1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. Bill Shankly

Bill Shankly Quotes

William Shankly was a Scottish football player and manager, who is best known for his time as manager of Liverpool. Shankly laid foundations at Liverpool upon which his successors Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan were able to build by winning an unprecedented seven league titles and four European Cups in the ten seasons after Shankly retired in 1974.

Shankly came from a small Scottish mining community and was one of five brothers who played football professionally. He played as a ball-winning right-half and was capped twelve times for Scotland, including seven wartime internationals. He spent one season at Carlisle United before spending the rest of his career at Preston North End, with whom he won the FA Cup in 1938. His playing career was interrupted by his service in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He became a manager after he retired from playing in 1949, returning to Carlisle United. He later managed Grimsby Town, Workington and Huddersfield Town before moving to become Liverpool manager in December 1959.

Shankly took charge of Liverpool when they were in the Second Division and rebuilt the team into a major force in English and European football. He led Liverpool to the Second Division Championship to gain promotion to the top-flight First Division in 1962, before going on to win three First Division Championships, two FA Cups, four Charity Shields and one UEFA Cup. Shankly announced his surprise retirement from football a few weeks after Liverpool had won the 1974 FA Cup Final, having managed the club for 15 years, and was succeeded by his long-time assistant Bob Paisley. He led the Liverpool team out for the last time at Wembley for the 1974 FA Charity Shield. He died seven years later, aged 68.

✵ 2. September 1913 – 29. September 1981
Bill Shankly photo
Bill Shankly: 5   quotes 3   likes

Famous Bill Shankly Quotes

“Someone said to me 'To you football is a matter of life or death!' and I said 'Listen, it's more important than that'.”

Bill Shankly

An interview on a Granada Television chat-show, hosted by Shelley Rohde on Wednesday 20th of May 1981

“A football team is like a piano. You need eight men to carry it and three who can play the damn thing.”

Bill Shankly

Quoted by John Toshack in Kevin McCarra, "How Benítez built Liverpool," http://football.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1691681,00.html The Guardian (2006-01-21)

“The socialism I believe in is everyone working for each other, everyone having a share of the rewards. It's the way I see football, the way I see life.”

Bill Shankly

[Powley, Adam, Robert, Gillan, Shankly's Village: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Glenbuck and its Famous Footballing Sons, https://books.google.com/books?id=Qe7NCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT162&lpg=PT162&dq=%22The+socialism+I+believe+in+is+everyone+working+for+each+other,+everyone+having+a+share+of+the+rewards.+It%27s+the+way+I+see+football,+the+way+I+see+life.%22&source=bl#v=onepage, 2016-08-18, 2015, Worthing, UK, Pitch, 931595421, 9781785310706]

“At a football club, there's a holy trinity – the players, the manager and the supporters.”

Bill Shankly

"Bill Shankly: Life, death and football" http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/oct/18/bill-shankly-liverpool-manager, The Guardian (2009-10-18)

“Aim for the sky and you’ll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you’ll stay on the floor.”

Bill Shankly

Attributed to Shankly in 2013, thirty years after Shankly's death. However, very similar sayings are found anonymously from the late twentieth-century.
Disputed
Source: http://www.empireofthekop.com/2013/07/26/liverpool-should-aim-for-epl-title-and-possibly-finish-in-the-top-four-by-liverpool_red1/
Source: Harrington and Kavanagh, Prayer for Parish Groups: Preparing and Leading Prayer for Group Meetings https://books.google.com/books?id=tnpYzxOSsDoC&pg=PT120&dq=%22Aim+for+the+sky%22+ceiling&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAGoVChMIoszvpuGkyAIVyD6ICh0pVwwm#v=onepage&q=%22Aim%20for%20the%20sky%22%20ceiling&f=false, p. 32, 1998

Similar authors

A. J. Cronin photo
A. J. Cronin 7
Scottish novelist and physician
Peter F. Drucker photo
Peter F. Drucker 180
American business consultant
Arthur Conan Doyle photo
Arthur Conan Doyle 166
Scottish physician and author
Elinor Ostrom photo
Elinor Ostrom 4
American political economist
Jacque Fresco photo
Jacque Fresco 52
American futurist and self-described social engineer
Jean Cocteau photo
Jean Cocteau 123
French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager …
Joseph E. Stiglitz photo
Joseph E. Stiglitz 39
American economist and professor, born 1943.
Herbert A. Simon photo
Herbert A. Simon 58
American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and p…
Ozzy Osbourne photo
Ozzy Osbourne 104
English heavy metal vocalist and songwriter
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada photo