This was shamelesly lifted from RAWK. I enjoyed reading it and thought that others on here might enjoy it too. Warning! It is very long requiring two posts.........
With the new season up on us, I have been pondering for the past week or so about our present fortunes. We are a club potentially on the cusp of greatness. We have the players, the ambition and the hunger. Scanning through the pages of our history, I feel the past few seasons of Rafa’s reign are very similar to those Shankly experienced in the late Sixties and early Seventies, when an older side (read Rafa’s Champions League winning side) had to be dismantled over a period of seasons in order to construct a base for future success.
As a fan under the age of thirty, I do not have intimate experiences of this era, but I have based the following long article or essay upon my interpretation of this period through what I have read or heard. I think it is an era success-hungry younger fans often overlook, but should take note of in order to acquire an additional perspective for this upcoming season. I’ve written this essay around Alun Evans’ brief period at the club. From what I have studied, Evans’ stay at Anfield appears to typify and mirror the false dawns, highs and lows associated with the era, in addition to the problems Shankly faced in re-calibrating his squad.
Growing up, I was fortunate to receive as a birthday present two books which would inform my childhood fascination with Liverpool Football Club. The first was the club’s “Official Centenary History,†the second was Steven Kelly’s “You’ll Never Walk Alone: The Centenary Edition.†Recently, I skimmed through the well-worn pages of these books and was drawn to the period between 1966-67 and 1972-73 and in particular the story of Alun Evans.
The story of Alun Evans is an interesting one. Opinion amongst older fans I have spoken to of his Anfield legacy is diverse: ranging from an inconsistent failure to an unfortunate, but talented player. His transfer to Anfield smashed records and split with Liverpool’s tradition of player recruitment. A bustling ball of energy, women swooned over Evans’ handsome, blonde looks. With his Byrdsian mop of hair, one pundit deridingly referred to Evans as a “rag doll.†Yet, Evans had the potential skill set to match the hype. Nevertheless, his promising Anfield career would be ravaged by injuries and a horrific off-field accident. Stuttered by injuries and blighted by inconsistent play, Evans career epitomized the problematic and tumultuous evolution of Shankly’s team during this era.
These years, notable for their paucity of trophies, were Shankly’s barren years. Yet, their story is an important tale of transition, which often bears striking similarities to the Benitez era, as Rafa continues to assemble and cultivate a squad destined for domestic and European success. It is a story often overlooked by fans like myself who belong to a younger generation. But it is a tale that carries important contemporary lessons and was crucial in laying the foundations for the dominant Liverpool teams of the 1970’s and 1980’s.
To understand the transitional nature of this era, one has to delve further back. In 1962-63, Liverpool returned to the First Division after nearly a decade scrapping it out in the Second Division. The following season (1963-64), Shankly guided Liverpool to its first League Championship since the 1946-47 campaign. A year later, Liverpool would record their first ever F.A Cup victory (1964-65) with a 2-1 extra time defeat of Leeds United. The subsequent season (1965-66) would see the Championship trophy return to Anfield. Yet, Shankly’s great team of the 1960’s was short-lived.
In spite of a promising start to the 1966-67 season, a disastrous post-February slumber (the club won only 3 of their final 12 games) sealed Liverpool’s fate: resulting in a fifth place finish, nine points adrift of Manchester United. Runners-up in the European Cup Winners Cup to Borussia Dortmund a year earlier, Liverpool were also humiliated that season in the European Cup by a young Ajax Amsterdam side led by a certain Johann Cruyff. Subsequently, changes had to be made.
In the summer of 1967, Shankly smashed the club’s transfer record to bring in twenty-six year old striker Tony Hateley from Chelsea for £96,000. Signed by Chelsea the previous season for £100,000 to replace the injured Peter Osgood, Hateley’s stay in the capital was brief. Tall and awkward, Hateley thrived on high crosses. Yet, as with his spell at Chelsea, his technical deficiencies and lack of mobility became a thorn in Shankly’s side.
Like Peter Crouch, Hateley’s goal-scoring abilities did not preclude his journeyman status and at the time of his retirement, Hateley’s combined transfer fees made him the most expensive English footballer of his generation. Despite netting a respectable 16 goals in 38 league appearances (in addition to 8 goals in 7 FA Cup appearances) and combining well with Roger Hunt (who scored 25 goals in 40 league games), Liverpool finished the 1967-68 season third: three points behind eventual champions Manchester City. Unable to fit into Shankly’s long-term vision, Hateley was sold for a £16,000 loss to Coventry City at the beginning of the following season.
