50 Years of Shankly – Chris Lawler

On a cold Monday morning in mid-December 1959, a gruff-voiced Scot arrived on Merseyside and set out his plans for a footballing revolution.

Within days of his arrival, new Liverpool manager Bill Shankly encountered a young member of the ground staff at the club’s Melwood training ground and had 16-year-old Chris Lawler training with the senior squad.

“I was there six months before Shankly came,” the defender recalls.

“I joined the ground staff with the idea that I would train with the pros at night and work during the day but it was more like slave labour!

“In his first week I bumped into the boss and he started asking me what my routine would be and in the end he knew my name.

“I told him that I trained two nights a week with the amateurs and worked all day so he said ‘Tomorrow morning you’re training with the professionals. I’ll have a word with the groundsman.' So as soon as he came it was a big change for me."

It was also a big change for the club as the visionary Scot rang the changes and brought standards up to scratch at the dilapidated Second Division club.

“The ground at Anfield was in a mess,” Lawler admits.

“The training ground was even worse but I could gradually see him changing things; from Anfield to Melwood, even to the players’ training kit because that was a mess as well so he set about putting that right.”

Despite famously remarking that he would never cheat anyone, Lawler remembers that Shankly ripped up the rule book during legendary five-a-side matches at Melwood.

“I used to play in the five-a-side games with him when we’d finished training. The youth team would play against the staff like Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan and all the pros would go back to Anfield. They would play the game until they won it by cheating all the time!”

After his chance encounter with Shanks, Lawler signed professional forms on his 17th birthday and made 549 appearances for the club and became a first-team regular between 1965 and 1973 during his 15-year stay at Anfield.

Known affectionately by Kopites as ‘The Silent Knight’ for his quiet, unassuming behaviour both on and off the pitch Lawler, now 66, was a key part of the Reds side that won the 1965 FA Cup and played in a back four alongside the injured Gerry Byrne, who ruptured his collarbone just four minutes into the match.

“In those days there was no substitutes so the normal thing if somebody was injured was to put them on the wing to stop them making a nuisance of themselves.

“We knew Gerry was injured but we didn’t know he was that badly injured so it was all pretty low-key. The Leeds players didn’t know even though we stopped him taking the throw ins because you can’t do them one-handed.”

With the cup won, attention turned to Inter Milan in the first leg of the European Cup semi final but for Lawler there were more pressing matters beforehand which interfered with Shankly’s plans for the visit of the World Club Champions to Anfield.

“Before the season started I had arranged to get married. I’d had a look at the fixture list. The FA Cup was the last game in the English season. I had arranged to get married on the Monday after the final.

“We were going so well in the European Cup that we were drawn against Inter Milan in the semi final. We were playing them in the first leg at Anfield on the Tuesday after the final.

“I was getting married the day before so with a week to go before the final, Shankly called me into his office and told me that when it came to the Inter Milan game I’d have to go away with the players so on my wedding night I’d be away with the lads.”

Lawler’s lasting memory of Shankly, half a century on from their first meeting, is that of a man who was a pioneer for the club and the city of Liverpool.

He added: “He changed things for me right from the beginning, from that very first day when I met him. There were other episodes in my career when he helped me like when he changed me from a centre half to a right back so he was been a big influence to me.”

FLIM 2009 - Part 2

Today on FLIM 2009, we look at a biopic about a man who split the opinion of the footballing nation.

Whilst the supporter aspect of football culture has been a key theme in the majority of footy flicks, players and managers are overlooked somewhat.

In April, the BBC broadcast 'Best: His Mother's Son' which gave a harrowing insight into the alcoholism of his mother Anne. Prior to this there had not been any other film documenting the life and times of a player or manager, until now.

Brian Clough was a manager a lot of football fans loved to hate. Liverpool fans have few kind words to say about 'Old Big Head' following his comments about the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.

Indeed, very few had a good word to say about Mr Clough and his smarmy persona which was perfected to a tee by Michael Sheen in The Damned United.

