Karen Gill was born into the greatest footballing dynasty bar none as the granddaughter of the legendary Bill Shankly, who arrived on Merseyside 50 years ago this week.She spoke exclusively to Click Liverpool about her memories of her famous granddad and about what he would make of modern football:
• As a football-mad man, did Shanks ever play the game with you and the other grandkids in his back garden?
"My granddad always seemed to have a ball attached to the end of his foot. The truth is though that we were all girls and girls simply didn’t play football for him.
"Don’t forget he was born at the beginning of the last century and he was brought up in a mining village where the men went down the mine and played football in their free time. The women were the homemakers and my granddad was quite a traditionalist in that sense.
"So he didn’t play football with us but I know that he spent a lot of his time carrying me and my sister Pauline around in his arms and we loved to rub our hands back and forwards across his shortly cropped hair. We would also sit on his knee at the barber’s while he had a haircut."
• He could control huge crowds of fans with just a simple gesture - could he do the same in the Shankly household?
"My memories of him at home are of him standing in the hallway, on the phone. He was always on the phone talking to somebody or other about football.
"So there he was standing in the hallway with one hand on his hip and the other gesturing wildly …jabbing the air with his finger. You had to be quiet when he was on the phone.
"The rest of the time I remember he was either watching football on the TV (you also had to be quiet then) or filling in his football coupons but when he did pay you some attention, you felt like you’d just scored a goal.
"As you can see then the whole household obviously revolved around him and he was a very imposing figure. I can also tell you that as a child you never wanted to fall over and get injured because he really did used to get annoyed with you if you hurt yourself!"
• Did you ever sense any regrets he had about retiring?
"Most of my real memories of him are of his retirement age. I was born in 1965 so during his really successful years at Liverpool, I was just a baby. I really started to feel his presence when I was about seven or eight.
"I remember Christmas parties at Anfield for the staff and players, I remember we went to London for 'This Is Your Life', and I suppose it was then or a year later that he retired.
"Being just children we were never told details and never really wondered why suddenly we were seeing more of nanny and grandy (which is what we called them.
"I do know that he never stopped living and breathing football and I realize now that he did regret retiring though he never said anything at the time. He wasn’t a man who expressed himself easily as far as his feelings were concerned."
• Do you think Liverpool FC should have made a place for him despite a new manager taking over from him?
"I definitely feel that a place should have been made for him at the club, even if it was just a nominal role as a token gesture to acknowledge the importance of his contribution to LFC.
"The gesture would have been important to him; after all he gave his life to Liverpool Football Club.
"However I’m not sure my granddad would have really embraced any 'nominal' position. It wasn’t in his character."
• A bit of research has thrown up a revelation that your granddad had an idea about groundsharing, with Aintree racecourse in mind as the ideal venue but it failed to materialise. With the current talk of a ground share between LFC and Everton, do you think his vision would or could have worked?
"I don’t really think such a vision could work in practice. Firstly, I’m sure you’ll agree that a ground is the embodiment of any big club…it’s not just a place. It represents the history of the club and ties the fans to it inextricably.
"When you've got two clubs like Liverpool and Everton, with such passionate supporters on both sides, I really think it’s just a recipe for disaster."
• What would he have thought proposed new Anfield?
"I think his bond with Anfield was so great (he kind of regarded it as a faithful old friend) that he would have been extremely sad to move away.
"But on the other hand, let’s not forget that my granddad’s greatest aim was for Liverpool Football Club to be a force to reckon with and if he thought a new ground was the right way forward, he would have made the sacrifice."
• He famously said that he didn't have time for directors as the Holy Trinity consisted of a manager, players and the fans. As the patron of Spirit of Shankly, how do you think he would have responded to headline-grabbing owners like the ones currently at Anfield?
"Let’s not forget that my granddad was a headline grabber too, but it was always for the good of the club he loved. He would not have approved of any negative publicity surrounding LFC.
"He didn’t have time for directors for the simple reason that in his experience he could see that other things, beyond the actual game of football itself, were their priority.
"For my granddad, money was the means it was not the end. For me SOS is an admirable organization for many reasons, first and foremost because one of its main goals is the protection of the fans who made LFC what it is today.
"I have seen them at work first hand and they are committed, organized, articulate and passionate. I believe my granddad would be behind them 100% but would be saddened at the same time that there was a necessity for such a union."
• Would he have relished the money in the game through commercialisation and the like. Or would he have been strongly opposed to it?
"Anything that affected the game negatively, he would not have approved of. I personally believe that money has distorted the game totally beyond recognition and the priorities are all twisted.
"Anybody who knows what it’s like to play with fire in your belly for the game itself and not for the material rewards it brings, strongly opposes the ethics of contemporary football."
• What would he make of the behaviour of today's stars and what do you think would he have done about them?
"I think we all know the answer to that one! Nobody was bigger than the team; he would never have abided the kind of behaviour we see from some of today’s big stars.
"He would have given them a verbal lashing and brought them right down to size. Simply put, football cannot be about individuals."
"I definitely feel that a place should have been made for him at the club, even if it was just a nominal role as a token gesture to acknowledge the importance of his contribution to LFC.
