Author Archives: Jord_713

Boot Room: Rebooted

On the surface, the boot room was just like any other room in Anfield, but it can be argued that this room had more impact on Liverpool’s path to domination than any other.

The original members of the Boot Room were Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Reuben Bennett, Tom Saunders, Joe Fagan and Ronnie Moran. Four of the six would go on to manage the club, with Bennett being the longest server of the sacred six.

It was very much the ‘Liverpool Way’ to promote from within once Shankly took the reigns. it wasn’t until July 1998 that Liverpool’s manager hadn’t also made an appearance for the Reds, with Frenchman Gerard Houllier joining and ushering in a new era of success. Whilst Houllier was an ‘outsider’, he had a trusty assistant with former player Phil ‘Thommo’ Thompson at his side.

The Liverpool Boot Room in the 1990’s

Whilst not an official objective, there’ll be a preference to revive this culture of employing ex players as staff and giving them a place to develop.

On the back of Gerrrad’s appointment, I took the time to find players who Stevie had played with other his career as well as former Liverpool players who could make an impact on the current set of players.

Approaches were made for the following:

  • Bolo Zenden (Coach)
  • Javier Mascherano (Under 18s Coach)
  • Dirk Kuyt ( Recruitment Analyst)
  • Gerard Houllier (Technical Director)
  • Sammy Lee (Under 18s Coach)

Whilst trying to get former players in seems to be a fairly simple task, I’ll also be encouraging current players especially the older ones to begin coaching courses as a way to develop them so they are ready to join the Boot Room on retirement.

James Milner and Adrian have both started their National C licenses and should have these achieved before Christmas.

The Boot Room progress will be frequently updated in future blogs as we get into the season properly.

Thanks for reading!

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Bob Paisley Challenge: Introduction

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The Bob Paisley Challenge

Introduction

From Bill Shankly to Jurgen Klopp and Kenny Dalglish to Rafa Benitez, many managers have left their mark on Liverpool, adding to the ever-growing trophy wall that proudly sits inside Anfield.

Klopp and Shankly are often bounded about it the talks of the greatest managers of all time, other managers in that list include Guardiola, Ferguson and Ancelotti. One name that doesn’t get enough of a mention in these circles is Liverpool’s most successful manager, Bob Paisley. 

Thrust into the limelight after Shankly’ tenure came to an end; the next nine years would be a sea of red dominance both domestically and on the continent. Many credit Shankly for the success that came over the coming years from the men that made up the boot room, but Paisley changed the way Liverpool played and reaped the rewards on a club and individual level.


Honours: 6 First Division titles, 3 European Cups, 3 League Cups, 1 UEFA Cup, 1 Super Cup and 6 Charity Shields
Individual: 6 Manager of the year awards

The Challenge

The Challenge is simple, achieve or exceed what Paisley did in his nine-year spell:

  • Win 20+ trophies
  • Win 1 big trophy every year (League/FA Cup/ Champions League)
  • Have a 57.6% win rate or higher.
  • Go 63+ league games unbeaten in a row at home
  • Win the FA Cup
  • Win 6+ Manager of the year awards

The Manager

There’s a feeling of déjà vu happening at Liverpool over the last few years. Jurgen Klopp took over in 2015 with Liverpool a shadow of their former selves and has restored them to being one of the best club sides in Europe. Over 50 years earlier Bill Shankly picked Liverpool up by the scruff of the neck and dragged them into the First Division, despite only winning three trophies in his spell, Shankly laid the foundations for the success to come.

With Klopp acting as Liverpool’s modern day Shankly, the big question is who will be Paisley’s protégé?

When I was planning this save a number of ex-players and current background staff crossed my mind but I whittled it down to just two, Steven Gerrard and Pep Ljinders. Both have been touted as potential successors once the German does leave Liverpool.

There’s one key similarity between Gerrard’s playing career and Paisley’s that was a defining factor, one major trophy eluded them both. Gerrard’s is well known to all, the Premier League, whilst Paisley never won the FA Cup as a manager or a player and was dropped for the 1950 FA Cup final despite scoring one of the two goals in the semi-final.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far, I’ll be posting updates over on slack at #Jord713. Blog posts will happen once the occasion arises, mostly to track the progress of objectives and to talk about key managerial decisions, something that Bob Paisley was very good at getting right!

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Jord713

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