The film goes back and forth between Clough's ill-fated 44 days in charge of Leeds United in 1974 and happier times as manager of Derby County in the late 1960s. In the early stages, then Derby manager Clough (Sheen) is celebrating drawing First Division heavyweights Leeds in the FA Cup. He goes above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that the Baseball Ground is as spick and span as a home to a Second Division club at the time could be.

However Clough takes measures on the border of sycophantism until Leeds manager Don Revie - then regarded as one of the best in the top flight - snubs him at every turn before, during and after the game. This sends the Derby boss into a single-handed crusade to create a team to challenge Leeds and replace them at the top of the First Division. In 1972 he achieved this and, despite unintentionally resigning at Derby, went on to join Leeds two years later via a very brief stint at Brighton.

The Damned United shows Clough up as a man hellbent on gaining revenge after Revie's snub to the point where he alienated the only true friend he had - Peter Taylor, who was his deputy at both Derby and Nottingham Forest. With this in mind, the closing titles that branded Clough as 'the greatest manager England never had' is baffling having portrayed him as a little upstart who wanted to create his own legacy that would have Leeds fans asking "Don who?" Fortunately, it never happened.

FLIM09 rating: 7/10

FLIM 2009 - Part 1

In recent times the UK film scene has been 'blessed' with a vast array of football-related films.

The screen adaptation of Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch enticed the masses during the hedonistic Britpop days of the mid nineties, aided in part by the national hysteria whipped up by England's exploits in Euro '96. That was followed in 2001 by Mike Bassett: England Manager. Several years later, violence was the order of the day when John King's The Football Factory was brought to cinematic life by Nick Love - the heir apparent to Guy Ritchie's throne as the leading Cockney director.

Continuing in the theme of terrace disorder is the screen adaptation of Kevin Sampson's gritty and culturally reflective novel Awaydays. The billing on the front cover describes it as being 'like Catcher in the Rye with Stanley knives' but, having read the book cover-to-cover, it's the Scouse alvernative to A Clockwork Orange.

The film centres around the life and times of Paul Carty, a middle class Birkenhead youngster in 1979 who yearns to be part of the kudos that comes with being a member of Tranmere Rovers' firm The Pack. His ambition is fulfilled when he meets Elvis, a impulsive art student who offers him a route into the firm.

In short, this is a film about sex, punk and adidas Samba. It focuses on the casual culture that emerged from Merseyside in the late 1970s; a craving for football violence, foreign jaunts and picking up a pair of Adi Dassler's finest in between.

Unfortunately the film is an anti-climax to the best-selling novel. The graphic nature of the book is what made it a best seller and Sampson, on board as an executive producer, stuck closely to the storyline - something other screen adaptations have failed to do.

But there was just something about Awaydays that didn't quite feel right. The actors have been touted as some of the best upcoming ones in the country and they lived up to their billing. However the film, for all the gratuitous violence and sexual content, had a watered down feel to it. The friendship between Carty and Elvis was, as in the novel, the focal point as was a punk-orientated soundtrack. The problem with penning a best-selling novel is that readers' imaginations will overshadow the version on the big screen. Credit has to be given to Sampson and his team for making this a crediblefilm off their own back but, as I was told repeatedly by people after seeing The Football Factory, the book's better.

FLIM09 rating: 8/10

Mission accomplished on Operation Truth

Steven Cohen was happy to pose with a big fat Cuban cigar in between his teeth a few years ago after 'his team' Chelsea lifted the Premier League trophy but I highly doubt the LA-based ex-pat will be chomping on one of Havana's finest at this moment in time.

Yesterday Cohen made what he said would be the final tranmission of his radio show World Soccer Daily claiming that he was pulling the plug due to threats made against his friends and step-family by Liverpool supporters as part of an ongoing smear campaign against him.

Anyone who has kept their finger on the pulse with regards to Cohen's behaviour over the past five months will know that he has repeatedly smeared the name of the Liverpool supporters who were at Hillsborough 20 years ago and will no doubt continue to do so. It is also worth mentioning that Nick Geber, WSD's majority shareholder and a Liverpool fan to boot, pulled the show because he was sick of the constant investigations of Cohen by the FBI following serious threats made against Anthony Ananins, a key member of the US-based boycott against Cohen.

