Get yourself down to Swansea’.
“I didn’t touch my dinner. Daisy and I just grabbed a bag and got in the car. My brother lives in Liverpool so he came and did the dishes. It was a weird journey.”
His first Swansea goal would come ironically against Liverpool early the following campaign in a match which in many ways would sum up the talent and flaws which have characterised his career.
He gave his new side the lead after only two minutes over a table-topping Reds side who had won their opening three matches with a left-foot curler from the edge of the box before remarkably then claiming three assists in the match which ended in a 2-2 draw.
Within two minutes, his dreadful backpass enabled Daniel Sturridge to sweep home the equaliser before nine minutes before half time another misplaced crossfield ball found Liverpool debutant Victor Moses who advanced on goal and thumped home from the edge of the box,.
Shelvey somewhat redeemed himself midway through the second half with an intelligent knock-down for Michu to equalise and salvage a point for his new club and admitted afterwards his over-riding emotion after such an eventful evening was one of disappointment.
“I feel that if I hadn’t made the two mistakes we’d have won the game and I’d like to apologise to the Swansea fans.
“When you score against your former club there’s no way of hiding it, your emotions are all over the place but I should have known better, I’ve played with Sturridge for a good while and long enough to know he’s the kind of player who can latch on to a backpass but that’s life, I’ve got to get over it and get on with things now.
“You have to show character and keep plugging away when things go wrong to try and create something and luckily a space opened up for me to run into and I was able to flick it on to Michu who put it in the bottom corner so it was a big sigh of relief really but it’s still going to kill me going to sleep tonight. I'll be going over and over in my head what I’ve done in the game, it’s just been a mental night.
“I went into the Liverpool dressing room after the game to say my goodbyes to the team and they basically said thanks for the two goals!”
Shelvey featured 82 times for the Swans, scoring ten times, over the next three and half years before moving to Newcastle United in January 2016 in a £12m deal which saw Liverpool earn 10% of Swansea's £6m that they made on the sale.
He stuck with the Magpies even though they were relegated from the Premier League that season and, finally working with the manager who engineered his move to Merseyside, helped Rafa Benitez get them back into the top flight despite rumours of an uneasy working relationship between the pair.
Shelvey has made over 150 appearances during his time on Tyneside, scoring his third goal against Liverpool since leaving the club at Anfield earlier this season, and has firmly established himself as a steady Premier League performer although he has expressed the occasional regret at leaving Liverpool when he did in 2013, at a time when Steven Gerrard was among those telling him to stick it out at Anfield a while longer.
He told the Studs Up podcast, “I wanted to go somewhere and not worry about if you have one bad game you’re still going to play, and I’d had that at Charlton, so when you go to Liverpool and you play a game and someone comes back from injury and they’ve got a bigger name and they’re straight back in the team even if you’d done really well, so I wanted to get away from that.”
“I would say I was quite cheap at the time, and I was going into a team that wanted to keep the ball, but going from Liverpool to Swansea was such a culture shock about the way things were run.”
And he admitted to Sky Sports in 2020 he did leave Liverpool too soon and couldn’t help but wonder at the impact of that decision when considering his career overall.
"It could have been a lot better, to be honest with you”, he admitted.
"Don't get me wrong, by the time I finish I will have had a fantastic career. But you do sit there sometimes and think, 'could I have gone higher? Could I have been playing in the Champions League?' Hopefully one day I still will, but time's running out now. You go back in the past and you've probably made certain decisions that were wrong."
"I was only 21 when I left Liverpool. I don't think you would find many other players who go there at 17 and leave at 21 and I think that speaks a lot of what I'm like as a character. I wasn't happy playing one or two games then coming out of the team. I wanted to carry on playing week in, week out.
"I think that was the feeling I wanted but, in hindsight, should I have stayed? Probably, yeah. Even if it was only for another year or two, just to see how things changed. But it is what it is at the end of the day.
"I'd been on loan at Blackpool, and at Charlton I'd been obviously playing at such an early age. I don't think that helped because you get that knack for playing games and constantly being in the team. When you're playing once and then not playing for six games, I don't care what any footballer says, you don't feel involved. You don't feel part of the team.
"Every decision I've made in my career was just to play, to try and get as much game-time as possible. I can't say I've got too many regrets."
