heimdall » Tue Mar 27, 2012 12:06 pm wrote:I completely disagree, didn't Liverpool improve every year under his management, I'm sure all fans would have been happy with that. You can't compare Daglish with Shankly the first took over a team just outside the top 4 and have taken us backwards in a season where we should have secured 4th spot with ease, the other rebuilt a team languishing in the 2nd division.
no we didnt improve every year under shankly`s management, far from it, we went through peaks and troughs.
it took shankly 2 and a half seasons to get us out of the second division, then he moulded us into a side that won 2 titles, the f.a cup and also lost in a european cup semi final and lost a european cup winners cup final in the space of 3 years, after that we had quite a few wilderness years where we finished around 5th and made some high profile mistakes in the transfer market (tony hately, alun evans...even toshack didnt look that good until keegan arrived, he looked very similar to how carroll does now, he looked good at times but only scored 5 league goals in his first season)
but in those wilderness years shankly was gradually replacing the old guard, ray clemence came in for tommy lawrence, steve heighway eventually replaced peter thompson, the likes of emlyn hughes and tommy smith began to command the centre of the defence like ron yeats did, then when the jewel in the crown keegan arrived everything just clicked into place.
about 7 or 8 of the 11 that won our first european cup in 1977 were shankly signings from the early 70`s, and the likes of john toshack, david fairclough and phil thompson sitting on the bench in rome were shankly signings too, shankly`s great legacy was that unlike a lot of other greats like busby, revie and clough when shankly retired he left his successor a great team in the making.
those fans in the 60`s saw some tough times when we were well off the pace, just 3 years after winning the title liverpool were beaten 4-1 at anfield by manchester united and fans had to watch while united won the european cup and everton won the league, they had to watch while minnows at the time like watford knocked us out of the f.a cup but they didnt turn on shankly, if anything they backed him even more, they had total faith in him.
thats why those pictures of shankly walking around anfield in 73 after winning the title again are so special, he`s thanking the crowd for sticking by him through thick and thin and the crowd are thanking him for giving them a club they can be proud of.
they really were magnificent fans back then, the loudest in the country if not europe, the most sporting and the most loyal.
those fans chose ynwa as their anthem because that was their philosophy, they werent just empty words that they were singing.