Liverpool FC Forum

[stmichael]

From .tv.

Liverpool's greatest ever manager revealed.

Bob Paisley might have won six league titles, three European Cups, three league cups and one UEFA Cup but even that amazing trophy haul was not considered good enough to land him the honour of Liverpool's greatest ever manager. 
In an exclusive online poll that ran for nine months and attracted 73,757 votes, Bill Shankly has been voted the greatest Liverpool manager of all time.
 
Shankly picked up an incredible 29,030 votes while Paisley polled 24,302. Rafael Benitez, despite only just completing his second full season at Anfield, finished a highly impressive third in the poll with 13,350 votes. Kenny Dalglish and Gerard Houllier were a distant fourth and fifth respectively.
 
Shankly, a man born into a family of ten in the Ayrshire mining village of Glenbuck, might not have won as much as Paisley but in the eyes of fans who voted for him, he was the man who launched the modern-day Liverpool Football Club revolution.
 
It's hard to understate the ordinariness of Liverpool's position in 1959. Languishing in the old second division, with a crumbling stadium, poor training facilities and a large unwieldy playing staff, the challenge facing Shankly was enormous. He dispensed with the services of 24 members of the playing staff but kept the backroom staff of Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, and Reuben Bennett.
 
The addition of Shankly was the catalyst they needed to grow and blossom into their natural roles at the club. Slowly at first, and then with a gathering pace, Shankly and his backroom team turned Liverpool around. The legendary 'Boot-Room' was born. The Anfield crowd sensed the change. Gates regularly topped 40,000 and promotion was quickly gained back to the first division. Shankly had rebuilt the club.
 
There is no doubt that Paisley's era as manager was more fruitful than Shankly's in terms of trophies won. Also, it seems fair to speculate that much of what Shankly achieved would not have been possible without Bob Paisley's calm influence and knowledge of the game. But it is equally likely that without the driving force and sheer charisma of Shankly, Liverpool's spell in the doldrums in the 1950s would have reached long into the 60s and perhaps even further and Bob Paisley may never have become manager at all. That is why Bill Shankly has been voted Liverpool greatest ever manager by almost 30,000 supporters.
 

The poll results in full
 
1. Bill Shankly: 29,030
2. Bob Paisley: 24,302
3. Rafael Benitez: 13,350
4. Kenny Dalglish: 3,452
5. Gerard Houllier: 1,722
6. Roy Evans: 455
7. Joe Fagan: 377
8. Graeme Souness: 329
9. John McKenna: 195
10. Phil Taylor: 113
11. Don Welsh: 102
12. William Barclay: 93
13. George Patterson: 64
14. George Kay: 63
15. Matt McQueen: 60
16. David Ashworth: 50

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N152584060613-1330.htm

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Yes I know it's only from the offal but it just sums up the modern day football fan. The most amazing thing there is just how underappreciated Joe Fagan was. I mean Roy Evans has more votes than him ffs. And as for Souness getting 329 votes, obviously some sad bluenoses on a wind up.

[Good Bob]

Sir Bob for me all the way.

Then Shanks then Fagan.

[48-1119859832]

Shankly will always be top of these polls, simple really he laid the foundations for Liverpool's success.

[account deleted by request]

only one I would argue about is that Fagan should be above Houllier. Shankly and Paisley were both great managers so I wouldnt have a problem whichever was voted top.

[taff]

Bob had an amazing record but Shankly laid the foundation.

[*_Ruthless_*]

Bob had an amazing record but Shankly laid the foundation.

Totally agree with that .. Shanks was the man that built the history we have today! Credit to Bob thou he kept the trophys comming!

[Smeg]

Sir Bob
Shankly
Fagan
Kenny

[48-1119859832]

Sir Bob
Shankly
Fagan
Kenny

What a load of Smeg. 

Sorry, I couldn't resist. 

It had to be said.

