A Bastion of Invincibility

On a cold morning in December 1959 a collection of huddled press affiliates were attending a conference in which Bill Shankly was announced as manager of Liverpool Football Club.


"I am very pleased to and proud to have been chosen as manager of Liverpool FC, a club of such potential. It is my opinion that Liverpool has a crowd of followers which rank with the greatest in the game. They deserve success and I hope, in my own small way, I am able to do something towards to help them achieve it. I make no promises except that from the moment I take over I shall put everything into the job I so willingly undertake."


Shankly once at the helm had the task of turning a struggling team around. To make a side lacking direction, unity and belief into a team, into a group of players which he believed were worthy of playing for the red shirt, for the fans, for Liverpool. It would be slow process to begin with, but once the momentum began the sheer energy Shankly put into his role, the commitment to the club, the fans, the city, this momentum simply accelerated and no rival team in domestic football would be allowed to stop it. Shankly and his newly assembled ‘Boot Room’ quickly re structured a playing squad and galvanised a team, which in turn started the modern era of dominance for Liverpool Football Club.


"The word 'fantastic' has been used many times, so I would have to invent another word to fully describe the Anfield spectators. It is more than fanaticism, it's a religion. To the many thousands who come here to worship, Anfield isn't a football ground, it’s a sort of shrine. These people are not simply fans; they're more like members of one extended family."


Shankly was ardent in his belief that the unity between manager, players and fans was the foundation in which a football club was built, Shankly proclaimed he was made for Liverpool and that Liverpool was made for him. He gave a his all to the fans, he gave them what he believed they deserved. Shankly was a working class man with simple yet unshakable beliefs, he saw a little of himself in every single paying fan who came through the Anfield gates to worship their club in their church, and he gave them a team to be proud of, to call their own.


 "Above all, I would like to be remembered as a man who was selfless, who strove and worried so that others could share the glory, and who built up a family of people who could hold their heads up high and say... WE ARE LIVERPOOL."


Well Mr William Shankly OBE, The legacy which you left at Anfield will never be underestimated. It allowed Paisley then Fagan to build upon and elevate Liverpool Football Club to the Elite of Domestic and European football, to cement our name in the history books of the beautiful game as one of the greatest football teams to ever exist. Shankly built a team, which forged an army of followers, a family which by transcending generations through the years will always be there for each other, through glorious times and through devastating heartbreak. We are all Liverpool football club, and we can hold that in our hearts eternal.


I know I am with family here, the greatest family any one person could hope to have - Liverpool F.C. I have brothers and sisters across the globe and we were all born from Shankly.


Bill Shankly, I would simply like to end by stating this…


That you sir were Liverpool Football Club, you sir made Liverpool Football Club and it is because of you sir we can all forever hold our heads up high and say…We Are Liverpool!  And you sir, will Never Walk Alone.