Training ground bans, transfer list threats, captaincy revoked - dressing room story of Liverpool's 'meanest' manager

Bob Paisl

Bob Paisley:

"I am only a modest Geordie but get me cornered and I am a mean b*****."

Never words you would have heard uttered publicly by the quietly-spoken man, who became English football's most successful manager by winning 20 major trophies in just nine seasons in charge of Liverpool.

But ones he was quite happy to utter within the confines of the Anfield dressing room he ruled with, at times, an almost imperceptible steel

Bob Paisley, who passed away aged 77 in 1996, has long had the reputation of the gentle, cardigan-and-slippers wearing grandfather-like figure who reluctantly took over at Anfield after Bill Shankly's shock resignation in 1974 and established the Liverpool dynasty after his Scottish predecessor had dragged an under-achieving club toward being the 'bastion of invincibility' he always felt it could be.

Many anecdotes about Paisley amply demonstrate there's more than the odd grain of truth to that perception, but it also belies the utterly ruthless streak which ran through him and enabled him to continually keep the Reds ahead of the rest while ensuring his legacy was continued silverware at Anfield.

To hear some of the stories about Paisley, it is not hard to imagine him being something of a figure of fun amongst his players at times with his verbal communication skills being very much at the other end of the spectrum as the charismatic and verbose Shankly.

Phil Neal once recalled: "Terry McDermott got us hysterical in the dressing room one time, laughing at Bob Paisley’s expense.

“The boss had a habit of saying the word “doings” all the time. He’d refer to opposition players as “doings” instead of naming them. So Bob comes into the dressing room and starts a talk.”

“Terry stood behind him with a big grin on his face and every time Bob says “doings” he holds a finger up.

“By the time he gets to six, Terry is starting to titter and we’re trying not to laugh. Ray Kennedy is kicking me and when he gets to 10, Ray just turns and flees into the toilet, he’s in absolute fits. We were like a bunch of schoolkids."

His seemingly gentle, avuncular nature was also very much evident to Mark Lawrenson when the young defender completed a club-record £900,000 move from Brighton in 1981. "I was nervous as a kitten," Lawrenson remembered.

Lawrenson

"I had on my best suit, shirt and tie, my best bib and tucker. I went down to reception and the doorman spotted me and said, 'Mr Paisley is waiting for you in his car outside'. When I got in the car I saw that Bob was wearing slippers and a cardigan. I couldn't believe it.

“That was my first meeting with Bob Paisley and I knew I'd come to the right place. They'd just won the European Cup and there was this fellow, who everyone in football thought was an absolute God, driving me to the ground in his slippers and cardigan! I thought, 'you'll do for me!'"

Paisley retained the ability to grab the respect, attention and affection of his players when it mattered,

despite his often incoherent oratory, because of his complete understanding of the game of football and appreciation of the small details which could, and did, give Liverpool a competitive advantage year after year.

Woven into that was the ability to make the hard decisions necessary at times for the good of the team and the club that,

for all Bill Shankly's justifiably messianic status in the LFC pantheon, the Scot had, at times, been unable to take, such was his devotion and loyalty to the players he loved and had built his empire on

Paisley's players knew there was a pragmatism within him that would see them jettisoned if he felt they were no longer of use, with his ability to replace key performers just before they started getting past their best being regarded as one of the key traits which kept Liverpool at the top for so long.

The north-easterner's non-nonsense approach to management can probably be explained quite simply by his journey towards it.

The son of a County Durham miner, born into poverty in January 1919 and robbed of the best years of his playing career because of World War II, where he served abroad as one of the 'Desert Rats', Paisley made his name on Merseyside as a diminutive but hard-working right-half, who helped Liverpool become the first top-flight post-war champions in 1946/47 and scored one of the goals which beat Everton in a Maine Road semi-final to give the club a chance of winning their first ever FA Cup in 1950, only to be dropped for the Wembley final which was lost to Arsenal.

He retired in 1954, having worn the red shirt 277 times, and showed his loyalty in the wake of Liverpool's relegation to the Second Division by accepting the role of reserve team boss, later becoming physio and first-team coach before being promoted to assistant manager under Shankly.

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