Previous : - “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that.”
Shanks photo album./..(FB from the 50th tribute)
Meeting with Shanks, (98th birthday special) plus….
A young local "Balkan Red" (Ugo) sparked an idea for this issue of "REdNeT" …(http://rednet-alien.blogspot.com/ ) Trying to convince me to play "football manager/fantasy football" or something similar sort of computer/video game , "to test my management skills" ..it would have been Shanks birthday today and coincidentally I just booked a ticket to the CHARITY evening "Audience wit Rafa Benitez" ..with so mnay of our fans being young or distant it may help to have a "meeting with Shanks" ..a bit updated, (NOTE this is obviosuly MY "interpretation" and hopefully with full respect for his memory and his family) ..I imagined how he might have reacted (as he did about "formal coaching" @ Lileshall the FA coaching centre ,, "FA" being operative words <smile> ) if someone had suggested he needs to play "fantasy footy"
…"aye, well, ye see son,..management is something inside you, the great managers weren't always the greatest players but they all had something magical which you cant explain in a book or your fancy computer programmes, its in your soul, to know what to do and what to say at the right time"………."mind you, son, I think the referee in Milan , 1965 , during the European cup of champions semi-final ..had some sort of fantasy …of how to be a ref"
So to honour what would have been his 98th birthday, I have "imagined" my dream of meeting the great man, not fantasy footy, but my fantasy and greatest unfulfilled wish of meeting him in person…
(for those who need some factual background go to
CS>Shanks, an honour to meet you, something I always wanted, if ever anyone had ever asked , who would you have liked to meet, and spend time talking to, who would it be, well its you Bill..so I would like to start with that famous quote "“Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that.”
Shanks>well, son, that’s not exactly how I said it but, you have to understand that when I was managing LFC the game (then was almost always at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, none of this sky-tv malarky) was THE most important think that many of the working classes had to look forward to, the standing KOP had maybe 25,000 lads packed together in a swaying, singing mass, most of them had been working at boring or heavy labour jobs, at the Liverpool docks or car factories or on building sites..and this was their place, to worship their team and let of steam (and sometimes there literally was STEAM rising from the KOP!) ..most of docks now are closed and thanks the Thatcher the Unions & factory jobs "deleted" by the tory menace..
CS> The kids then played football, because often the only "toy" or game we had was a football, I remember bunking school to play in the back field, and even when I was offcially off school, I would be out there playing from breakfast time until my ma called me in for bed! Often we would only have a couple of shirts down as goal-posts, and strain our eyes to see the ball…loved every minute of it, still do, even though now I play 6-a-side with lads half my age, I still "compete"..reminds me of your quote "“What a great day for football, all we need is some green grass and a ball.” the kids today are spoilt and spend far too much time on video games and other stuff , they don’t have that "hunger to play" that we had..
Same as the professionals, now??
Shanks>When our lads played they would drive or even catch a bus to Anfield, players like the honest Cally, would jump on a bus..and their loyalty and commitment to me well, I expected them to be prepraed to run through a brick wall..
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| Shanks & Emlyn "Crazy Horse" Hughes ; Best ever capt. |
CS>Yeah, Bill, nowdays its surreal..an average squad player is a multi-millionaire, treated like a celebrity and lets not forget that many of them are young lads, and this opens them up to exploitation by agents and for sure affects their relationships with family & friends..and the modern media examine & analyse their every move…we have ex-players & pundits, so-called experts who reply every single thing the lads do, and even discuss "body language" on tv about footy players..would you believe it? ;)
Shanks>really?, well as I once said "“Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple.” I used simple methods of getting the players at clubs like grimsby and workington to turn over teams from bigger clubs , gave them belief in themselves..aye, its grand to see a player dribbling past 3 or 4 defenders but when you play "pass & move" positively with belief, no team can live with us..
CS>Its true that you could have been at the club earlier than 1959, we recently had people criticising Rafa Benitez because he insisted on having the last say on the Team & transfers etc etc..
Shanks>A manager must have control, I turned down the chance to go Liverpool in 1951 because the board had to confirm the team seelction..I wanted always to be the best “Aim for the sky and you'll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you'll stay on the floor.” in other words, GO out with the idea that you are or will be the best, then make yourself the best…
CS>I am sad that some of our people , fans, players & etc just talk about "Champions League qualification" (that’s to obtain top 4 position in the league) and the man who managed to obtain the holding company that controls the "office" (an AMERICAN, BILL!!) John Henry talks cautiously about being too soon to expect to win the league, WE were always about winning the league, why do we let people, like this guy, whose only involvement in football is ONE year! Talk us down?? I wanted our supporters to own the club(and we now have several million Lfc fans registered aroung the world, through an electronic network)
Shanks>well as I used to say "Directors are there only to sign the cheques" ..we had whats called the holy trinity ; a family a social bond between me , the players and SUPPORTERS..!
