Bill Shankly Quotes

Bill Shankly comes across as grand and blunt, delivering lively football rants about passion, skill and loyalty.

85 quotes

1. Someone said 'football is more important than life and death to you' and I said 'Listen, it's more important than that.'

2. My idea was to build Liverpool into a bastion of invincibility. Napoleon had that idea. He wanted to conquer the bloody world. I wanted Liverpool to be untouchable. My idea was to build Liverpool up and up until eventually everyone would have to submit and give in.

3. I don't think I was in a bath until I was 15 years old. I used to use a tub to wash myself. But out of poverty with a lot of people living in the same house, you get humour.

4. It's there to remind our lads who they're playing for, and to remind the opposition who they're playing against.

5. I'm a people's man - only the people matter.

6. My life is my work. My work is my life.

7. I know this is a sad occasion but I think that Dixie would be amazed to know that even in death he could draw a bigger crowd than Everton can on a Saturday afternoon.

8. The problem with you, son, is that all your brains are in your head.

9. Sickness would not have kept me away from this one. If I'd been dead, I would have had them bring the casket to the ground, prop it up in the stands and cut a hole in the lid.

10. I was the best manager in Britain because I was never devious or cheated anyone. I'd break my wife's legs if I played against her, but I'd never cheat her.

11. Liverpool was made for me and I was made for Liverpool.

12. This is a team of skill and character, with men eager and ready to do any job if it's for the benefit of the club.

13. The fans here are the greatest in the land. They know the game and they know what they want to see. The people on the Kop make you feel great - yet humble.

14. No one was asked to do more than anyone else...we were a team. We shared the ball, we shared the game, we shared the worries.

15. At a football club, there's a holy trinity - the players, the manager and the supporters. Directors don't come into it. They are only there to sign the cheques.

16. I'm just one of the people who stands on the Kop. They think the same as I do, and I think the same as they do. It's a kind of marriage of people who like each other.

17. If he isn't named Footballer of the Year, football should be stopped and the men who picked any other player should be sent to the Kremlin.

18. Fire in your belly comes from pride and passion in wearing the red shirt. We don't need to motivate players because each of them is responsible for the performance of the team as a whole. The status of Liverpool's players keeps them motivated.

19. Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple.

20. Don't worry, Alan. At least you'll be able to play close to a great team!

21. 'He has football in his blood,' the disappointed scout complained. 'You may be right,' Shankly said, 'but it hasn't reached his legs yet.'

22. Nonsense! I've kicked every ball, headed out every cross. I once scored a hat-trick; One was lucky, but the others were great goals.

23. It was the most difficult thing in the world. When I went to tell the chairman, it was like walking to the electric chair. That's the way it felt.

24. 'Where are you from?' 'I'm a Liverpool fan from London.' 'Well laddie ... What's it like to be in heaven?'

25. Aye, here we are with problems at the top of the league.

26. I only wanted him for the reserves.

27. '100,000 wouldn't buy him,' Tommy Docherty said. 'Yeah, I am one of the 100,000!,' replied Shankly.

28. A lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are. In my time at Anfield we always said we had the best two teams on Merseyside, Liverpool and Liverpool reserves.

29. But that's where I live!

30. Just go out and drop a few hand grenades all over the place, son.

31. Take that poof bandage off, and what do you mean you've hurt 'your' knee, it's Liverpool's knee!

32. We absolutely annihilated England. It was a massacre. We beat them 5-4.

33. Aye, Roger Hunt misses a few, but he gets in the right place to miss them.

34. If you are first you are first. If you are second you are nothing.

35. The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game.

36. 'Anything off the top?', asked a barber in 1968. 'Aye, Everton,' replied Shankly.

37. Just tell them I completely disagree with everything they say.

38. The best side drew.

39. It's a 90 minute game for sure. In fact I used to train for a 190 minute game so that when the whistle blew at the end of the match I could have played another 90 minutes.

40. You son, could start a riot in a graveyard.

41. I told this player, 'Listen Son, you haven't broken your leg. It's all in the mind.'

42. Aye, watch it Bob, it's very greasy and treacherous out there. Very difficult for goalkeepers.

43. 'Sorry, boss, I should have kept my legs together,' said Lawrence. 'No, Tommy, your mother should have kept her legs together!,' replied Shankly.

44. If Everton were playing at the bottom of the garden, I'd pull the curtains.

45. Of course I didn't take my wife to see Rochdale as an anniversary present, it was her birthday. Would I have got married in the football season? Anyway, it was Rochdale reserves.