As during the 1966-67 season, Shankly’s side dropped points throughout 1967-68 against seemingly easy opposition: Liverpool failed to register maximum points from games against four of the First Division’s bottom five teams, including a mere point against relegated Sheffield United. Hateley’s replacement for the 1968-69 season came in the form of nineteen year old striker Alun Evans. Signed from Wolves for a then astronomical £100,000, Evans was earmarked by Shankly as the striking fulcrum he would build his future team around.
Britain’s most expensive teenage signing, Evans had initially caught Shankly’s eye the previous season, when he ran circles around the aging Ron Yeats. Some viewed the signing with cynicism, believing Evans was a desperate attempt by Shankly to add a prodigious talent to match United’s George Best. With his long mop of blonde hair, Evans certainly stands out in team photographs of the era. Yet, Shankly had scouted Evans for several months, before clinching his signature. Prior to signing Alun Evans, Shankly’s approach had been to slowly groom youngsters through the reserves, integrating them gradually into the first-team over a period of years. Knowing this upon his arrival at Anfield, Evans summarily expected to ply his trade in the reserves, only to be informed by Shankly himself that, “I wouldn’t pay £100,000 for you or anybody else unless it was to play in my first team. You’re facing Leicester on Saturday.â€
True to his word, Shankly selected Evans for the match against Leicester and the debutant responded with a goal in a 4-0 victory. A week later in his second appearance, Evans scored twice against his former club Wolves in a 6-0 thrashing. Goals against Manchester United and Newcastle brought Evans’ tally to five goals in his first seven league appearances. Things were looking bright for Liverpool’s new signing. Nevertheless, Evans would only add two more league goals throughout the course of the season, despite featuring in all of the thirty-three league games that occurred after his arrival at Anfield. Furthermore, Evans would suffer the embarrassment of being the only Liverpool player to be sent off that season.
Liverpool finished league runners-up in Evans’ first season, six points behind league champions Leeds United. Yet, such a result belied the side was in decline. Upon Evans’ arrival Shankly’s cadre of key contributors were almost unanimously entering the twilight of their careers: Hunt, St. John, Byrne, Strong and Yeats were all in their 30’s. After scoring twenty-five league goals the previous season, Roger Hunt’s output halved in 1968-69, resulting in thirteen tallies.
If Evans’ first season had at times projected to fans now accustomed to success that there was potential for a new dawn at Anfield, his second season (1969-1970) demonstrated the extensiveness of the overhaul Shankly was required to undertake. After a bright nine-game unbeaten run, Shankly’s transitional team fell into old habits. A five game winless streak (D: 4: L: 1) through much of October, in tandem with an erratic post-Christmas period, effectively killed off Liverpool’s title aspirations. The 1969-1970 was for the most part a calamitous disaster. The club finished fifth, fourteen points behind Everton. It is often written in Liverpool folklore that the turning point in Shankly's plans was the club’s humiliating F.A Cup exit to Second Division strugglers Watford. The loss to Watford has been seen by many as being the eye-opening catalyst in hastening Shankly’s desire to completely eradicate the old 1960’s side. However the signs were evident throughout the entire season.
Once again, points were dropped against opposition from the nether regions of the table: three points alone were dropped against 16th placed Nottingham Forest. Liverpool failed to register a single point or a goal to newly promoted Derby County, who handed Liverpool a 2-0 defeat at Anfield and 4-0 thrashing at the Baseball Ground. The club lost home and away to both Arsenal and Manchester United, including the ignominy of being subjected to a 4-1 defeat by the latter at Anfield. Furthermore, the club was dumped out of the League Cup by Manchester City and exited the European Fairs Cup on away goals to Portuguese side Vitoria Sebutal.
In addition to witnessing the waning form of his veterans during 1969-70, Shankly also had the misfortune of having arguably the most injury-ravaged campaign of his tenure. Only four players played in more than forty league matches (Callaghan, Hughes, Lawler, Graham). Hunt in his final season at Anfield was limited to eighteen appearances, scoring six times, before being transferred to Bolton in late 1969. Alun Evans, who had been groomed to be Hunt’s successor and thus the attacking lynchpin of Shankly’s new side, missed long stretches of the season due to injury and lack of form. Appearing only once in the club’s opening ten matches, Evans would only feature in nineteen matches, scoring three times; all of which were scored in two away victories in the space of eight days in March, 1970.
