Shankly: Nature's Fire

Look past the pretentious title to this biography of the renowned Liverpool F.C. manager of the 60's and early 70's (I'm sure the great man himself would have hated it) and then savour this TV film of the life and times of one of the best and best-loved football managers of all time. Shankly shared his time with two other great Scottish football managers, Jock Stein of Celtic and Matt Busby of Manchester United, like them associating himself with one team, taking their sides to great success and as is pointedly stated they were all born within 30 miles of each other.

But I doubt Stein and Busby, revered as they were, garnered the love and affection Shanks did in Liverpool. A lifelong socialist, he saw himself as one of the people and never distanced himself from his adoring public. Vox pop interviews with the public on the day he dramatically retired (a decision he regretted almost immediately) and again when he died only a few years later explicitly demonstrate his special relationship with them.

Whilst it was impossible to dislike this biography, it wasn't perfect. Quite what the relevance was of Edinburgh-based "Trainspotting" novelist Irvine Welsh to proceedings escaped me and a little too much was made also of the Spirit Of Shankly supporters club and their pilgrimage to his humble beginnings at what is today almost a ghost town, Glenbuck in Ayrshire, posing for pictures by his gravestone. The football fan in me preferred the anecdotal interviews with some of his great players like Roger Hunt, Ian St John and Chris Lawler from his first great team of the mid 60's and the brilliant striking partnership of his second great team of the 70's, John Toshack and Kevin Keegan.

I didn't agree with everything Bill said, especially the hyperbolic "football's more serious than life and death" quote, but he was undoubtedly great journalistic copy in his life and a perfect fit for the largely working class hordes who loved him from the Kop End at Anfield. When Liverpool won the F.A. Cup in 1965, it's said the team's open bus pageant drew more people out onto the streets of Liverpool than even the Beatles at their height. And if, as John Lennon said at the time, the Beatles were bigger than Jesus Christ, how big did that then make Bill Shankly, at least in Liverpool?

I can just about remember Bill Shankly being manager of Liverpool, I can certainly recall the commotion that was caused when he announced his shock retirement from the club. Some people say he left the club too soon but considering he died in 1981, I think Shankly knew the time was right to leave.

You can spot the mark of a great man because other clubs he was associated with have something to remember him by. Preston North End a club he played for have the Bill Shankly Kop and a street named after him near the ground. Huddersfield Town have a club lounge named after him.

Bill Shankly, Matt Busby and Jock Stein were all born within a 20 miles radius. All from poor working class stock who would go on to become great managers. Their upbringing would affect their outlook in life. Since the 1980s I can only recall Brian Clough and Alex Ferguson wearing their socialism on their sleeves. Kenny Dalglish did make critical remarks about Margaret Thatcher in his autobiography.

Nowadays Premier League managers are on so much money each week, I doubt it even occurs to them that they were once destined to go done the mines or work in a cotton factory, that is if you can actually find a British manager in the first place. Sam Allardyce was prepared to be caught in a newspaper sting for doing some work on the side even though he was a highly paid England manager.

This documentary goes through Shankly's life, his early years playing football in the open fields after a shift working down the Ayrshire pit in his native Scotland.

It was his managerial philosophy of playing quick passing football and developing young talent as a manager that attracted attention. Of course this all came to fruition with Liverpool then in the old second division. Within five years they would become First division champions and FA Cup winners for the first time. Shankly would mould a championship winning team and then as they aged rebuild it in the 1970s with the masterstroke pairing of John Toshack and Kevin Keegan.

Shankly could be a fiery character yet his door was always open to visitors in his beloved Liverpool.

The best part of the documentary was listening to the players that worked with him. Players such as Denis Law, Ian St John, Roger Hunt all sadly now looking aged when they still were young men when I was a nipper.

I wouldn't say this film was average , I would say it was bloody groovy !

James Cagney was his hero and I think this film shows him in a similar vein of greatness , a joyful tribute to a football manager who was CAF .