Paisley spent 9 years at the wheel at Anfield from 1974 to 1983 and in his time won a trophy every season apart from in his first season in which the reds were beaten to the title by Derby County by 2 points. Meanwhile, the boot room had a bit of a switch around with Fagan coming in as Paisley’s assistant coach and Evans continued to work as reserve manager with Bennett now as chief scout ahead of Geoff Twentyman.
Ever since Bob Paisley had become manager of the club he now had the Manager’s office to himself, but he rarely spent time in it opting for the boot room more regularly because the “manager’s office gets lonely”. Since Paisley’s appointment as manager, the boot room had more regulars with the attendance of Tom Saunders, John Bennison and Roy Evans.
It was Shankly’s dream to get Liverpool to the top of European Club Football he “wanted Liverpool to be untouchable. [His] idea was to build Liverpool up and up until eventually everyone would have to submit and give in.”. During Shankly’s time he won what is equivalent to the Europa League but never managed to take Ol’ Big Ears back to Merseyside. It was Paisley’s aim to conquer all of Europe and conquer he would, 3 times actually.
After winning the first division in 1976 for the first time in 3 years, Paisley’s Reds were in the European Cup, this time they had their eyes on the prize. To get to the Final Liverpool thrashed Crusaders 7-0, then Trabzonspor who they lost to in the first leg away but then continued to beat 3-0 at Anfield which was enough to put them into the last eight.
With Liverpool’s hopes of becoming European champions looking up since they only had to beat 3 teams to get their hands on the trophy, their next game was away to Saint-Etienne. This was no easy game since this was the side that were runners-up in the previous season.
The first leg again was away at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard in which Paisley’s side was beaten 1-0, was this it for them? Obviously not because the Kop was waiting across the channel for the French giants. Liverpool started the second leg in brilliant style with an absolute worldie from Kevin Keegan into the top right corner in the 2nd minute. Then early in the second half, St Etienne scored a goal meaning the reds needed two. Ray Kennedy scored making it 2-2 meaning we still needed one more, Toshack was subbed off for Fairclough and in the 84th minute he scored the winning goal taking them into their first ever European Cup semi-final against FC Zurich.
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The game against Zurich was a walk in the park for the reds, winning the game happily on aggregate 6-1 meaning they were in their first ever European Cup Final. Shankly’s vision had come true and the reds began preparing for what was arguably the biggest game in the clubs history so far.Paisley started ex-Newcastle star McDermott in the Final and it wouldn’t be too long until Paisley signed another ex-Newcastle player Alan Kennedy. Upon arrival in Rome Paisley exclaimed that “The last time I was here, I was on the back of a tank.” and he may as well have been this time as the reds tanked Bayern Monchengladbach 3-1 in the final and Emlyn Hughes lifted the trophy.In the same season Liverpool won the League and lost in the FA Cup Final to United and missed out on the chance of winning the treble. The following season Dalglish would arrive at Anfield and score 31 goals in his debut season and Souness would also join the reds. They won the European Cup again that season against Club Brugge but didn’t win anything else alongside the European Cup.Then in the 1978/79 season the reds would sign Alan Kennedy and then go on to win the First Division so return to the European Cup the following season they would also win back to back league titles in 1978/79-1979/80.
By the end of the 1980/81 season Liverpool had four league titles, one UEFA Cup, three European Cups and a league cup under Bob Paisley and were the best team in Europe once again after beating Real Madrid by 1 goal to nil. In that season Bruce Grobbelaar and Ian Rush joined the reds for a fee of around £400k overall.During the 1981/82 season, the lads who had played during the 70s were starting to leave and their form was dropping fast. Liverpool’s number 1, Ray Clemence, left to Tottenham after 470 appearances and the old trustworthy midfield of Case, Souness, McDermott and Kennedy had reached the end of the line. A midfield that had played in 2 of the 2 European Cup Finals in which they were available and won those games.Liverpool’s title challenge in the 1981/82 season didn’t start of too well with 5 defeats in the first half of the season the boot room had to come into use now. With the signings of Ian Rush, Ronnie Whelan and Mark Lawrenson a title challenge for the reds was on the cards. Losing only 2 games in the second half of the season and going on a 16-game unbeaten run which would continue in the 1982/83 season until October where they lost 1-0 to Ipswich Town.In the 81/82 season the reds would win the League Cup once again and therefore would go on to win 4 back to back Cups until the 84/85 season. This period in time was the most successful in Liverpool’s 127-year history, within 9 years Paisley had taken Liverpool to Domestic and Continental Success. Winning; 6 first divisions, 3 league cups, 6, charity shields, 3 European Cups a UEFA Cup and a UEFA Super Cup. Which brings him to a total of 20 trophies in his illustrious career as head coach of Liverpool Football Club. Genius.