Cohen in turn has claimed that he has received anti-Semitic emails and death threats but has failed to supply information of these alleged threats to the LAPD and the FBI which casts further doubt over his claims.

For the time being the hate spewer and his Glaswegian lapdog have stepped out of the public limelight. I have no doubt that they will return and probably reference the turblent five months they have had to endure because of the ill-informed and downright disrespectful comments but as long as they don't make those same mistakes there will be no case to answer and no boycotts to resume.

The memories of the 96 who lost their lives has been preserved after Cohen's slurs on their names and credit has to go to everyone connected to the campaign both here and in the States, particularly Tony, Conor Brennan and Mel Abshier. This campaign was set up in order to gain some justice for the 96 who were slandered by Steven Cohen and his band of merry men at WSD and justice, in some form at least, has prevailed.

RIP 96

You'll Never Walk Alone

Sir Obsessed strikes again

It's such a shame that after yesterday's obituary for a gentleman of the game, I am having to write about another footballing knight but not one that is even fit to lace the boots of the late, great Sir Bobby Robson.

Alex Ferguson's hatred of all things Liverpool FC has surfaced yet again, over two decades after he famously declared that he wanted to knock the Anfield outfit "off their f*****g perch". Ferguson's ramblings against Liverpool have continued since that interview and Kenny Dalglish, the then Reds manager, saw right through them and once remarked: "You might as well talk to my baby daughter. You'll get more sense out of her".

So what has bee is in Sir Alex's bonnet this time I hear you ask? The ill treatment of Michael Owen during his time on Merseyside is the answer. Unless you have been in solitary confinement you will know that little Michael joined the ranks at Old Trafford from Newcastle. Apparently fulfilling his meagre ambition of securing a place in the England squad for the 2010 World Cup is a bigger priority than showing a little respect to the club where he was given his lucky break by joining one of their most bitter rivals. Despite securing the ex-Liverpool hitman on a free transfer, Fergie decided to have a little rant at Owen's former employers over forcing the then youngster to over-exert himself.

“We had Ronnie Wallwork and John Curtis playing in that England Under-20 squad in Malaysia in 1997 and when they came back we gave them six weeks off," the United boss said yesterday.

“But Michael went straight into the Liverpool first team then a year later was playing in the World Cup for England. That was unfair to a young player to have that kind of strain and intensity one summer after another.

“I wouldn’t have done that but he was such a talent that Liverpool needed him in the team and then England needed him in the World Cup.”

How could we forget Ronnie Wallwork and John Curtis - two of the greatest players to ever make the grade at Old Trafford with 32 senior appearances between them? What a mark of a man that Curtis boasts a CV which shows he has played for 12 clubs in as many years and is currently flying high with League Two heavyweights Northampton Town. And who could forget the legendary out-of-contract defender Wallwork who was banned from the game for three years for attacking a Belgian referee when on loan at Royal Antwerp.

Ferguson and Benitez went head-to-head in a war of words last season and despite United lifting the title, the Spaniard had clearly rattled his opposite number. His verbal dressing down of Ferguson was responded to with venom and fury by Ferguson who tried to verbally attack the Reds' manager repeatedly throughout the latter stages of the season. Benitez meanwhile refused to fuel the fire of this one-sided war of words and focused on a push for the title that unfortunately fell short come May.

With the new season a fortnight away, it appears that Ferguson has set out his stall for a repeat of his off-field antics from the previous campaign and has even included United's local rivals - the now megabucks Manchester City - into proceedings but Liverpool are still the priority.

Such was Ferguson's obsession with life at Anfield last season that one Kopite penned a witty poem about him called 'Sir Obsessed'. Here are just some extracts from it; also a fitting way to finish this piece.

Just lie back Mr Ferguson;
you’re frothing at the mouth.
I’m ordering a straightjacket,
to try and sort you out”

You’re suffering from delusion,
born from real fear.
Benitez has you running scared.
Your time is finally near

Unfortunately Mr Ferguson,
your heading for a fall.
Benitez has higher intelligence
your brain is far too small.

You’re suffering from paranoia
brought about by stress
there’s no medical terminology
apart from you’re obsessed.