CS> I fear that many who even sign "You'll Never walk alone" don’t understand the meaning of the words not behave as SUPPORT when things don’t go their way,Bill the whole of society is selfish , and commercially obsessed.. The socialist ethics , of helping each other and sharing rewards has been smothered by the american form of cold heartless capitalism. Sure in a team we want the indicviduals to also take initiative when necessary, but not al the EXPENSE of the COLLECTIVE , which is how the world is now..but something never changes - the blues are still way behind us ;)
Shanks> aye this city has two great teams - Liverpool and Liverpool reserves. Ha ha ..
CS>maybe even 3 - including our youth team, with about 25 international class players (6 in the england team, not that you would be impressed by that, Bill) Shanks>When I had nothing better to do, I used to look down the league table to see how Everton are getting along , well, people in Liverpool have Celts spirit in them, but you know a lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are. And if they are good enough, then they are old enough.
CS>you will remember Kenny Dalglish, well ,he is managing the club for the second time, and giving the lads (many of whom Rafa Benitez introduced into the club) Kenny left management of our team, after a successful term as player then player-manger after a disaster killed 96 of our supporters in1989.
Shanks>Terrible! , and I remember Kenny, aye, a great scot of course! :) our players other problem in the old days was Referees, The most infamous being the cheat that knocked us out of the semi-finals away leg after we had taught Inter-Milan a lesson in football at Anfield in 1965! The crook awarded goals that never were..haunts me to this day, we should have been champions of europe then.The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game.
CS>Well, as we like to remind the mancs , "WE won it FIVE times" although its now on a league basis - we retained the trophy itself after a great emotional come-back in the final of 2005 in Istanbul that you would be proud of, and despite modern technology referees still get it wrong, it always seems to be against us, especially when we play the mancs, they have their own ref ; H. Webb!
Shanks>you know, son, that I used to laugh when people expected me to show paper qualifications, they think that having that makes them educuted, using big words, like you said during "analysis" makes them important, I scoff at them, because simple language can be understood by anyone, if someone is "greedy" , say so! Don’t use a word that only lawyers & politicians use (got no time for them, son) whats the point of communicating if only a few people know what you mean? Me having no education. I had to use my brains.
CS>I understand full well , Bill, the only paper qualification I had was passing a driving test (and now that’s a plastic card, ha ha ) BILL, its been an honour and a privaledge, and if by some magic some of your words have steered me in my way of life then I thank you, but most of all I thank you for all those great times, and even those sad & bad times which maybe bonded True Reds together much more,
......because without you, experiencing special cup finals & exciting final league games in 72, 74 (your "last") 76, 77, 78, 81, 84, 86, 2001, 2005, and even 2007 losing in Athens but WITH 50,000 travelling REdS…o my birthday party..you gave me something that I never had in any other part of my life, I lost family, friends and business changed or gone..parents, wife, sister, son deceased but the LIVERBIRD is always with me , thanks to you; BILL SHANKLY; "Shanks who MADE "the (TRUE Red) LIVERPOOL way"..
ChriS
02/09/2011, 10:28
p.s. I will never forgive Lfc "office" for Rafa's departure and it reminded me of this from Bills own biography "Shankly by Shankly"..
"I used to fight and argue and fight and argue and fight and argue until I thought, 'Is it worthwhile all this fighting and arguing?'" Shankly said. "It is bad enough fighting against the opposition to win points but the internal fights to make people realise what we were working for took me close to leaving many times."
Working class hero..by a scouser, I dedicate to BILL..
dedicated to Shanks ; a Scot, a Celt True working class hero, by my other Hero A brother and a scouser named John...
Pasted from <http://www.facebook.com/Chri5mitH>
Quotes..
“Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that.”
“Me having no education. I had to use my brains.”“Aim for the sky and you'll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you'll stay on the floor., “What a great day for football, all we need is some green grass and a ball. ...“This city has two great teams - Liverpool and Liverpool reserves. ..“The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game.” ..if any young or ill -informed "fans" wonder why our generation "go on" about Shanks, well just get this HE made "the Liverpool way"..and without him Liverpool football club would not be the UNIQUE global entity that it is today..!
To all True Reds ..
And this is really only for those few of U I invited to the Universal REdS group, but as my dear old, departed, Ma would say, "well, if the cap fits,WEAR it"...When I was a young man, a wizz-kid building my own empire.. I bought the book "Shankly by Shankly" ..i must have read it a thousands times over & over, the great , the humour, and also the sadness.. And in some ways as much as I am in love with the LIverBird, since I was about 10 years old or so, it was hard for me to take how Bill felt. I didn’t WANT to read about him being discarded by "the office" of my club,and feeling more welcome at OT or goodison..but in my latter years , goodness, DO I understand….