"The gesture would have been important to him; after all he gave his life to Liverpool Football Club.
"However I’m not sure my granddad would have really embraced any 'nominal' position. It wasn’t in his character."
• A bit of research has thrown up a revelation that your granddad had an idea about groundsharing, with Aintree racecourse in mind as the ideal venue but it failed to materialise. With the current talk of a ground share between LFC and Everton, do you think his vision would or could have worked?
"I don’t really think such a vision could work in practice. Firstly, I’m sure you’ll agree that a ground is the embodiment of any big club…it’s not just a place. It represents the history of the club and ties the fans to it inextricably.
"When you've got two clubs like Liverpool and Everton, with such passionate supporters on both sides, I really think it’s just a recipe for disaster."
• What would he have thought proposed new Anfield?
"I think his bond with Anfield was so great (he kind of regarded it as a faithful old friend) that he would have been extremely sad to move away.
"But on the other hand, let’s not forget that my granddad’s greatest aim was for Liverpool Football Club to be a force to reckon with and if he thought a new ground was the right way forward, he would have made the sacrifice."
• He famously said that he didn't have time for directors as the Holy Trinity consisted of a manager, players and the fans. As the patron of Spirit of Shankly, how do you think he would have responded to headline-grabbing owners like the ones currently at Anfield?
"Let’s not forget that my granddad was a headline grabber too, but it was always for the good of the club he loved. He would not have approved of any negative publicity surrounding LFC.
"He didn’t have time for directors for the simple reason that in his experience he could see that other things, beyond the actual game of football itself, were their priority.
"For my granddad, money was the means it was not the end. For me SOS is an admirable organization for many reasons, first and foremost because one of its main goals is the protection of the fans who made LFC what it is today.
"I have seen them at work first hand and they are committed, organized, articulate and passionate. I believe my granddad would be behind them 100% but would be saddened at the same time that there was a necessity for such a union."
• Would he have relished the money in the game through commercialisation and the like. Or would he have been strongly opposed to it?
"Anything that affected the game negatively, he would not have approved of. I personally believe that money has distorted the game totally beyond recognition and the priorities are all twisted.
"Anybody who knows what it’s like to play with fire in your belly for the game itself and not for the material rewards it brings, strongly opposes the ethics of contemporary football."
• What would he make of the behaviour of today's stars and what do you think would he have done about them?
"I think we all know the answer to that one! Nobody was bigger than the team; he would never have abided the kind of behaviour we see from some of today’s big stars.
"He would have given them a verbal lashing and brought them right down to size. Simply put, football cannot be about individuals."
• What was it in your granddad that made him the great manager that he was?
"Apart from all the qualities I’m sure most of us know about: determination, vision, dedication, motivation etc. I’m going to add, what for me, is the most important ingredient; the thing that set and continues to set him apart from other managers - the mutual adoration and respect of the supporters."
• You knew him as your granddad, what was it like being related to the greatest Liverpool manager of all time?
"I have to confess that at times it was just purely annoying and frustrating. He was like the Pied Piper wherever he went and when you’re trying to vie for someone’s attention with hundreds of adoring fans it can be irritating to say the least.
"I’ll never forget the time I had to be rushed to hospital after putting my arms through a glass door…I was quite scared anyway because I had a fear of hospitals and I needed comforting and reassurance.
"As soon as we got to the hospital my sister and I lost him amidst the adoring crowds who had gathered around him and one boy who had been speared by a railing had forgotten his pain and was getting an autograph."
• What is it about your granddad and the Scottish thread that runs through great managers?
"I think it was the era they lived in. They were mining folk, they were hard workers, and they were definitely working class men.
"I can’t speak for the other great managers, but I think the fact that my granddad was brought up in a small community played an integral role in defining his character and gave him that fiery determination that drove him to success.
"Generally speaking, the Scottish people as a nation have been shaped by their history and their history meant they had to fight for freedom, fight for their country and defend their property and their families: Nothing better than that for character building, great characteristics for any manager to have."
• Did you realise just how much he meant to Liverpool fans when you were younger or has the legacy grown as time has progressed?
"Unfortunately the full realization of what he meant to the fans and the people of Liverpool generally, didn’t really completely dawn on me until the day of his funeral and after that at his memorial service.
"To see the streets lined with people, mainly a sea of red and white but interspersed with blue at fairly regular intervals, was just something I will never ever forget.
"Since then I believe that the legacy just keeps growing stronger and I think the main reason for that is people realize that he really was a one off, the mould was broken, and they look back nostalgically to that era and wish they could have just some of the glory of that time back."
• To finish, what's your favourite personal memory of your granddad?
"There are so many memories that I have of my granddad, and so many people have shared their memories of him with me that I feel doubly blessed.
"However, for me what will always remain are the special times we stayed the night at nanny and grandy’s. We’d be rigorously bathed, grandy would make us toast before bed, then it was bedtime tales about life in Glenbuck and in the morning he would always get up early to make our breakfast.
"I loved those times so much and I will treasure those memories of him forever."
