Bill Shankly changed not only Liverpool Football Club when he moved to Anfield from Huddersfield on this date 50-years ago, he also changed the confidence of a city.

By Dez Corkhill

They call him a legend on Merseyside, and when he died in September 1981, the whole city of Liverpool stood still to pay their respects and offer tribute to one of the greatest football managers ever known.

Shanks' honours haul of three League Championships, two FA Cups, a second Division Championship and a UEFA Cup doesn't do him half the justice he deserves. When he was persuaded to move to Anfield after less-than-magical spells at Workington, Carlisle, Grimsby and Huddersfield, he was moving to a club that was at its lowest ever ebb.

They had just sacked a manager for the first (and still, only) time and were an average second Division side. Crowds were dwindling and Everton were the team to watch in Liverpool in those days. Anfield as a stadium was falling apart, and the training facilities at Melwood looked like the school playing fields they once had been.

His first job was to preside over a heavy defeat against Cardiff, then order a coat of paint for the training facilities, a Summer renovation for the Anfield Stadium and set about revamping his squad. It took three years of near misses before the dual signings of "this man is a colossus" Ron Yeats from Dundee United, and the aggressive Ian St. John from Motherwell. Mixed with young locals like Ian Callaghan and Tommy Smith, the crowds flocked back to see a Championship winning team, and the legend of the Kop really started in that season.

As Liverpool became famous for The Beatles, Shankly made sure the football team were constantly in the headlines. The team played efficient, passing football and scored a glut of goals at home on the way to the 1964 Title. In '65, the FA Cup came to Anfield for the very first time as the red supporters of the city moved en mass to London for the day to celebrate an extra-time win over a Leeds team who, like Liverpool, were at the start of an epic journey.

Born in the mining village of Glenbuck in Ayrshire, Scotland, Bill Shankly was a man of no proper education, but brought up believing in the ethics of hard work and working for your team mates. Those true socialist principles were what he preached on the field. Pass-and-move was the by-word for Shankly's teams. Support of your team-mates, and recognizing the value of each member of the team. It was so appropriate that Shankly's teams should play in red.

Amongst the honours his teams would win, Shankly always remembered the value of the supporters. He told his players that it was an honour for them to play for the fans. In an era before the spin-doctor, Shankly became a master of spin. When Liverpool lost 5-1 at Ajax in a European Cup tie, he was bullish about the replay. So confident was he that 50,000 were persuaded to turn up for the second leg. A certain Johan Cruyff helped Ajax secure a 2-2 draw, but even then Shankly had the temerity to call them lucky.

Massively loyal, the legend struggled to change a winning team after the League title triumph of 1966. It took him three years to offload the likes of St. John and Yeats, Roger Hunt, Tommy Lawrence, Geoff Strong and Willie Stevenson. St. John bore a grudge at the way he did it for years. When he did change the team, he established the base of the squad that would go on to European Cup glory.

Kevin Keegan, Ray Clemence, Emlyn Hughes, Peter Cormack, and Larry Lloyd were plucked from lower-league obscurity to become full Internationals. Steve Heighway came from non-League football to become one of the clubs longest serving players. Callaghan and Smith survived to Shanks' second great team, and a League - UEFA Cup double season followed in 1973.

As Liverpool celebrated in front of the Kop, a policemen kicked a red and white scarf that had been thrown onto the pitch. "Don't do that", said Shankly, "That scarf is somebody's life." In fourteen years, Shankly had taken Liverpool from second division obscurity to a team respected in Europe and - most important of all - a city that, despite economic woes, could still have pride in the achievements of its sporting representatives.

His last match in charge of Liverpool was a vintage FA Cup Final performance against Newcastle in 1974. Liverpool won 3-0, and he retired at the top. It was a decision he would regret, and over the last seven years of his life, he was bitter at how Liverpool seemed to push him away, despite all he had achieved with them. He tinkered with Coaching at Everton, and mentored John Toshack at Swansea and Ron Yeats at Tranmere, but when he left Anfield, something seemed to leave the Great Man.

His wife, Nessie, was happy to have him around, and he was more available to visitors at his red-painted house near the Everton training ground, but Shankly missed football and - even fifty years on - football misses the legendary Bill Shankly.