The injury-plagued turmoil forced Shankly to quickly adapt and blood new players out of necessity. Twenty-three players played in the league for Liverpool that season, eleven of whom had previously made less than fifty appearances for the club. Scottish back-up striker Bobby Graham, who despite scoring a hat-trick on his debut in 1964, had barely featured since his arrival at Anfield, picked up the slack with thirteen goals in forty-two league appearances.
Shankly was a manager who rewarded loyalty. Several stars of his legendary 1960’s team remained in good stead with the manager well into the decade’s closing stages. Yet, he was not afraid to be ruthless in making changes. Retrospective interviews conducted with former Liverpool players like Ian St. John and Ron Yeats, often appear to suggest that Shankly was at pains informing his most trusted players they were no longer integral to his side. The failure of the 1969-70 season, resulted in friendships and loyalties being placed on the backburner.
By the start of the 1970-71 season, Shankly had either sold or greatly reduced the roles of such luminaries as Roger Hunt, Ian St. John, Tommy Lawrence and Ron Yeats. Ray Clemence had supplanted “The Flying Pig†Tommy Lawrence and Larry Lloyd had essentially taken Ron Yeats spot in the heart of defence. Prior to the 1970-71 season, Alec Lindsay, Larry Lloyd, along with University graduates Steve Heighway and Brian Hall, had appeared in a combined total of fifteen single league appearance between them. By the end of the season, they would have appeared in a combined 125 games.
Additionally, seven months earlier, Shankly had also signed another prolific striker: Jack Whitham for £57,000 from Sheffield Wednesday. Sadly like Evans before him, the twenty-five year old Whitham suffered from chronic injuries, which would limit him to only fifteen league appearances (and seven goals) over the course of his four-year stay at the club. Due to Whitham’s and Evans’ injuries, Shankly was forced to pick up another expensive striker in the form of John Toshack from Cardiff City for a £110,000 fee. Unlike, Hateley a few seasons earlier, Toshack fit the bill: providing power and aerial presence with a greater technical ability and awareness.
..................cont
With the new season up on us, I have been pondering for the past week or so about our present fortunes. We are a club potentially on the cusp of greatness. We have the players, the ambition and the hunger. Scanning through the pages of our history, I feel the past few seasons of Rafa’s reign are very similar to those Shankly experienced in the late Sixties and early Seventies, when an older side (read Rafa’s Champions League winning side) had to be dismantled over a period of seasons in order to construct a base for future success.
As a fan under the age of thirty, I do not have intimate experiences of this era, but I have based the following long article or essay upon my interpretation of this period through what I have read or heard. I think it is an era success-hungry younger fans often overlook, but should take note of in order to acquire an additional perspective for this upcoming season. I’ve written this essay around Alun Evans’ brief period at the club. From what I have studied, Evans’ stay at Anfield appears to typify and mirror the false dawns, highs and lows associated with the era, in addition to the problems Shankly faced in re-calibrating his squad.
Growing up, I was fortunate to receive as a birthday present two books which would inform my childhood fascination with Liverpool Football Club. The first was the club’s “Official Centenary History,†the second was Steven Kelly’s “You’ll Never Walk Alone: The Centenary Edition.†Recently, I skimmed through the well-worn pages of these books and was drawn to the period between 1966-67 and 1972-73 and in particular the story of Alun Evans.
The story of Alun Evans is an interesting one. Opinion amongst older fans I have spoken to of his Anfield legacy is diverse: ranging from an inconsistent failure to an unfortunate, but talented player. His transfer to Anfield smashed records and split with Liverpool’s tradition of player recruitment. A bustling ball of energy, women swooned over Evans’ handsome, blonde looks. With his Byrdsian mop of hair, one pundit deridingly referred to Evans as a “rag doll.†Yet, Evans had the potential skill set to match the hype. Nevertheless, his promising Anfield career would be ravaged by injuries and a horrific off-field accident. Stuttered by injuries and blighted by inconsistent play, Evans career epitomized the problematic and tumultuous evolution of Shankly’s team during this era.
