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Caught In Time
Featured
in the back of the Sports section of the Sunday Times,
the Caught in Time
series features a picture of a famous team, offers a
profile of each player, and answers the question 'Where
are they now?'.
Liverpool
Pre-Season 1965
by Greg
Struthers
This was a club going places. So Ian St John
was told in the summer of 1961 when he joined Liverpool,
who had spent eight years in the wilderness of the Second
Division. Bill Shankly was in charge at Anfield and began
to turn around the team with astute signings and a club
ethos built on teamwork and confidence.
Four years later, in the summer of 1965, Liverpool had
earned promotion to the top division, won the League
title and the FA Cup, and reached the semi-final of the
European Cup. More glory was to follow. So why were
Liverpool so good ? "Because we had good players and
the best manager," St John says. "We believed
in our manager and he gave us the confidence to succeed.
'Shanks' was unique."
Shankly saw Liverpool's experiences in Europe as a
learning process, and used the tactics in the cut and
thrust of the English game. "We were the first team
to use the flat back four, and Shanks was well ahead of
his time."
Liverpool won the League title in 1966 for the second
time in three seasons, after, losing only two of their
last 19 games, and reached the final of the European Cup
Winners' Cup, where they were beaten 2-1 by Borussia
Dortmund, but they had turned the corner, and their haul
of silverware has been steady ever since. The local
community is still benefiting.
"The former players don't need much of an excuse to
have a dinner or a golf day to celebrate the anniversary
of this League title or that cup win," St John
says." And the money we raise goes to charities that
contribute to the needy in the Liverpool area."
1 Gordon Milne (Wigan
Athletic)
One of Shankly's first signings, Milne was a regular in
the midfield. He was capped 14 times for England, but was
left out of the 1966 World Cup squad after being named in
the original party. Joined Blackpool a year later and
then went into management.
He was in charge at Wigan, Coventry, Leicester, Besiktas
in Turkey and Nagoya Grampus 8 in Japan. He also coached
the England youth team. Now works closely with Sir Bobby
Robson at Newcastle
2 Gerry Byrne
He went down in Liverpool folklore when he broke his
collarbone early in the 1965 FA Cup final against Leeds
and played on for 117 minutes, supplying the cross for
Liverpool's first goal in their 2-1 extratime win. Byrne
joined the club in 1955 but was on the transfer list when
Shankly took over. The manager kept him on to bolster the
defence. After winning two England caps, he retired in
1969 because of injury. He became a carpenter and joiner,
and worked as an odd-jobs man at Pontins holiday camp in
north Wales. He has since retired and lives in Aintree
3 Tommy Lawrence (Liverpool)
He was known as the "Flying Pig" because of his
acrobatics and agility, despite weighing nearly 14st. The
Liverpool goalkeeper joined the club as a 15-year-old
amateur in 1957, and after waiting five years for his
League debut, he kept the No 1 shirt for eight years,
missing only four games. Lawrence, who won three Scotland
caps, moved to Tranmere in 1971. When he quit football,
he worked the night shift at a wire factory in
Warrington. He has retired.
4 Ron Yeats (Liverpool)
When Shankly signed Yeats for 30,000 pounds from Dundee
United in 1961, he told the media: "I've just signed
a colossus. Come In and walk round him"' The 6ft 2in
centrehalf was an inspirational captain who used his size
and astuteness to dominate in the air. After 454 games
for the Reds, he moved in 1971 to Tranmere, where he
became manager. He went into the haulage business and
then catering before returning to Anfield, where he is a
scout
5 Chris Lawler (Liverpool)
He was one ofthe original overlapping fu1lbacks in
football, and scored 61 goals in 549 matches, using
stealth and speed down the right flank. Lawler, a quiet
member of the team, earned his debut in 1963, and was
inked on to the teamsheet two years later, when he
started a run of 241 consecutive games from October 1965
until April 1971. An England international, he had spells
at Portsmouth and Stockport. He lives in Liverpool and
coaches children.
6 Willie Stevenson (Stoke City)
The Leith born left half was settling into a new life in
Australia when Shankly persuaded him to return to
Britain. Stevenson had grown despondent playing for the
reserves at Rangers, and moved to Anfield in October
1962. His fine passitig ability earned him
241,appearances for the club, but when he lost his place
to Emlyn Hughes in 1967, he moved to Stoke City and then
Tramnere. He became a publican and also ran a contract
cleaning service. Now retired, he lives in Macclesfie1d
7 Ian Callaghan (Liverpool)
Playing a record 856 games for the club, Callaghan ran
for Liverpool, up and down bright wing. He was a junior
at the club when Shankly arrived in 1959 and was still
there when the manager left in 1974. In fact, he was
still there when Liverpool won their first European Cup
in 1977, playing in central field at the age of 35. He
turned out for Swansea and Crewe, then opened a pub in
Rufford with former teammate Geoff Strong. He works for
Littlewoods on their Spot The Ball competition .
8 Roger Hunt (Bolton Wanderers)
One of England's World Cup-winning team of 1966, Hunt was
a brilliant goal-scorer who found the net 18 times in 34
games for his country . He was as prolific for Liverpool,
scoring 286 goals in 492 matches. But his signing was
fortuitous. The Liverpool chief scout, Bill Jones, had
gone to see a player from the opposition in a Mid
Cheshire League game, when he spotted Hunt. He signed in
1959 and never looked back. A member of the pools panel,
he later ran a family haulage business
9 Ian St John (Liverpool)
The Motherwell striker was considering a move to
Newcastle when Shankly persuaded him that he would have a
great future at Liverpool in 1961. So he signed for a
then club record 37,000 pounds. His ability in the air
and skill to dart between defenders provided the perfect
foil for the more direct Hunt up front. St John scored
118 goals in 426 matches during his 10 years in a red
shirt. He then joined Coventry , before going into
management. He was in line to take over at Leeds after
Don Revie, but the club instead chose Brian Clough. So St
John joined Portsmouth. "They had no money, so I
wasn't able to buy a single player in my three years
there," he says.
"The promising juniors were Sold on, and BT cut off
the telephone line because we couldn't pay for it. I had
to find a public phone if I wanted to contact other
clubs. We couldn't pay the bus company to get us to
games, and had to wash all our own laundry . Talk about
running a club on a shoe string." St John moved into
television and struck up a successful partnership with
Jimmy Greaves.
10 Tommy Smith (Liverpool)
He joined the ground staff as a 15-year-old in 1960 and
spent 18 years at the club. A tough-tackling defender who
played in 637 games, Smith capped his career when he
scored in the 1977 European Cup final. A weekly newspaper
column and after-dinner speaking engagements keep him
busy
11 Peter Thompson (Liverpool)
His brilliant ball control on the left wing became an
asset for Liverpool in August 1963, when he was signed
from Preston , for 40,000 pounds. Thompson spent 12 years
at , Anfield and played in 414 games, scoring 54 goals.
He finished his career at Bolton and then ran two caravan
parks. He had a county pub in the Lake District and
manages a hotel in Harrogate
From The
Sunday Times 24 August 2003. Sports
Section, p 26.
Many thanks to
Paul Gillespie, for saving me this article to include on
the site
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