Not watched the documentary yet, but there is an interesting fact I remember from earlier days - Just googled for the data…
Sir Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, and Jock Stein were born within 13 years and 4 months of each other, all hailing from a roughly 30-mile radius in the coal mining belt of the West of Scotland. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Here is how their birth dates and locations match up:
Sir Matt Busby: Born May 26, 1909, in Orbiston, Bellshill, Lanarkshire
Bill Shankly: Born September 2, 1913, in Glenbuck, Ayrshire
Jock Stein: Born October 5, 1922, in Burnbank, Hamilton, Lanarkshire [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Only about 14 miles separate the birthplace of Shankly in Glenbuck and Stein in Burnbank, while Busby’s birthplace in Bellshill is roughly 25 miles from Glenbuck and 5 miles from Burnbank. [1, 2, 3]
All three icons shared an identical working-class upbringing as coal miners before going on to revolutionize British football at Manchester United, Liverpool, and Celtic
Reading this about Raheem Sterling, it seems that he is getting some pretty poor advice/enabling around him:
"How a prolific English international who has steered the England squad to significant heights over the last decade has been made to feel worthless – forgotten about…The psychological strain that has put on him is immeasurable. Isolated. The second he touches a ball, being told he’s a flop and he’s finished. Mocked. Heckled. He moved to the Netherlands to escape and rediscover his love for the game but the negativity followed. "
I used to use the Matt Busby sports centre when I worked in Bellshill. Mainly, the swimming pool but we did occasionally use the 5-a-side pitches. There were a few pictures of him in the foyer, including one in his Liverpool kit from the late 1930s.
I did visits of some of the former footballing locations but little exists of Glenbuck, I think I’ve posted the pictures here before. I did read a book about the football team, The Cherrypickers, and it was quite remarkable. They produced 50 professional footballers over a 30 year period from a village of barely 1000 people. Apparently, there was little in the way of entertainment, so they played 5-a-side every night - a tactic that Shanks later employed at Liverpool.
I think one figure that really stuck out from that book was Shankly’s older brother Bob. He had been a professional for Falkirk, but became Dundee manager around the same time as Bill tool over at Liverpool. Bob won the league and then took Dundee to the European Cup semis where they lost out to AC Milan.
The one thing you take from all of this is how football was an escape from poverty, both as a distraction and, for the lucky ones, a decent living for a few years away from the mines and factories.
I’ve just been sorting thru’ approx 1000 vinyl records…and found my Kop Choir LP…on the inside cover is signature I got whilst waiting for LFC coming out of the players entrance…near the old ticket office…many bleams ago…and its…Kevin Keegan…I can remember him asking me where I lived in Yorkshire…and why Liverpool…and he had a word with my Dad…can also remember it raining…and he stood in the small doorway (the old players entrance to sign my LP cover…sad sad news.
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