REASONS TO BE POSITIVE.. Part 53 53 Brilliant Bill Shankly Quotes To Inspire The Current Liverpool Team 53. ”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.” 52. “Aim for the sky and you’ll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you’ll stay on the floor.” 51. On awaiting Everton’s arrival for a game at Anfield, Shankly gave some toilet rolls to the doorman: “Give them these when they arrive. They’ll need them.” 50. “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.” 49. ”If a player is not interfering with play or seeking to gain an advantage, then he should be.” 48. When Tommy Smith complained about his injured knee: “What do you mean YOUR knee? It’s Liverpool’s knee!” 47. To his players after failing to sign Lou Macari: “I only wanted him for the reserves anyway.” 46. “The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game.” 45. ”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.” 44. “A lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are.” 43. After a defeated Liverpool were met by thousands on returning from their 1971 FA Cup semi-final defeat: “Chairman Mao has never seen a greater show of red strength.” 42. To Alan Ball when he joined Everton: “Don’t worry, Alan. At least you’ll be able to play close to a great team.” 41. “My idea was to build Liverpool into a bastion of invincibility. Had Napoleon had that idea he would have conquered the 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.” 40. “Liverpool was made for me and I was made for Liverpool.” 39. “We murdered them 0-0.” 38. ’”If you can’t make decisions in life, you’re a bloody menace. You’d be better becoming an MP.” 37. On the Anfield pitch: “It’s great grass at Anfield, professional grass.” 36. When asked what he doesn’t like about football: “The end of the season.” 35. “If Everton were playing at the bottom of the garden, I’d pull the curtains.” 34. To a journalist suggesting Liverpool were in difficulties: “Ay, here we are with problems at the top of the league.” 33. ”A lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are.” 32. ”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.” 31. On Ron Yeats: “With him in defence, we could play Arthur Askey in goal.” 30. “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.” 29. ”If you are first you are first. If you are second, you are nothing.” 28. When asked by a Liverpudlian barber if he wanted ‘anything off the top?’: “Yeah, Everton.” 27. “I’m a people’s man. Only the people matter.” 26. On being told a player had ‘football in his blood’: You may be right, but it hasn’t reached his legs yet.” 25. “A football team is like a piano. You need eight men to carry it and three who can play the damn thing.” 24. “I never drop players, I only make changes.” 23. On Tommy Smith: “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.” 22. “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.” 21. At the funeral of Dixie Dean: “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 to Goodison than Everton on a Saturday afternoon.” 20. To Ian St John: “If you’re not sure what to do with the ball, just pop it in the net and we’ll discuss your options afterwards.” 19. On leaving Liverpool: “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.” 18. “The difference between Everton and the Queen Mary is that Everton carry more passengers.” 17. “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.” 16. After a 0-0 draw at Anfield: “What can you do playing against 11 goalposts?” 15. ”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.” 14. To Tommy Smith: “You son, could start a riot in a graveyard.” 13. “In my time at Liverpool we always said we had the best two teams on Merseyside,Liverpool and Liverpool Reserves.” 12. “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.” 11. When asked where he really lived, after he put ‘Anfield’ on the address of a hotel registration form: “”in Liverpool there is only one address that matters and that is where I live.” 10. When told he had never experienced playing in a derby: “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.” 9. To a Liverpool trainee: “The problem with you, son, is that all your brains are in your head.” 8. On the ‘This is Anfield’ plaque: ”It’s there to remind our lads who they’re playing for, and to remind the opposition who they’re playing against.” 7. “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.” 6. “I was only in the game for the love of football – and I wanted to bring back happiness to the people of Liverpool.” 5. ”Although I’m a Scot, I’d be proud to be called a Scouser.” 4. “I always look in the Sunday paper to see where Everton are in the league – starting, of course, from the bottom up.” 3. After beating Everton in the 1971 cup semi-final: “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.” 2. “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’.” 1. “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.”
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 13:17:56 +0000
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