Source: Daily_Mail
HILLSBOROUGH REMEMBERED: Trauma of day still lives with Dalglish
Kenny Dalglish would never be the same after his Hillsborough experiences, and Liverpool as a club have never been as successful since the horrors of Sheffield.
Dalglish, the Anfield manager that day, April 15, 1989, was a club legend and is still - even in the Steven Gerrard era - recognised as Liverpool's greatest player.
But he was thrust into a shocking day and the terrible aftermath for which nobody would be equipped to cope.
A deeply concerned Kenny Dalglish is informed of the situation by the authorities as the horror at Hillsborough begins to unfold.
He was the focal point of the club, the man who knew he had responsibilities to undertake in the days and months that followed.
And it took its toll. It was 21 months after Hillsborough that Dalglish finally cracked and walked away from the club.
Liverpool has never been the same since. They have never won the title since Dalglish left.
Twenty years on the 58-year-old Scot cannot forget the memory of the 96 Liverpool fans who died on the Leppings Lane terraces and in hospitals afterwards.
Those who attended the press conference to confirm Dalglish's resignation as Liverpool manager in February 1991 recall a man seemingly broken in spirit, head bowed and at the end of his tether.
Dalglish, who admitted to attending up to four funerals a day in the aftermath of Hillsborough, became ill with shingles in the autumn of the following season, brought on by the nerves and stress of everything he had witnessed.
It is believed he wanted to quit then, but was persuaded to stay in control, and Liverpool that season went on to win their last league title.
But by February 1991 Dalglish had decided to go. It was in themiddle of a famous trilogy of FA Cup matches with Everton, the first a0-0 draw at Anfield, the second a remarkable 4-4 draw at Goodison Park.
Two days later, February 22, Liverpool announced his departure.Friends who had spoken to him the previous night had no inclination ofwhat was about to happen.
His daughter Kelly, then a teenager and now a TV journalist, saidlater: 'He only told my mum the night before, he just couldn't go ondoing the job.
The strain shows as Dalglish announces his resignation as Liverpool manager in 1991.
'All the emotion and stress of Hillsborough, all the weight of responsibility he felt, had taken its toll. Hillsborough was devastating for dad.'
Respected local journalist John Keith, now working for City Talk radio, recalls those days and recent conversations with Dalglish over his departure and the aftermath.
He said: 'I asked him recently how he felt at the time, and the impression I got was that he was disappointed Liverpool did not ask him back.'
In the short time before Graeme Souness' appointment as manager, Ronnie Moran had held the reigns in a caretaker capacity, and it was felt that Dalglish had felt better about his situation and may well have regretted his actions.
A call to return would probably have been accepted. But it never came and the man who had won six titles as a player for Liverpool and three as manager was lost to the club. Two weeks after Dalglish's departure, defender Alan Hansen also retired from the game.
Dalglish was back in management in October of that year, winning Blackburn a place back in the top flight and then the title.
Dalglish had 18 months at Newcastle and then a spell as director of football at Celtic and a spell as manager before leaving in June 2000. His last job in football.
Only this year in the build-up to the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy has Dalglish felt able to discuss his feelings at length.
For a football man his view on that day is illuminating, when an FA Cup semi-final with Nottingham Forest lasted just six minutes before being halted and eventually abandoned.
The crush behind Bruce Grobbelaar's goal was clear for everyone to see, the fences between fans and pitch already with stricken fans crushed against them.
If the game had not started, if it had been held up for a while to allow Liverpool fans caught in motorway traffic to get to the game, Dalglish believes tragedy could have been averted.
He said in a BBC radio interview: 'The easiest thing to do was just to put the kick-off back a bit. That's no problem for anybody.
'If the police are talking to the FA and the FA had made that call, there wouldn't have been any resentment or disagreement with the people in the dressing room, neither Brian Clough (the Forest manager at the time) or ourselves certainly.
Kenny and wife Marina attended a memorial service - along with many funerals - in the aftermath of Hillsborough.
'It's something that everybody wished had never happened but I think it's also something that nobody should forget.'
In his book, Dalglish added: 'It will always anger me that they didn't wait for the fans. There were all these people arriving late, desperate to get inside Hillsborough so as not to miss any of the game.
'Having so many hundreds of people rushing into the ground caused the terrifying crush which squeezed the life out of 96 poor Liverpool supporters.'
Players and their wives worked tirelessly at Anfield in the days after the tragedy, trying to counsel the families of victims, attending funerals on a daily basis.
Dalglish said: 'We made sure somebody with Liverpool connections was at every funeral and I think the families really respected that.
'The boys weren't obtrusive in any way, they sat back and let the families get on with the grieving but they were there, their presence was there, but they didn't need to have anybody coming up and telling them how grateful they were, they were there because they wanted to be there.
'It's terrible to think how long the crushing had been going on. It is unbelievably depressing to realise that as the players kicked off and throughout those six minutes while a football match took place, Liverpool supporters were already dying.
'I don't know how many funerals I went to. Marina and I went to four in one day. We got a police escort between them. All the funerals were harrowing.
'Marina says that at times I was difficult to live with, that I was clearly under stain. I didn't realise at the time.
'I do not know how tense I was being at home. Without my being aware of it, the strain of Hillsborough was beginning to catch up with me.'
