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Supported by Steve Owen |
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Bob Paisley
| Category: | Manager |
| Year Inducted: | 2002 |
Profile by Robert Galvin, the author of Football's Greatest Heroes, the official book of the National Football Museum Hall of Fame:
‘I never wanted this job in the first place,' Bob Paisley told Kevin Keegan and the rest of the players during his first team meeting as Liverpool manager. ‘I'm not even sure that I can do it.'
His expression of self-doubt, delivered soon after his appointment in 1974, was a rare example of poor judgement by a manager whose shrewd leadership and tactical acumen steered Liverpool to three European Cup triumphs in the space of five years.
A loyal assistant manager, Paisley had been thrust into the limelight, at the age of 55, following the shock retirement of Bill Shankly in 1974. Many observers described succeeding the Scot as an impossible task; instead Liverpool entered the most illustrious chapter in their history.
Leaning against a wall in the dressing-room at the Melwood training ground, Paisley told the first-team squad: ‘I need all the help I can get from you lads. There'll be no disruption to the team. Let's just keep playing the Liverpool way.'
‘Bob surprised us all, even himself,' Keegan recalled. ‘He grew into the job, sensibly sticking with the team and the tactics he had inherited from Shanks, and slowly and gradually implanting his own ideas.'
Over the next nine years Liverpool won the European Cup three times, the UEFA Cup, six First Division championship titles and three League Cups. The FA Cup always eluded him – both as a player and manager.
Outsiders often portrayed him as a ‘genial uncle' figure, an impression reinforced by his portly frame and a habit of wearing slippers and a cardigan in the office and a cloth cap outdoors. But it was an image that belied a steely determination.
‘When necessary, Bob ruled Anfield with a rod of iron,' Graeme Souness said. Alan Hansen highlighted the manager's ruthlessness as a factor in Liverpool's success. ‘He was never one to be swayed by emotion or sentiment.
‘He always picked the best 11 players for every game. What you'd done in the past made no difference to him whatsoever. When it was time to replace you, he never hesitated.'
Describing Paisley as ‘a football genius', Souness added: ‘Tactically, I've never known anyone who could read a game better.'
Paisley devoted his working life to Liverpool Football Club. Born in County Durham, Paisley arrived at Anfield just before the war after winning an FA Amateur Cup medal with Bishop Auckland. He went on to serve the club as player, trainer, physiotherapist, coach and assistant manager before succeeding Shankly.
Forty-four years almost to the day after signing for the club in 1939, he walked down the tunnel at the end of his last game in charge as manager. He was 64 years of age.
Earlier that season, in a tribute that broke with tradition, Souness, as captain, insisted that Paisley climbed the steps to the Royal Box at Wembley ahead of his team in order to collect the League Cup trophy. It was the first time a manager had been honoured in this way.
‘The sort of lad I am looking for as a Liverpool player will try to nut-meg Kevin Keegan in a training, but will then step aside for him in the corridor,' Paisley said.