These years, notable for their paucity of trophies, were Shankly’s barren years. Yet, their story is an important tale of transition, which often bears striking similarities to the Benitez era, as Rafa continues to assemble and cultivate a squad destined for domestic and European success. It is a story often overlooked by fans like myself who belong to a younger generation. But it is a tale that carries important contemporary lessons and was crucial in laying the foundations for the dominant Liverpool teams of the 1970’s and 1980’s.
To understand the transitional nature of this era, one has to delve further back. In 1962-63, Liverpool returned to the First Division after nearly a decade scrapping it out in the Second Division. The following season (1963-64), Shankly guided Liverpool to its first League Championship since the 1946-47 campaign. A year later, Liverpool would record their first ever F.A Cup victory (1964-65) with a 2-1 extra time defeat of Leeds United. The subsequent season (1965-66) would see the Championship trophy return to Anfield. Yet, Shankly’s great team of the 1960’s was short-lived.
In spite of a promising start to the 1966-67 season, a disastrous post-February slumber (the club won only 3 of their final 12 games) sealed Liverpool’s fate: resulting in a fifth place finish, nine points adrift of Manchester United. Runners-up in the European Cup Winners Cup to Borussia Dortmund a year earlier, Liverpool were also humiliated that season in the European Cup by a young Ajax Amsterdam side led by a certain Johann Cruyff. Subsequently, changes had to be made.
In the summer of 1967, Shankly smashed the club’s transfer record to bring in twenty-six year old striker Tony Hateley from Chelsea for £96,000. Signed by Chelsea the previous season for £100,000 to replace the injured Peter Osgood, Hateley’s stay in the capital was brief. Tall and awkward, Hateley thrived on high crosses. Yet, as with his spell at Chelsea, his technical deficiencies and lack of mobility became a thorn in Shankly’s side.
Like Peter Crouch, Hateley’s goal-scoring abilities did not preclude his journeyman status and at the time of his retirement, Hateley’s combined transfer fees made him the most expensive English footballer of his generation. Despite netting a respectable 16 goals in 38 league appearances (in addition to 8 goals in 7 FA Cup appearances) and combining well with Roger Hunt (who scored 25 goals in 40 league games), Liverpool finished the 1967-68 season third: three points behind eventual champions Manchester City. Unable to fit into Shankly’s long-term vision, Hateley was sold for a £16,000 loss to Coventry City at the beginning of the following season.
As during the 1966-67 season, Shankly’s side dropped points throughout 1967-68 against seemingly easy opposition: Liverpool failed to register maximum points from games against four of the First Division’s bottom five teams, including a mere point against relegated Sheffield United. Hateley’s replacement for the 1968-69 season came in the form of nineteen year old striker Alun Evans. Signed from Wolves for a then astronomical £100,000, Evans was earmarked by Shankly as the striking fulcrum he would build his future team around.
Britain’s most expensive teenage signing, Evans had initially caught Shankly’s eye the previous season, when he ran circles around the aging Ron Yeats. Some viewed the signing with cynicism, believing Evans was a desperate attempt by Shankly to add a prodigious talent to match United’s George Best. With his long mop of blonde hair, Evans certainly stands out in team photographs of the era. Yet, Shankly had scouted Evans for several months, before clinching his signature. Prior to signing Alun Evans, Shankly’s approach had been to slowly groom youngsters through the reserves, integrating them gradually into the first-team over a period of years. Knowing this upon his arrival at Anfield, Evans summarily expected to ply his trade in the reserves, only to be informed by Shankly himself that, “I wouldn’t pay £100,000 for you or anybody else unless it was to play in my first team. You’re facing Leicester on Saturday.â€
True to his word, Shankly selected Evans for the match against Leicester and the debutant responded with a goal in a 4-0 victory. A week later in his second appearance, Evans scored twice against his former club Wolves in a 6-0 thrashing. Goals against Manchester United and Newcastle brought Evans’ tally to five goals in his first seven league appearances. Things were looking bright for Liverpool’s new signing. Nevertheless, Evans would only add two more league goals throughout the course of the season, despite featuring in all of the thirty-three league games that occurred after his arrival at Anfield. Furthermore, Evans would suffer the embarrassment of being the only Liverpool player to be sent off that season.