Very FEW people, even ex-players appreciate the "Liverpool way" because in reality it WAS "Shanks way"..
I am disgusted by some antics of fans, ex-players, "tv pundits" and former or current Lfc "officials" who seem to have NO clue as to what he meant..its not just "pass & move" or YNWA or a collection of his quotes put on witty banners carried around the world, or the songs we sang..(better than anyone)..of being " a bastion of invincibility" theres something about TRUE genius with IS "alone" because it gives so much and gets little reward..
MY greatest anger recently has been towards "my own fans" & especially the "S.o.S" UNION , who rejected my warnings and proposals to combine a supporters buy out/in with the formation of the Union 3 years ago..WE own the club, even if on paper, the yankers are the owners.
With Shanks , WE made it,..
Bill would have gone mad at the committee of "Spirit of Shankly" for the half-hearted "protests" and delay in getting quickly to grips with the EVIL stranglehold of money-motivated men that have infiltrated Lfc
And I regard it as an INSULT when people dare to suggest that Bob Paisley was better or even equal to Bill..
LFC was a well-supported but "average" club prior to Shanks..and could have been that now, instead of what the yankers call " a global brand" with several millon "registered fans" ...
I made my first own enterprise when I was 26, and left it before I was 30, but MADE a basis , with unique ideas and (simple) methods that my "administrative partner" carried on for the next 25 years..the turnover multiplied 100 times in that time and staff also, but the inroads & profitability - and the amount of success achieved pro-rata was never so great as the first years of my involvement, he employed 5 people to try to do what I did, less effectively..
The world is full of people who can , with some common sense, and a little bit of ability CONTINUE, adopt and perhaps, improve a great ideal, but those who can take something (or nothing in our case, other than courage & 500 quid!) and make it great ARE FEW and far between.
I have supported Liverpool, the city, the club, the football , the MUSIC the CULTURE and the people in any way possible, in return I have been "alien-hated" because I wasn’t a born scouser who dares to challenge "locals" but I am more of a Red than they will ever be.. Wherever, I have been living or doing I have given my best to LIVERPOOL…why?..because its not a place , it’s a feeling..
A feeling, an explosion of humanity, so rare, as people bought into the capitalism & commercial bullsh*te since 3 decades so much so, that not only kids but older sky-washed "fans" talk about football as if it was a video game/…
I was a business machine until 1995 when a meningitis attack put me in a coma. When I "awoke" I decided that was "close enough" , and a message came to me to , for want of a better explanation" (?) .."do GOOD" …and the irony is that when I was a freelance global business manager ("strategic networking , joint ventures & confidential start-ups") "everyone " loved me" ..
When I organised peace campaigns, taught eco-logic, environmental & homeopathy, coached kids , volunteered and fought for human rights, people mostly "hated me"..and this message will probably "cull " some of my so-called facebook "friends"..
The world society has been tricked into dishonesty, the modern media is the mirror of lies of the society you all live in, its Obscene to have people, young or old, getting angry because we aren't paying 22 MILLION for this or that player (because sly tv told them we only offered TWENTY MILLION pounds) when we are on a world KILLING circa 25 MILLION KIDS per day..and every day I see street kids scrambling through rubbish to find something worth repairing to sell..
IF the "democratic U.S. of A" MERELY SUSPENDED buying weapons for a period of ONLY ONE year and we distributed food & the ability to grow, logically (instead of commercially) everyone on this planet could live, & live well..
I have had my computers , crashed, stolen , broken, had my phones tapped, and burnt out, websites , constantly bombed with virus that can only come from sophisticated "security agencies" …my "friends" have been warned away from me, and their own "comms" attacked!
I hang on dearly to the ethics of Shanks "socialism" ..all sharing the rewards of collective efforts, whilst still allowing the individual initiative to score goals by intelligence..why was the man a genius? BECAUSE 99,99% of you are STUPID!!
YOU ALL KNOW what is wrong, you go through a facade daily, telling lies, even "white ones" or fibs .."how are you, Mrs Jones ? "… "oh I am fine….Musn't grumble" ..etc etc.. The media is full of the same sh*te that rock musicians scorned when I was a teenager .."cant be a man because he doesn’t smoke the same cigarette as me"..was irony, now kids cant tell the difference and follow the "fashion" uniformly …most people no longer have an opinion that’s isnt formed by gutter press, biased tv reporting or "belonging to the herd"..Purchases cost a 1000 times more now than then?, why?...the land is still the same (more polluted maybe, so worth less?) the human form is still the same; (I head, 2 arms, 2 legs,if yr lucky!) .. We have automation that should make things easier YET prices and cost of living increases ..why? People work longer ours because they meet, they talk they chat, they view but they don’t DO..enough!
