The socialism I believe in isn't really politics. It is a way of living. It is humanity. I believe the only way to live and to be truly successful is by collective effort, with everyone working for each other, everyone helping each other, and everyone having a share of the rewards at the end of the day. That might be asking a lot, but it's the way I see football and the way I see life. Bill Shankly.

Bill Shankly is widely regarded as the architect of the modern club football super power that is Liverpool Football Club. Before he arrived in 1959 they were a struggling second division team with no recent notable history of success to speak of. On his arrival Shankly put in place a blueprint for success from which many clubs have subsequently borrowed. It was a blueprint developed during his lower leagues apprenticeship as a player and manager but ultimately having its origins in Glenbuck, a small, impoverished, Ayrshire mining village.
When times are hard and poverty makes its literal presence felt by the gnawing pangs of hunger things can go one of two ways. Either a ‘dog eat dog’ mentality ensues or values such as a sense of duty, everyone pulling together, the importance of hard work are developed. In the close knit community of Glenbuck it was the latter and these were values that shaped the developing character of the young William Shankly.

Despite their circumstances Shankly and his four brothers all lived and breathed football and all staked their dreams in the game- they all went on to play professionally, however Shankly’s transition from childhood to professional playing career was decidedly bumpy. On leaving school it was the pit that called rather than any green manicured pitch and when the mine closed it was unemployment that took Shankly rather than the pro game. However Shankly had enough within himself to get trials at local clubs and eventually won a contract at Carlisle United. A successful first season brought him to the attention of Preston North End and he joined the Lilywhites at the end of the 32/33 season. His game was built around a disciplined ,tough tackling, energetic, pass and move style and in his fifth season at Preston the club won the FA Cup, his playing career highlight. He also won 12 international caps. Shankly’s playing career was interrupted by the outbreak of WWII and he was 33 years old with his career waning when he re-joined Preston at the war’s end playing on for four more years before retiring in 1949.

Shankly’s managerial career started back at Carlisle United and took in spells at Workington, and Huddersfield Town before his arrival at Liverpool in 1959. Through his lower leagues apprenticeships Shankley developed a means of instilling his principles into his teams. Application, hard-work, resilience, honesty, togetherness, bravery and ensuring his players felt the hunger rooted deep within himself snapping at their heels. The togetherness extended to the fans of the club and he recognised the importance of winning their support by the team representing their club in an honest way.

One element his pre-Liverpool clubs all shared however was a lack of Board room ambition. The owners were keener to take money out of the team than invest into it so that, under Shankly, the teams were punching above their weight but ultimately just fell short of success. It was this board room lack of a match up with his own innate ambition that led to Shankly leaving each of the posts.

As noted pre-’59 Liverpool were a stagnating club with a dilapidated ground and training facilities. One thing Shankly did find however was a Board prepared to back him. He brought in good back room staff who shared his values and ideas and using his spirit and humour connected the club with it’s fans. It was this total club management, including the fans, that helped sow the seeds of future success. With the fans on board the players had the feeling that they were part of something greater and were more receptive to Shankly’s intentions and methods. The development of initially disparate elements fed one into another so that by the mid 1960’s there was a team with a unified work ethic and value set, a fervent fan base, an ambition in the Board room and effective support staff (the famous Boot Room).

Training regimens were revolutionised. Long plodding runs were replaced by sprint based, ball at feet training. Practice games were small sided affairs where players learned to press and to deal with pressure by passing and moving. Circuit training and segmentation practices were introduced. More than anything Shankly demanded his players treated training as seriously as match play and most importantly the overriding quality was that the whole team was one, Liverpool became LFC and in a team containing many stars all the players were prepared to subsume that status for the advancement of the club.

Shankly developed the academy and scouting network so that by the mid 60’s a mix of home grown talent and astute purchasing was producing players who all reflected the ethos of the manager.

Success on the pitch followed and after promotion to the first division in 1961-62 Liverpool won the FA Cup in 64 , the First Division title in 63-64 and 65-66 and reached the semi-finals of the European Cup in 64-65. Liverpool’s ability to consolidate in the upper echelons so rapidly is a testament to Shankly’s ability to learn quickly from new situations and adapt his techniques accordingly.

Bill Shankly found a home at Liverpool FC that was prepared to afford him the opportunity to mould a club in his likeness so that all the qualities he found most important in life , qualities of hard work, honesty, togetherness, dedication, he could cast in his team and most importantly that it wasn’t just winning that was important but more the way that winning occurred.

In doing this he laid the foundations for LFC as an entity and it is interesting that the modern manager most widely acknowledged as the best fit for the club is Jurgen Klopp who emphasises the same importance of togetherness with the fan base that Shankly first recognised almost 90 years ago.