“It's the greatest thing in the world, natural enthusiasm. You're nothing without it.”
Just one of the many truisms which sprung from the mouth of Bill Shankly and few better summed up the legendary former Liverpool boss’s outlook on the game and life itself. One of the Scot’s greatest attributes was identifying players who had the characteristics he wanted in his teams, individuals who could bring different values to the collective in a way which could blend and make it greater than the sum of its parts.
Underpinning that was the necessary passion for football and hard work which Shankly was renowned for himself. Like many managers, having his own values represented on the pitch was essential and, of all the players he brought to Anfield, no-one arguably fulfilled that criteria more than a youngster brought in almost exactly halfway through his 15-year reign, who would become one of the club’s greatest ever players and is synonymous with the glorious period in the 1970s when the Reds rose from being one of the country’s leading clubs to its dominant force as well as a European powerhouse.