[Kharhaz]

We all remember the greats like kenny dalglish and bob paisley and joe fagans treble in his 1st season which included the european cup ! like ronnie moran says on the centenary video in 92 its never mentioned !! but bill shankly did indeed make this club and without him there would be no bob paisley or kenny dalglish or roger hunt or john aldridge or kevin keegan or john toshack....or indeed no trophys to go alongside these great names. Shankly made liverpool what they are today

[Starbridge42]

Shankly turned Liverpool around, and laid the foundations for Paisley to win so much, which in turn puts the club in the position it is in today.  Without Shankly I don't see Paisley being anywhere near as succesful, but without Paisley I don't see Liverpool being anywhere near as succesful.

To close for me to make up my mind, though Paisley might just get my vote for first.

then rafa then fagan then kenny... then houllier

[Ace Ventura]

What a difficult decision, to select a manager in our history is too difficult, but are we all still reds ?

[azriahmad]

In his first season, Paisley did not win anything. Then he bought a few players, tweaked the team a little bit and we won the First Division title and the UEFA Cup. The following season, we tetained the league title and added the European Cup and was cruelly denied an FA Cup treble with a deflected goal in the final with manure.

In 1977/78, Paisley did a massive overhaul of the team by buying the three Jocks and Liverpool went on the greater heights.

To say that Paisley merely built on Shanks' foundation would be to underestimate the great man. He was his own man, did it his own way and was very humble to boot. He conquered Europe in a way Shanks failed to do and his record of 6 championships in only 9 seasons in charge is an astounding 66.7% league championship success rate which no one has managed to come close to. Fagan inherited a great Paisley team and managed a unique treble in his first year in charge. The final season of Fagan's season as Gaffer, we failed to adapt to the departure of Graeme Souness and started the season poorly although we rallied to finish second to neverton and reached the European Cup final.

One of Paisley's greatest abilities was to seamlessly replace key players without a hitch at all and strengthened his squad at the end of every season. Among the greats that he replaced successfully were Kevin Keegan with Kenny Dalglish, Ray Clemence with Bruce Grobbelaar, Phil Thompson with Mark Lawrenson, Graeme Souness replaced the tireless Ian Callaghan, Alan Hansen was so good that he forced the then captain Emlyn Hughes to be relocated to full back. He also did a blinder of a conversion - switching Ray Kennedy from a striker to a great goascoring left-sided midfielder.

Make no mistake, Shanks is a Liverpool legend of a manager, but Bob Paisley is the greatest bar none.

[anfieldadorer]

The poll results in full
 
1. Bill Shankly: 29,030
2. Bob Paisley: 24,302
3. Rafael Benitez: 13,350
4. Kenny Dalglish: 3,452
5. Gerard Houllier: 1,722
6. Roy Evans: 455
7. Joe Fagan: 377
8. Graeme Souness: 329
9. John McKenna: 195
10. Phil Taylor: 113
11. Don Welsh: 102
12. William Barclay: 93
13. George Patterson: 64
14. George Kay: 63
15. Matt McQueen: 60
16. David Ashworth: 50

lower lists represent other facts like:

13. George Patterson: has at least 64 close relatives
14. George Kay: has at least 63 close relatives
15. Matt McQueen: has at least 60 close relatives
16. David Ashworth: has at least 50 close relatives

[azriahmad]

Roy Evans only won a League Cup and spent quite a lot on players, most notably 8.5 million pounds for Stan Collymore. Evan's Liverpool team can play good football with talented players but are very inconsistent.

Joe Fagan won a treble of First Division Championship, League Cup and the European Cup. How can he finish below Evans? Internet polls have tended to produce this kind of results, where mostly younger people tend to have more of the say (because they have more access to these types of polls?) and produce results which were more inclined to the events/people who are more recent in history.

[PureLoneWolf]

I'm a little disappointed to see Kenny below Rafa.  I firmly believe that in a couple of years, Rafa will thoroughly deserve to be there, but what King Kenny did for us imho should put him up there.  Fagan too