what Kenny did in 89 was beyond anything anyone else had to do…i also have a few issues with Houllier, his football was terrible, the club was set up better under his reign, and we won some silverware, but it really was hard to watch at times…really, really hard…im not sure why that gets lost so easily over time.
and yes, you could argue that silverware is all that counts, but you still want to enjoy watching us win it.
Well I don’t think Fagan can be left off. Immaculate record including first British treble and in his second season the team were runners up in league and EC and if it wasn’t for Heysel may have continued longer.
Had it in my head he retired before Heysel.
Edit: No he didn’t
He resigned the day after…
He always planned to resign when he did. He inherited a wonderful team and never had to rebuild or overcome adversity. It’s just not long enough to compare with the others.
I thought that was contested but, seeing as you actually were in the dressing room with him, I’ll defer to your knowledge 
We had many a long chat in the boot room.
He once said ‘Craig, if you ever find yourself posting a poll on an internet LFC fan forum sometime in the future, don’t add my name even if some Irish Aussie bloke keeps nagging you about it’.
I said ‘What are you on about Joe? Have you been at the linement again?’
Turns out he was clairvoyant.
Shankly took over a club that had been stuck in the second division for years and fundamentally transformed it. He sorted the training facilities and made sure that the coaches and not the board were picking the teams.
He gained promotion and won titles in the 60s and then built the basis of a team that would dominate Europe in the 70s.
Everything else was built on that foundation.
From when I was an infant school nipper, I went to Joe Fagan’s house a number of times for my tea… Was best mates with one of his sons through infants and junior school. He used to come and watch our school football team play in Stanley Park against other local schools, giving encouragement from the sidelines…
His lad always wore the best kit :0) - Went to watch the reserves when Joe Fagan was the kit man/trainer lots of times on a Saturday afternoon… Realise now it was probably because his dad did everything he could to keep his sons interested in football. Lovely, lovely family they were, and Joe Fagan was as nice a guy as you could ever hope to meet.
Leaving Fagan out is criminal.
I’d definitely have Bob Paisley though. The undisputed master: three European Cups and six league titles. That would be difficult to do now even with state-backed billions behind you. Back then, it was nigh on impossible.
Well that was his name
Useful player I seem to remember
That’s right… but he was the oldest brother… my mate came after the sister and other brothers…! Forgot to mention, my mate wasn’t allowed to play in the school team, unless he had cleaned and polished his boots beforehand… none of the other kids bothered cleaning theirs… some had mud still stuck to them from games weeks earlier :0)
Lovely story 
Have you read David Peace’s brilliant book Red or Dead?
It covers Shankly’s period as manager and period after his retirement.
What is superbly conveyed is the grinding monotony of football. The repetition of the same cycle continually turning. Day to day, game to game and season to season. And the security and safety found in that routine.
Bill found it hard to adjust to retirement away from the day to day grind of football. He didn’t know what to do with himself. In the end Bob had to tell him to stay away. He was haunting the place like a ghost, and Bob was trying to make his own mark on the team. He didn’t have much choice really.
No points off in my book, just sadness that Bill struggled to let go and Bob had to do what he did.
In my following, nothing can compare to what the club did during Shanks’ or especially Paisley’s era. Credit to Fagan and Kenny’s 1st reign also for their short(er), but successful continuations of it.
From my following, I’d say Klopp, Rafa, Houllier. In that order.
The sad thing with Rafa is while the team gradually got better, we haven’t won anything since that '06 FA Cup. 2006-2010, zero trophies. All of his trophies came within the first two seasons. Really a shame we lost that Atletico SF, although we were close, considering the team we had out there, due to players missing.
Houllier I have respect for as he also brought progress (though sometimes it tells me more about how far behind we were at certain periods, horrible, like prisoners of our own history). My grandfather was close to him and I met him once, a very nice person.
Also some very nice trophies and a team that could be at least competitive. Able to get over the line in a lot of big games. Team full of characters I felt (although I wonder how much of it was down to that team being my first Liverpool one, so nostalgia plays a part). The Leverkusen away loss was a sad one, one of the first days I cried as a kid supporting Liverpool. Wanted United in the SF so badly, we knew how to beat them at the time.
But trophies from both managers aside, I prefered Rafa’s teams to Houllier’s. That’s pretty simple. In some aspects it wasn’t that different (both wanted solid/compact units), but when Rafa and especially Alonso came in, that was the beginning of something new. It was evident straight away. More playing out from the back. Generally a more aggressive approach. The team tactically even more together and doing more phases of the game together. Rafa’s football was much more in line with what was happening in European football, but still, you felt the club was still lacking behind that and needed to catch up.
And Klopp, well, maybe it will be best to talk about it when it’s over. But very good so far. Also, credit to FSG for bringing Liverpool at least in the present. Now we can say we don’t lack behind like we used to. Back to Klopp, playing style more protagonist than ever in my following, winning everything there is to win. Now hopefully we can win some things a few more times. Up to the club to prove post-Klopp, that they can remain being at least competitive, but also build new winning formulas. With now new directors, soon new managers, new players, etc.
Shanks was welcomed at Bellefield. He lived just across the road and they let him train there for a while.
Shankly also revealed his shock that he had found solace at once-hated rivals Everton. “I have been received more warmly by Everton than I have been by Liverpool,” he wrote. Indeed, on being exiled from Melwood, he began turning up at Everton’s training ground, Bellefield, where he trained and sometimes helped Everton’s club captain, Mick Lyons, coach the junior teams.
He actually went 7 seasons from 65/66 to 72/73 without a trophy which these days would have earned him the sack.
Yeah, I remember reading those little stories about Shanks at Everton’s training ground, etc. I found it beautiful, to be honest. Tells you more about the man.
I never had the affection for Houllier’s side that so many other had. I hated his football and I was very uncomfortable with the reality that he made my club resort to it. I held my breathe and grudgingly accepted the argument that we needed to learn how to win before we could evolve into a side that played football that was worth the price of admission (or for me, worth getting out of bed to watch), but in my heart I never believed it was doable. The collective failures against Leverkusen and then Basel demonstrated the futility of the idea and to me I was ready for it to be over as soon as we dropped into the UEFA cup that season after Basel, but then had to watch a side struggle through 18 month months of no one accepting the project had reached a creative dead end.
I’d say getting knocked out against Leverskusen wasn’t such a failure considering the quality of the team (minutes away from a SF, not much more to ask for, but it was a nice chance), but that Basel 3-3 at their place (Riise I think missed a sitter late on to win it)… that was horrible, yeah.
It was not that we lost, but that way we lost. And just as importantly how we responded to the losses. The whole justification for the terrible football we played in Houllier’s earlier seasons was that it was a stepping stone to reestablishing us as a dominant winning side that played good football the club was associated with. But evert time we tried to evolve we got punched on the nose and immediately went back to being cautious. The evolution was a pipedream and these games and the limitations they exposed, both in what we were capable of and with the hits we were willing (unwilling) to take to navigate that transition, were the main demonstrations of that.