Born - or maybe quarried - in the mining village of Glenbuck in Ayrshire, Bill Shankly was to become Liverpool’s most totemic, iconic, most famous manager, the founder of the Liverpool we know today. His career was strewn with wisecracks and homespun pearls of wisdom, the man himself a rare blend of teak toughness, firm conviction, passion, humour and warm humanity, with an unmistakeable voice and diction. I can still hear him saying “todee we pleed with greet coheesion.”
Before he entered management, his playing career began at Carlisle United before moving to Preston North End, where he later became captain - although he did play one game for Liverpool during the war - against Everton.
In 1949 his old club Carlisle, then a struggling Third Division North side, offered him the chance to become their manager, and he accepted. Thus began a managerial career that would later make him legendary, and unique.
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