"When I go, I'm going to be the fittest man ever to die”.
Just one of numerous outlandish claims which sprung from the mouth of the one and only Bill Shankly. Yet such was the legendary Liverpool manager’s compelling ability to convince his devoted followers that was he was saying - even in the face of rational logic - was the truth, there will likely have been many Liverpudlians who would have taken those words as gospel. Indeed there will no doubt have been some who believed the Scot was immortal and that day would never come.
When it inevitably of course did, 41 years ago this week and a little over seven after his shock retirement at the age of 60, it unleashed a wave of grief and emotion across Merseyside as well as the world of football which was testament to a man who lived and breathed the game and expected the same from everyone else he came into contact with.