Because You are stupid, you buy the packaging , the marketing YOU BUY is BULLSH*TE!!!
On my "SCLOG" I will repeat some "exchanges" with a "fan" called Terry White, its maybe, in your opinion , I am too hard on him, because he only repeats the media opinion, yet that propaganda also infects your kids too.,
How many of your kids KNOW the 20 SIMPLE articles of the 1948 "Universal Declaration of Human Rights"? ..signed in 1948 as a supposed basis of global democracy …& here is the JOKE..this was sent into space , signed and with a covering note by Kurt Waldheim (who was probably a war criminal!) the then UN general secretary. to show other species in the universe that we are "CIVILIZED"..it will be shock when they find out, you are NOT!
THE BIGGEST "joke" is that NOT ONE of the so-called "democratic" nations or government leaders have EVER succesfully applied those "rights" instead they act like RIGHT-wing dictators, and recently eroded the last remnants of a "free society" ..try moving around the world as I do, and you will see the "new world order" is a global POLICE STATE..and "justice" is an illusion..You pay taxes etc to the "system" which then declares war on people, ordinary people, like you, uses high-tech bombers & missiles that they cant control, and so make "collateral mistakes" ("sorry , not our fault that we wiped out the neighbourhood, and innocent kids along with it"-CNN /C1/a, NSA etc., etc)..the planet; its land is stolen from you and the air & water polluted by industry and concrete jungles, and damages the minds of your kids & you too!!
"SoS" rejected my claims, & with SLfc & RAWK "banned" me for telling them THE TRUTH ..hypocrits who rightly blame murdochs rags for lies, do the same, Even LFC try to ban me , and often exclude me from "discussions" & matches.. Yet I have done more for this club than ANY of the "fans" in the past, or the "committee" will do, in the future..why do I make this outlandish claim?
Because of apathy, last year WE had the chance to claim our club..and we didn’t , YOU didn’t ..and because of the previous fraudsters (Hicks & Gillet) and because of the chain of misery from Moores, pathetic Parry, through back-stabbing Purslow, a "chelski chairman" (how could YOU allow that!!??) AND that fool Hodgson, you rightly trust Kenny but wrongly trust Henry-Werner (NESV= FSG = BUSINESS franchise)
They are excellent in P.R. its almost the same as politics…who is the worst Clinton or Bush? Thatcher or B-liar..?
The most dangerous are those who say all the "right things" but DO what they always intended, which is to get to their goals not yours, to use your money, not theirs..& become powerful because YOU hand it to them..LFC earns billions of dollars through FANS income, and yet you let THEM profit from it, just how stupid are you??
Bush, Thatcher, Hicks …Obvious, and sure its ridiculous to think "the most powerful nation in the world "voted TWICE for George W……. But you do it,, every election time..everywhere ..you give up your lives to politicians , local & global, but why should they solve problems, they wouldn’t be necessary if they did??
YOU are the "problem" the fan that buys the BULLsh*te.. Who would rather buy a sponsor - induced BLUE - sh*te (3rd kit) shirt (whilst Lfc , Claire & Ian Ayres tries to convince you its "history"..insulting your intelligence..) instead of putting that money in a fund to claim a stake in PROTECTING and investing in the future of y-our club?
I remember Shanks writing, something like..."oh, I'm tired of fighting the office to get …(whatever)" ,and I AM tired of reading the same BULLsh*te, seeing fans insult players, even BOO players, ridicule OUR players on Tv or internet, and seeing kids lives wasted in society as a whole..
goodness what is the matter with you..??
A man like Rafa , who tried & cried for us, who was (is) LFC 24/7 , and the idiots at the club discard him , and cant even offer him a position there, and (King Kenny excluded) he is worth more than all the office & training staff combined..some Lfc "fan" called Rafa "that fat spanish waiter"..oh, if I could have climbed through the internet and slapped her silly face I would have done.
The media lies and you swallow..again, and again, and again..
Well I don’t , I spit it out, and I spit on anyone who f-cks with the core of "Shanks WAY", I wont use "Spirit of" because the union tarnished that icon.
My FB has almost 2000, I am networked with 25,000 global enterprises, indirectly connected 2nd hand with a network of several million, and many more through those ppl..but ..
I am still searching for TRUE intelligent life on this planet!
Adios,
Yr "REdAlieN"
ChriS SMITH
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