Top 76 Quotes & Sayings by Bill Shankly
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Scottish footballer Bill Shankly.
Last updated on September 16, 2024.
If Everton were playing down the bottom of my garden, I'd draw the curtains.
If you are first you are first. If you are second you are nothing.
I'm a people's man - only the people matter.
Aim for the sky and you'll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you'll stay on the floor.
Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple.
A lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are.
We murdered them 0-0.
Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that.
The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game.
Football (soccer) is a matter of life and death, except more important.
What a great day for football, all we need is some green grass and a ball.
Denis Law could dance on eggshells.
My idea was to build Liverpool into a bastion of invincibility. Had Napoleon had that idea he would have conquered the bloody world. I wanted Liverpool to be untouchable. My idea was to build Liverpool up and up until eventually everyone would have to submit and give in.
Football is a simple game made complicated by people who should know better.
The very word 'Anfield' means more to me than I can describe.
Fire in your belly comes from pride and passion in wearing the red shirt. We don't need to motivate players because each of them is responsible for the performance of the team as a whole. The status of Liverpool's players keeps them motivated.
I have been received more warmly by Everton than I have by Liverpool. It is scandalous that I should have to write these things about the club that I helped build into what it is today.
In my time at Anfield we always said we had the best two teams on Merseyside - Liverpool and Liverpool reserves.
Me having no education. I had to use my brains.
We are a team. We share the ball, we share the game, we share the worries.
Tom Finney would have been great in any team, in any match and in any age, even if he had been wearing an overcoat.
I have always had the deepest respect for Bill Nicholson as a person and as a manager. The Spurs boss is an honest Yorkshireman and you will go a long way before finding a straighter character than that. Bill has never wavered in his determination to give White Hart Lane fans the best.
Well the Kop’s exclusive. The Spion Kop at Liverpool is an institution. And if you are a member of the Kop you feel as if you are a member of a big society where you’ve got thousands of friends all roundabout you. And they’re united and loyal.
Laddie, that man scored 200 goals in 270 matches - an incredible record - and he has won cup after cup as a manager. When he talks, pin back your ears.
It's a 90 minute game for sure. In fact I used to train for a 190 minute game so that when the whistle blew at the end of the match I could have played another 90 minutes.
Ian Callaghan is everything good that a man can be. No praise is too high for him. Words cannot do justice to the amount he has contributed to the game. Ian Callaghan will go down as one of the game's truly great players.
This city has two great teams – Liverpool and Liverpool reserves.
Although I'm a Scot, I'd be proud to be called a Scouser.
My life is my work. My work is my life
Forget the Beatles and all the rest. This is the real Liverpool sound. It's real singing, and it's what the Kop is all about.
I want to build a team that's invincible, so that they have to send a team from bloody Mars to beat us.
If a man….who’s playing in front of the public, is being well paid, and he doesn’t dedicate himself to the job, I’d be hard on him. If I could I would put him in jail, out of the road of society. Because he’s a menace
If you are first you are first. If you are second, you are nothing.
At a football club, there's a holy trinity - the players, the manager and the supporters. Directors don't come into it. They are only there to sign the checks.
The socialism I believe in is everybody working for the same goal and everybody having a share in the rewards. That’s how I see football, that’s how I see life.
I’m just one of the people who stands on the Kop. They think the same as I do, and I think the same as they do. It’s a kind of marriage of people who like each other.
It's the greatest thing in the world, natural enthusiasm. You are nothing without it.
The difference between Everton and the Queen Mary is that Everton carry more passengers!
Train the right way. Help each other. It's a form of socialism without the politics.
Liverpool was made for me and I was made for Liverpool.
He's not just the best centre-forward in the British Isles, but the only one.
(about Ian St John)
For a player to be good enough to play for Liverpool, he must be prepared
to run through a brick wall for me then come out fighting on the other side.
When I've got nothing better to do, I look down the league table to see how Everton are getting along.
I've had many skilful men and the likes of Peter Thompson, Ian St John, Kevin Keegan and Steve Heighway were the ones who caught the eye. But the best professional of the lot was Gerry Byrne. He wasn't flashy and he wouldn't score you goals. But he was hard and skilful and gave you everything he had. More than that he was totally honest. Which is the greatest quality of all. He was a true Liverpudlian who couldn't look his fellow Scousers in the face after a game unless he'd given everything he had for 90 minutes.
It's to remind our lads who they're playing for, and to remind the opposition who they're playing against.
(on the 'This Anfield' plaque)
The problem with you, son, is that all your brains are in your head.
(to a Liverpool trainee)
First is first,Second is nothing
A football team is like a piano. You need eight men to carry it and three who can play the damn thing.
The socialism I believe in isn't really politics. It is a way of living. It is humanity. I believe the only way to live and to be truly successful is by collective effort, with everyone working for each other, everyone helping each other, and everyone having a share of the rewards at the end of the day. That might be asking a lot, but it's the way I see football and the way I see life.
If you get to the edge of the penalty area with the ball and don't know what to do next, just stick the ball in the net for now. We can evaluate the other options later.
I don't drop players. I make changes.
If you're not sure what to do with the ball, just pop it in the net and we'll discuss your options afterwards.
One day in 1959, when Huddersfield were playing Cardiff City, Tom (T.V.) Williams, who was then chairman of Liverpool, and Harry Latham, a director, came down the slope at Leeds Road to see me.
Mr Williams said, 'How would you like to manage the best club in the country?'
'Why, is Matt Busby packing it up?' I asked.
I’ve been a slave to football. It follows you home, it follows you everywhere, and eats into your family life. But every working man misses out on some things because of his job.
If a player is not interfering with play or seeking to gain an advantage, then he should be.
Chairman Mao has never seen a greater show of red strength.
If you can't support us when we lose or draw, don't support us when we win
Pressure is working down the pit. Pressure is having no work at all. Pressure is trying to escape relegation on 50 shillings a week. Pressure is not the European Cup or the Championship or the Cup Final. That's the reward.
Above all, I would like to be remembered as a man who was selfless, who strove and worried so that others could share the glory, and who built up a family of people who could hold their heads up high and say 'We're Liverpool'.
Just go out and drop a few hand grenades all over the place, son.
(to Kevin Keegan)
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