Liverpool FC Forum

anfieldadorer wrote:as you see, this thread is inspired by the other made by woof

i would presume that most of you would put shankly on the first place. but i'd love to see how many of you would put the other manager on your number one choice.

meself vote for rafa being our best manager so far.
shankly needed about 11 years to put us on european stage from "being nothing", while rafa took only less than a year to lift us from broken-into-pieces-team inherited by previous confused-manager.

i expected, as everyone might, that a "normal" manager would cost it some price before success is achieved, but rafa has made it as if you didn't need to learn to walk before you run (sorry, bad example ).

rafa has been on the right track so far and hasn't even entered the main room to explore yet. i believe there would be many more achievements in the near future. You can't expect more from a manager who spend less money to lift us up to the highest place on the most glorious and prestigious european stage even before his first year of reign completed.

RUSHIE#9 wrote:I've gone for Bob Paisley simply based on the trophies he put in the cupboard for us. Without doubt everything that is special about LFC came about from Bill Shankly. The early success that Bob had will have some links with Shanks' legacy but the later success like the back to back european cups in 77&78 was all down to Bob Paisley in my eyes.

My all time top 5 would be:

1. Bob Paisley
2. Bill Shankly
3. Joe Fagan & Kenny Dalglish
4. Rafa Benitez
5. Gerard Houllier

I'd rate Fagan & Kenny about the same simply because Joe Fagan only lasted 2 seasons and Kenny because he wasn't tested on a European level. As for the rest well it speaks for itself really; at the current rate of progression i've no doubt that Rafa will be moving up the order of greatest managers we've ever had.

Wot no souness   

Crouchamania wrote:the gates for some games when Shanks took over were 25,000 out of a capacity of over 60,000. Apart from an ageing A'Court and Hickson he only had one player-Melia- capable of playing in the then first division. In his first full season he brought through Byrne,Hunt,,then signed Yeats,St John,Milne,Stevenson,Thompson and brought through Callaghan,Smith and Lawler and the rest is history.
     His best decision though was keeping on Paisley-many managers even in those days wanted to bring their own people with them.

There are two things in my view unique about LFC since Shankly came. First, many of the top teams of the early to mid 60's have sunk without trace- e.g.Burnley,Ipswich,Leeds,have gone into decline with moments of glory-Everton and Tottenham,and Man U were relegated:laugh:
We had our bad times in the 90's but these were much better than what the above clubs went through and even then we knew recovery was on the way because we kept producing players like Macca and Robbie and the Liverpool way remained alive. It just needed the right leader,and he's here now.
The second unique thing-and most of you will just have to trust me on this because most of you were too young to be there- is that Shankly established a bond of trust between himself,the players and us supporters. We were one. That relationship estabshed LFC -this is Anfield- and will never be equalled even by Russian billionaires.

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anfieldadorer wrote:but he "only" drove a well-overhauled car inherited by shanks

i think you find it should say 'inherited from shanks' but i am just nit picking there.

but annie do you actually believe that statement you made, are you serious when you suggest that Paisley was only succsessful because of the squad he inherited.  or should i be reading it with a hint of sarcasm?


and everyone who cant even spell shankly, remember in future there is no E in the name