Phil Thompson has led the tributes to the Anfield legend in the week that marks the 50th anniversary of Bill Shankly's appointment as Liverpool manager.

Tuesday is a half-century from the day Bill Shankly was confirmed as Liverpool boss.

And the Merseyside club will be steeped in nostalgia over the coming days as they remember the man who changed the course of their history.

There will even be a one-off anecdotal play at the Liverpool Empire on December 14, the first day that Shankly took training back in December 1959.

Heroes of the past in Ian Callaghan, Ron Yeats, Chris Lawler and Ian St John will take to the stage to tell their stories of Shankly, who died in September 1981.

For Thompson, there are memories of the day Shankly signed him as a professional.

The former England international went on to captain the 1981 European Cup-winning side in Paris ahead of a spell as assistant manager at the club.

Thompson's memories are still vivid, as the last of the young players Shankly nurtured from the club's youth ranks before he retired in 1974.

Former defender Thompson, 55, said: "He will always be 'Mr Liverpool' to me."

Shankly gave Thompson his debut at 17 and saw his protege claim an FA Cup winners' medal against Newcastle as a 20-year-old in 1974.

Thompson said: "He was everything to me. As a young kid growing up he was everything I could remember about the club.

"By the time the '60s came around, when things started to really pick up, Liverpool was my life and Bill Shankly was my life.

"They were the two things I lived for. Football was everything, Shanks' words just made you feel special, proud to be a Liverpool fan.

"You related the team to Shankly, that is all there was for us in those days. Liverpool were not then the super power they have become, but in Shankly's mind they already were.

"I doubt anyone envisaged what Shankly had been sent to Liverpool to do."

He added: "When I started there as a player, all everyone ever wanted to ask about was what Shankly had said to me.

"They thought he was in some ivory tower and nobody got to speak to him. But he took a great interest in you and your well-being.

"People said when you were injured he didn't want to know you. But one of my greatest memories of him was when I was injured.

"I was coming up 17, and that was when you would be asked to sign professional if you were lucky enough.

"He came up to me when I was injured - there wasn't the medical help players have now, you were almost left to your own devices.

"And he asked me how I was - he knew my birthday was due. He wanted me to know I was going to be signed as a professional.

"The feeling he gave me then was everything, fantastic. The great man had actually taken time to reassure me and tell me I was going to be signed.

"I was the last of the Shankly boys, the kids coming through the club. I was the last youngster that he nurtured through the ranks. Soon I was just 20 and playing in the cup final.

"He had brought through the likes of Tommy Smith, Ian Callaghan, Chris Lawler and all the rest. I was the last one really.

"To be playing under Shankly as a 20-year-old was just a dream for a Liverpool fan like me. To go to work every day and listen to him. To know he trusted in me was just great."

Bill Shankly Liverpool Career Factfile

1959: December 1 - Appointed Liverpool manager after three years at Huddersfield and takes over with the club in the bottom half of the old second division.

1961: Signs key players Ian St John, from Motherwell, and Ron Yeats, from Dundee United.

1962: May - Having overhauled the training facilities and playing squad, Shankly guides Liverpool back into the top flight by winning Division Two by eight points.

1964: May - Wins his first - and the club's sixth - Division One title to succeed near neighbours Everton as champions.

1965: May - Liverpool reach the semi-finals of the European Cup before exiting to eventual winners Inter Milan. Liverpool win their first FA Cup with extra-time victory over Leeds.

1966: May - Liverpool win Division One championship again. Defeated 2-1 in extra time by Borussia Dortmund in European Cup Winners' Cup final at Hampden Park.

1967: June - Signs goalkeeper Ray Clemence from Scunthorpe for £18,000.

1969: May - Liverpool finish runners-up to Leeds in Division One.

1970: Signs Steve Heighway, who was playing as an amateur for Skelmersdale United.

November: Signs John Toshack from Cardiff for £110,000.

1971: May - Liverpool lose 2-1 to Arsenal in FA Cup final.

Signs Kevin Keegan from Scunthorpe for £35,000 and plays him up front with Toshack. The pair go on to become one of the greatest strike partnerships in the game.

1973: May - Shankly wins Division One for a third and final time as manager. Guides Liverpool to victory over Borussia Monchengladbach in a two-legged UEFA Cup final to secure the club's first European trophy.

1974: May - Liverpool finish Division One runners-up to Leeds.

Shankly collects a second FA Cup with 3-0 victory over Newcastle in the final.

July 12 - Retires as Liverpool manager at the age of 60 to spend more time with wife Ness and his family.

November - Shankly is awarded the OBE.

1981: September 26 - Admitted to Broadgreen Hospital after a heart attack.

September 29 - Dies in the early hours of the morning aged 68.