Source: Liverpool_Echo
December 1, 1959: The day Liverpool FC's world shook as Bill Shankly arrived
MR Bill Shankly, manager of Huddersfield Town FC, was last night appointed manager of Liverpool Football Club in succession to Mr Phil Taylor, who resigned on November 17. He has accepted the position but has agreed to stay on at Leeds Road for another month unless circumstances permit an earlier release.[LNB]Those unremarkable words, issued to the Liverpool Daily Post and ECHO on the morning of December 1, 1959, came from an unremarkable chairman of an unremarkable club to announce the arrival of a truly remarkable man.[LNB]When TV Williams confirmed the appointment of William Shankly as Liverpool's new manager, few could have foreseen he had just made a decision which altered the shape of the club so dramatically forever.[LNB]The only direction in which the Reds were headed 50 years ago was backwards. Everything about the club was poor. Anfield was dilapidated, Melwood training ground was in a state of ruin and the team, to be kind, lacked direction.[LNB]1959, remember, saw Liverpool - then of the old Second Division - suffer possibly the most embarrassing result in their history, a 2-1 defeat to non-league Worcester City in the FA Cup; they were not, in any way, shape or form, upwardly mobile.[LNB]So when Williams, a man who carried great power in the Liverpool boardroom and was not afraid to use it, appointed Shankly to replace Taylor, supporters did not have great expectations, particularly as the new manager's track record did not scream success.[LNB]Yes, he had been a player of some note for Preston North End but, he had hardly set the world alight in previous roles with Carlisle, Grimsby, Workington and Huddersfield.[LNB]What's more, he had even been overlooked for the role of Liverpool manager once before - in 1951 - missing out to Don Welsh, which suggested the Reds board, who were eager to get back to the days of the 1947 title winning side, remained to be convinced.[LNB]Shankly, though, breezed into Anfield bursting with enthusiasm and a determination to rouse a sleeping giant from its slumber. From the moment he pulled his Austin A40 into Melwood on the morning of December 14, things would never be the same again.[LNB]'I am very pleased and proud to have been chosen as manager of Liverpool FC, a club of such great potential,' he said at the time. 'It is my opinion that Liverpool have a crowd of followers which rank with the greatest in the game.[LNB]'They deserve success and I hope, in my own small way, I am able to do something to achieve that. I make no promises except that I shall put everything I have into the job I so willingly undertake.'[LNB]From that point, Liverpool came under Shankly's spell; a forward thinker and innovator blessed with supreme confidence, football was his life and those who did not tune into his wavelength soon found themselves give short shrift; he did not suffer fools.[LNB]Occasionally irascible, he was also way ahead of his time. Further on in this supplement, you will read Rafa Benitez's thoughts about how he was taken aback by Shankly's radical approach but it was clear from the outset he was unique.
