Source: Liverpool_Echo
Bill Shankly changed my life forever – I owe him so much – Kevin Keegan
KEVIN KEEGAN was sat on a bin the first time he met Bill Shankly. It was May 1971 and the 20-year-old Yorkshireman had been waiting patiently at Anfield to discuss his impending switch from Scunthorpe to Liverpool.[LNB]It's an encounter firmly etched in Keegan's memory bank because life would never be the same again.[LNB]'They were doing up the main stand at Anfield so they were using these temporary offices,' Keegan said.[LNB]'The only place to sit was on a dustbin outside so I sat there talking to my manager at the time, Ron Ashman, while Bill was inside.[LNB]'After a while Bill came out, shook my hand and beckoned me over to his Capri to take me for my medical down near the docks.[LNB]'From the moment I met Bill I just gelled with him. I was from mining stock and so was he. I think he saw something in me that reminded him of himself.[LNB]'He wanted to help me and he did, massively. Apart from my parents, Bill was the most important person in my life.[LNB]'He brought me to the club, he believed in me and he inspired me. That first meeting with him changed my life forever.'[LNB]Keegan cost £35,000 and it proved to be one of the shrewdest pieces of business in English football history.[LNB]Signed as a midfielder, Shankly soon spotted Keegan's striking talents and made him believe he belonged at the highest level.[LNB]'I had only been at the club a couple of weeks when Bill said to me 'you will play for England son',' Keegan recalled.[LNB]'I was a 20-year-old kid who hadn't even played for Liverpool's first team. I thought 'wow' if he thinks I can they maybe I can.[LNB]'Bill was a giver. He wanted to make people better.[LNB]'He always came in full of life and what I loved about him was that he was always honest. You always knew where you stood with him.[LNB]'If you did something wrong he would tell you but he was never negative about anything.[LNB]'If he didn't have anything good to say he just wouldn't speak to you.'