Liverpool finished league runners-up in Evans’ first season, six points behind league champions Leeds United. Yet, such a result belied the side was in decline. Upon Evans’ arrival Shankly’s cadre of key contributors were almost unanimously entering the twilight of their careers: Hunt, St. John, Byrne, Strong and Yeats were all in their 30’s. After scoring twenty-five league goals the previous season, Roger Hunt’s output halved in 1968-69, resulting in thirteen tallies.
If Evans’ first season had at times projected to fans now accustomed to success that there was potential for a new dawn at Anfield, his second season (1969-1970) demonstrated the extensiveness of the overhaul Shankly was required to undertake. After a bright nine-game unbeaten run, Shankly’s transitional team fell into old habits. A five game winless streak (D: 4: L: 1) through much of October, in tandem with an erratic post-Christmas period, effectively killed off Liverpool’s title aspirations. The 1969-1970 was for the most part a calamitous disaster. The club finished fifth, fourteen points behind Everton. It is often written in Liverpool folklore that the turning point in Shankly's plans was the club’s humiliating F.A Cup exit to Second Division strugglers Watford. The loss to Watford has been seen by many as being the eye-opening catalyst in hastening Shankly’s desire to completely eradicate the old 1960’s side. However the signs were evident throughout the entire season.
Once again, points were dropped against opposition from the nether regions of the table: three points alone were dropped against 16th placed Nottingham Forest. Liverpool failed to register a single point or a goal to newly promoted Derby County, who handed Liverpool a 2-0 defeat at Anfield and 4-0 thrashing at the Baseball Ground. The club lost home and away to both Arsenal and Manchester United, including the ignominy of being subjected to a 4-1 defeat by the latter at Anfield. Furthermore, the club was dumped out of the League Cup by Manchester City and exited the European Fairs Cup on away goals to Portuguese side Vitoria Sebutal.
In addition to witnessing the waning form of his veterans during 1969-70, Shankly also had the misfortune of having arguably the most injury-ravaged campaign of his tenure. Only four players played in more than forty league matches (Callaghan, Hughes, Lawler, Graham). Hunt in his final season at Anfield was limited to eighteen appearances, scoring six times, before being transferred to Bolton in late 1969. Alun Evans, who had been groomed to be Hunt’s successor and thus the attacking lynchpin of Shankly’s new side, missed long stretches of the season due to injury and lack of form. Appearing only once in the club’s opening ten matches, Evans would only feature in nineteen matches, scoring three times; all of which were scored in two away victories in the space of eight days in March, 1970.
The injury-plagued turmoil forced Shankly to quickly adapt and blood new players out of necessity. Twenty-three players played in the league for Liverpool that season, eleven of whom had previously made less than fifty appearances for the club. Scottish back-up striker Bobby Graham, who despite scoring a hat-trick on his debut in 1964, had barely featured since his arrival at Anfield, picked up the slack with thirteen goals in forty-two league appearances.
Shankly was a manager who rewarded loyalty. Several stars of his legendary 1960’s team remained in good stead with the manager well into the decade’s closing stages. Yet, he was not afraid to be ruthless in making changes. Retrospective interviews conducted with former Liverpool players like Ian St. John and Ron Yeats, often appear to suggest that Shankly was at pains informing his most trusted players they were no longer integral to his side. The failure of the 1969-70 season, resulted in friendships and loyalties being placed on the backburner.
By the start of the 1970-71 season, Shankly had either sold or greatly reduced the roles of such luminaries as Roger Hunt, Ian St. John, Tommy Lawrence and Ron Yeats. Ray Clemence had supplanted “The Flying Pig†Tommy Lawrence and Larry Lloyd had essentially taken Ron Yeats spot in the heart of defence. Prior to the 1970-71 season, Alec Lindsay, Larry Lloyd, along with University graduates Steve Heighway and Brian Hall, had appeared in a combined total of fifteen single league appearance between them. By the end of the season, they would have appeared in a combined 125 games.
Additionally, seven months earlier, Shankly had also signed another prolific striker: Jack Whitham for £57,000 from Sheffield Wednesday. Sadly like Evans before him, the twenty-five year old Whitham suffered from chronic injuries, which would limit him to only fifteen league appearances (and seven goals) over the course of his four-year stay at the club. Due to Whitham’s and Evans’ injuries, Shankly was forced to pick up another expensive striker in the form of John Toshack from Cardiff City for a £110,000 fee. Unlike, Hateley a few seasons earlier, Toshack fit the bill: providing power and aerial presence with a greater technical ability and awareness.
..................cont