After 9 years at the club Paisley left Liverpool and in his final season, he won the Treble, winning the First Division, League Cup and the Charity Shield. In his final game for Liverpool, we lost 2-1 to Watford but still won the league. Paisley had spent 44 years of his life at Anfield and to this day the Liverpool side paid tribute to him on what would be his 100th birthday in a home game against Palace this season. Also, the current Liverpool kit pays tribute to the Liverpool legend with his face on the inside of the collar.After Paisley’s resignation in the 82/83 season his assistant Joe Fagan, alike his predecessor, reluctantly took Paisley’s job. The boot room had some changes as well with Ronnie Moran moving up to be Fagan’s assistant manager, Roy Evans moved from the reserve team job to take Moran’s role as first team trainer and Chris Lawler came in to take the reserve team job.There was reasoning behind Fagan’s reluctance to manage the reds, his age. He was 62 now and nobody was really expecting a long stint as manager from him. But they all knew what he was capable of so would trust him to be the next man to pick up where Paisley left off and continue Liverpool’s conquering of Europe.In Fagan’s first season as Liverpool manager he won the European Cup, the League Cup and Division 1 making him the first manager of an English club to win three major trophies in a single season.The 1984 European Cup Final against Roma ended up going to penalties after nothing being able to split of Fagan’s side and the Italian giants. Souness captained the team that day on what would be his last team for Liverpool after he left for Sampdoria in the summer of 84 after spending 6 years with the reds, he would leave more of a legend if this game went to plan and ended in victory. He would have 3 European Cups to his name.The penalty shootout started with Steve Nicol stepping up as the first taker, he stepped up and skied it over the bar. The tension was high now for Roma club captain di Bartolomei as he could put his side into the lead. Grobbelaar had to save the reds now, di Bartolomei stepped up and put it straight down the middle. Roma 1-0 up in the European Cup Final.
It was Phil Neal’s turn to score now, his penalty record was perfect after scoring in the 1977 Final in the 82nd minute, he slots it into the top right corner. Grobbelaar’s second chance now as Roma’s number 7 Bruno Conti began the walk to the penalty spot. Conti took his run up and hammered it over the bar leaving the scores level again. Souness finished it in off the post similar to Neal putting the reds in the lead for the first time in the shootout. Righetti does his job and puts his penalty away making it level again after 3 penalties, Rush slotted his penalty home putting the reds back in the lead.Here’s where Grobbelaar’s legendary spaghetti legs comes in, he puts off Oraziani and causes to put the ball over the bar leaving Liverpool one penalty away from their 4th European Cup. The man to take it was Liverpool’s legendary goalscoring left-back, Alan Kennedy. He runs up and puts the ball passed the keeper and into the bottom left corner of the net, Alan Kennedy had won the European Cup for Liverpool.The treble winning season was, for Fagan, a reward for all those years spent in the boot room he deserved that season for his works to make Shankly’s idea of what Liverpool Football Club could be. He was the founder of the boot room which brought up Liverpool legends such as; Ian Rush, Kenny Dalglish and Bruce Grobbelaar.Fagan’s following season wasn’t as impressive as the previous and ended in the worst way possible as on the 29th May 1985 39 Juventus fans lost their lives in a terrible tragedy before Liverpool’s European Cup tie against the Italian giants. The game was played despite the disaster and Juventus won 1-0. Fagan retired in that summer and all English clubs were banned from European competitions for 5 years, Liverpool for a further 6 years.Fagan would leave the club as another Liverpool legend and he would be remembered forever as the man who brought home number 4 from that night in Rome.Article by Ben Taylor – @bensgtaylor
