EVEN the most nonchalant of football fans knows the name Bob Paisley.
(MyRAWK: How many UEFA Champions League Cup you got, Ferguson?)
In his nine years in the Anfield hot seat, from 1974 to 1983,he collected six league titles, three European Cups, one UEFA Cup and three league cups, five Charity Shields and a European Super Cup.
A record 19 pieces of silverware in just nine years.
But very few know that as a teenage bricklayer in the North East, Paisley would regularly feast on fish and chips served by a woman who would later give birth to one of his most successful signings, Alan Kennedy.
Few know he spent his first seven years as a Liverpool player fighting in the Second World War, or that weeks after winning the European Cup in 1977 he rejected a lucrative offer from Real Madrid.
Even fewer know that Liverpool’s successes during his tenure were partly down to a Danish troll!
All these private tales, and many more are revealed in a fascinating new book released this week by Trinity Mirror Sport Media. ‘The Real Bob Paisley’ lifts the lid on the amazing inside story of Paisleythrough the eyes of those closest to him – his family.
Wife Jessie, sons Graham and Robert, daughter Christine, brother Hughie and Paisley’s grandchildren all recount their unique memories of the man who led the Reds to an unprecedented haul of silverware.
From his early days down the pit in Durham, through his years serving as a ‘Desert Rat’ in the Second World War and then his career on Merseyside, the book maps the life of an Anfield icon.
From tough tackling days as a full-back, signed from Bishop Aukland to his days as a pioneering touchline physio and then reluctant first team manager, like Shankly before him Paisley gave his heart and soul to Liverpool Football Club.
The book kicks off with Reds legend Kenny Dalglish and his memories of the man who smashed the then club transfer record to bring him to Anfield from Glasgow Celtic.
“He is without doubt the most successful English manager ever,” says Dalglish, who also reveals his disappointment at Paisley being overlooked for a posthumous knighthood.
“Bob was an unassuming man, he wasn’t interested in self-promotion or media attention. He was at his happiest getting on with the job.
“I believe that he must have made more than a million decisions over the course of his career and I’ll wager now that 99.9 per cent of the decisions he took he got spot on.
“He wasn’t ever interested in publicity or fame, he wanted those things for his teams and he wanted it through success. He had a simple outlook on life.
“My abiding memory of him away from the pitch is of a quiet, gentle man in a knitted cardigan, studying the racing form.
“If his family were healthy, his team was successful and he could get a wee bet on the horses then he was happy. He loved the simple life.
“People forget sometimes because of the size of Bill Shankly’s personality that Bob was there in the background in the beginning along with Joe Fagan and Ronnie Moran. Without that four who knows where this club would be now.”
Coupled with hundreds of previously unseen photographs and clippings and interviews from the Liverpool ECHO archives, the book is set to be a must-have addition to collecttions with Reds fans the world over.
Here’s another wonderful extract revealing the real Bob Paisley . . .
On May 11 1978, the ECHO reported: “The rather surly Ernst Happel, the Bruges coach and manager of the Dutch national team, earned £80,000 a year at Bruges, who have never won a European trophy. He gets that incredible salary just for keeping them as the top club in Belgium.
“Such a record pales by comparison with the Liverpool manager’s successes.
“A man very close to Liverpool said: ‘If Bob were a mercenary, he could get a £100,000 a year job in Europe just for the asking. His record speaks for itself.’
“Putting that point to the man himself, he smiled and said: ‘Not interested.’
“For that, believe me, everyone associated with Liverpool - official, player and supporter - should be grateful.”
That fact was evident the previous summer, when after winning his first of three European Cups, Paisley rejected an offer from Spanish giants Real Madrid.
Brother Hughie explains: “Our Bob had the chance to go to Real Madrid to manage in 1977 and he turned them down. He said: ‘I’m happy where I am.’ He wasn’t leaving Liverpool for now.
“He was a real, true fella. He was. If he made a promise he wouldn’t break that promise for anybody.”
But it wasn’t all just about football, Anfield and winning trophies. Paisley was a loving family man who loved the simple life away from the game and doted on his children and grandchildren.
Whenever the Reds played abroad Paisley would bring plenty of gifts back to his home in Woolton.
Jessie always received a plaque with the name of the town or city and sometimes a blouse or scarf, while he would always bring back a doll with the national dress for daughter Christine.
Jessie, who also describes herself as one of the original WAG’s, explains: “His family life was very important to him and he loved his children and grandchildren.
“He lived for his job. He loved Liverpool FC and I am so proud that he will never be forgotten.”
The book also reveals the family’s heartbreak as Paisley was struck down by Alzheimer’s, and opens their family album to reveal the last ever pictures taken of him.
Jessie recalls how in the early stages he started to forget the way home from Anfield, then a couple of years later, the summer before his passing, he delighted them all by kicking around a ball.
She says: “Eventually we had to face up to the fact in retirement that Bob was starting to become unwell.
“When he finally went into the nursing home, that was the worst time for me. It was just as bad as when he died. He had reached the stage when he couldn’t understand things.
“I remember the first time that happened. We were coming home from the Liverpool football ground and reached the top of our road.
“Bob turned to me and said: ‘Where do we go now?’ I said: ‘Don’t be daft, Bob. You know we live down there” But the truth was, he didn’t know.”
But she adds: “The one thing he never forgot was his football. I remember the last time he was in one of our houses in Woolton.
“We had brought him home for the day from the nursing home. We sat outside in the garden. His grandchild Rachael was there and she started kicking a ball to him.
“All the other senses had gone but he was kicking it back properly. That was amazing.”
What he said "Mind you, I've been here during the bad times too - one year we came second." "This is the second time I've beaten the Germans here... the first time was in 1944. I drove into Rome on a tank when the city was liberated." - after Liverpool won the European Cup in Rome in 1977.
"I’ve made a promise and I never break a promise. I’m going to Liverpool." - teenage Paisley to his beloved Sunderland who after rejecting him as being ‘too small’ tried to pinch him from the Reds.
The Real Bob Paisley is on sale in all good bookshops now priced £20. Or to order a copy call +44845 143 0001 or visit: http://www.merseyshop.com/
4 comments:
Thats kinda pricey... Luckily Christmas is just round the corner.
Price is not the thing, although I bet you can get it cheaper elsewhere, the sad thing is about him losing his memory, sad sad sad thing for someone who was humble, yet like Bill before him, lived for the club, without these two, we would not be singing a lot of the songs we sing, moreover, we would not be known as the MOST succesfull club IN ENGLAND! Thank you Sir Bob, they might've denied you a knighthood, even a posthumus one, to me, you're always a SIR.
Saint Bob! Fook knighthoods when Sainthood is the more appropriate title fer this great man. . .
You will live in our memories fer ever . . .
To those greats who played under him, he's Uncle Bob while to mare mortals like us who worship him, he's Saint Bob. Like a.d. said, fook the kighthood, it's worthless the day they knighted "you know who" for one measley European Cup when the great man won 3!
Post a Comment