46. Son, you'll do well here as long as you remember two things. Don't over-eat and don't lose your accent.

47. What can you do, playing against eleven goalposts?

48. With him in defence, we could play Arthur Askey in goal.

49. For a player to be good enough to play for Liverpool, he must be prepared to run through a brick wall for me then come out fighting on the other side.

50. If a player is not interfering with play or seeking to gain an advantage, then he should be.

51. Although I'm a Scot, I'd be proud to be called a Scouser.

52. He's worse than the rain in Manchester. At least God stops the rain in Manchester occasionally.

53. He typifies everything that is good in football, and he has never changed. You could stake your life on Ian.

54. He's not just the best centre-forward in the British Isles, but the only one.

55. 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're Liverpool.'

56. 'When you get the ball, I want you to beat a couple of men and smash the ball into the net, just the same way you used to at Bury,' said Shankly. Lindsay replied: 'But, boss, that wasn't me, it was Jimmy Kerr.' Shankly turned to Bob Paisley and said: 'Christ, Bob, we've signed the wrong player.'

57. Laddie, that man scored 200 goals in 270 matches - an incredible record - and he has won cup after cup as a manager. When he talks, pin back your ears.

58. It's great grass at Anfield, professional grass.

59. I've been a slave to football. It follows you home, it follows you everywhere, and eats into your family life. But every working man misses out on some things because of his job.

60. I was only in the game for the love of football - and I wanted to bring back happiness to the people of Liverpool.

61. A football team is like a piano. You need eight men to carry it and three who can play the damn thing.

62. I have not been short of invitations to other clubs and have been received more warmly by Everton than I have by Liverpool. It's probably fair to say that they are now 'my' team.

63. Ladies and gentlemen, today we are joined by a man who ranks amongst the greatest there is: Shakespeare, Rembrandt and Bach. This man is Dixie Dean.

64. There's only two teams in Liverpool: Liverpool and Liverpool Reserves.

65. The socialism I believe in is everybody working for the same goal and everybody having a share in the rewards. That's how I see football, that's how I see life.

66. What a great day for football, all we need is some green grass and a ball.

67. Tom Finney would have been great in any team, in any match and in any age, even if he had been wearing an overcoat.

68. Football is a simple game made complicated by people who should know better.

69. I never drop a player I only make changes.

70. In my time at Anfield we always said we had the best two teams on Merseyside - Liverpool and Liverpool reserves.

71. The difference between Everton and the Queen Mary is that Everton carry more passengers!

72. If you're not sure what to do with the ball, just pop it in the net and we'll discuss your options afterwards.

73. Ian Callaghan is everything good that a man can be. No praise is too high for him. Words cannot do justice to the amount he has contributed to the game. Ian Callaghan will go down as one of the game's truly great players.

74. It's the greatest thing in the world, natural enthusiasm. You are nothing without it.

75. One day in 1959, when Huddersfield were playing Cardiff City, Tom (T.V.) Williams, who was then chairman of Liverpool, and Harry Latham, a director, came down the slope at Leeds Road to see me. Mr Williams said, 'How would you like to manage the best club in the country?' 'Why, is Matt Busby packing it up?' I asked.

76. The very word 'Anfield' means more to me than I can describe.

77. I want to build a team that's invincible, so that they have to send a team from bloody Mars to beat us.

78. Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that.

79. Pressure is working down the pit. Pressure is having no work at all. Pressure is trying to escape relegation on 50 shillings a week. Pressure is not the European Cup or the Championship or the Cup Final. That's the reward.

80. Forget the Beatles and all the rest. This is the real Liverpool sound. It's real singing, and it's what the Kop is all about.

81. The socialism I believe in isn't really politics. It is a way of living. It is humanity. I believe the only way to live and to be truly successful is by collective effort, with everyone working for each other, everyone helping each other, and everyone having a share of the rewards at the end of the day. That might be asking a lot, but it's the way I see football and the way I see life.

82. Me having no education. I had to use my brains.

83. This city has two great teams – Liverpool and Liverpool reserves.

84. I've had many skilful men and the likes of Peter Thompson, Ian St John, Kevin Keegan and Steve Heighway were the ones who caught the eye. But the best professional of the lot was Gerry Byrne. He wasn't flashy and he wouldn't score you goals. But he was hard and skilful and gave you everything he had. More than that he was totally honest. Which is the greatest quality of all. He was a true Liverpudlian who couldn't look his fellow Scousers in the face after a game unless he'd given everything he had for 90 minutes.

85. Train the right way. Help each other. It's a form of socialism without the politics.