Source: Liverpool_Echo
Ronnie Moran: The last of Bill Shankly's original Bootroom Boys
A ROOM in Ronnie Moran's comfortable Crosby bungalow offers a collection of reminders from a 49-year Liverpool career that saw him progress from teenage apprentice to assistant manager.[LNB]Adorning the walls are a variety of pictures, from famous league championship and European Cup wins, to a snapshot of Moran shaking hands with Prince Charles.[LNB]He uses it as a television room, somewhere to watch the football when his wife of 52 years, Joyce, needs a well-earned break from the second love of his life.[LNB]The room doubles up as a spare bedroom where the grandchildren sleep when they stay over. The kids refer to it simply as 'The Boot Room'.[LNB]It is an apt title for a place where Moran spends much of his time.[LNB]'That's the grandchildren,' he says proudly, pointing to a photograph on a small table beneath a print of another triumphant night at Anfield. 'The eldest one, she's got a daughter too, our great- grandaughter. She's three now, a real handful.'[LNB]At 75, Moran is the last surviving member of Liverpool's original Boot Room Boys.[LNB]Asked by Bill Shankly to take charge of the youth team when his playing days at Anfield were up, Moran was a permanent fixture in the room beneath the Main Stand.[LNB]It is the stuff of legend in football circles, an idea says Moran, that was conceived by Shankly and embraced by his trusted lieutenants, Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan.[LNB]'Initially Joe and Bob had all their kit in a room that was right down towards the Anfield Road end.[LNB]'They started that off as the first Boot Room I suppose. It wasn't an official boot room but that's where the idea came from. It was full of old kit and you had to knock at the door to get in there. It wasn't a big room but you'd sometimes get about 20 to 30 people in there.[LNB]'It was a place where people could go and have a good natter. I was in there a lot from when I hung up my boots and started working with the kids.[LNB]'Fellas like Reuben Bennett and Tom Saunders would come in occasionally but the original Boot Room was mainly the three of us; Joe, Bob and myself, plus whoever would come in after games.'[LNB]After Shankly through to Roy Evans it was pretty much a pre-requisite for the Liverpool manager to have learned his trade under the traditions of the Boot Room. It was perceived as the nerve centre of the club where the so-called Liverpool Way was formulated by those privy to the mysterious goings on that took place within its four walls.[LNB]Moran remembers it as a much simpler place, however.
