5 best Scottish managers of all time

#4 Bill Shankly

Shankly salutes his adoring Liverpool support

Before Ferguson transformed a team in his own inimitable way, Bill Shankly did the same with Liverpool. When he took charge in 1959, they weren’t the club they are now: Liverpool were languishing in the Second Division, their fifth season there, and the stadium was in terrible disrepair.

Shankly’s sheer force of personality soon began to turn things around, forming close bonds with his coaching staff, including Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan, who would both so successfully succeed Shankly in full charge. The Scotsman envisioned Liverpool as being the best club in England and often forced the board to sign the players he believed he needed to take them to the top.

By only 1964, he had won them the First Division league title and two more followed, in 1966 and 1973. He also won two FA Cups (1965 and 1974) and triumphed in the UEFA Cup in 1973, the club’s first European trophy. Shankly’s personality linked perfectly with Liverpool’s fervent support and his face still adorns banners and posters in the Anfield stands to this day.

While he didn’t consistently deliver trophies in his time at the club, Shankly’s success is better measured in the club Liverpool became after he left; it’s not an overstatement to say that all they’ve achieved, all the European Cups and glorious Anfield nights, are owed to Bill Shankly.