At Anfield this afternoon, 90-odd relatively insignificant minutes will be preceded by just one. One during which poison will be set to one side. Manchester United followers will shelve their slander of Steven Gerrard and their loathing of the absent Luis Suarez. Liverpool followers will put their rabid disdain for Patrice Evra and Wayne Rooney on hold. David Moyes will stand unabused. Tragedies will go unmocked. And 45,000 people will split the Merseyside sky with the sound of tumultuous applause for Bill Shankly. Many would not even have been born when a second thumping heart attack snatched Shankly from the world in 1981. But, somehow, in their subconscious, they know what he stood for. Just as they know what his dear friend Sir Matt Busby stood for. Football as happiness, not as hatred. Sweet not bitter, a force for friendship even in intense rivalry. Communal not commercial, a compassionate religion of the working class. A game to be loved. No one has ever produced a plausible explanation for the vicious enmity between these two great sets of supporters. The notion that it has always been there is pure bull. It has not. Maybe antipathy was accelerated into naked animosity by Sir Alex Ferguson’s vaulting ambition to knock Liverpool off their perch? A lame explanation, but an explanation. Ferguson has retired. His successor now has two targets on his back: The crests of Everton and of Manchester United. But remember. When a retired Shankly felt he could no longer wander down to Melwood, Liverpool’s training ground, without impinging on the credibility of his successor, Bob Paisley, he would visit Bellefield, Everton’s base. Shankly once said there were only two teams on Merseyside... Liverpool and Liverpool Reserves. But you can bet it was said with a mischievous glint in the eye, with tongue bursting through cheek. These clubs – Liverpool, Everton, United – were People’s Clubs long before Moyes came out with that soundbite. It is pointless guessing how Shankly would have responded to modern-day matters, such as the desire of extravagantly paid superstars to desert such grand institutions. He was a formidable football manager, a formidable people manager. He would have dealt with it. But you can guess what he would have made of the foaming bile that has come to characterise today’s fixture. You can guess what he would have made of the mock anger, the twisted faces and the mindless tribal spewing. You can guess what he would have made of a league measured by cash not by camaraderie. He would have hated it. He wanted the game of football to “make the people happy”. So, all those people inside Anfield today and all those people brainwashed into bitterness, remember that when the minute’s applause to commemorate tomorrow’s 100th anniversary of his birth ends, what Shankly stood for should live on. Remember that football is the sport that should make the people happy. Check out all the latest News, Sport & Celeb gossip at Mirror.co.uk mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/andy-dunn-bill-shankly-one-2242026#ixzz2dcrNsnll Follow us: @DailyMirror on Twitter | DailyMirror on Facebook
Posted on: Sun, 01 Sep 2013 07:58:11 +0000
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