Jimmy Davies: Longest serving football manager calls it a day

English football player, Jimmy Davies, took a bow and left Waterloo Dock on 28^th May 2013. The curtain call took place in a fitting manner after the Liverpool County Premier League side Waterloo Dock played their final match of the season against Red Rum.

Davies, who is a septuagenarian, is the longest-serving manager in English football history. He has been responsible for the club for nearly fifty years and was even instrumental in its formation in Clubmoor, near Anfield, in 1963. He and his fellow dockworkers literally set the ball rolling and established the first substantial football team for the club.

After he failed to impress in the first few games, he decided that maybe managing the team was a better career choice. And manage he did, for nearly half a century. He has amassed a total of seventy two trophies while looking out for the team. His dogged persuasion and competitive nature has often drawn parallels with another legendary manager who has recently retired- the one and only Alex Ferguson.

That is not the only similarity between the two veterans. “We’re quite similar,” Davies said. “He was a shop steward in the Glasgow shipyard, I was a shop steward on Liverpool dockyard. And while Fergie had a lot of pressure on him, he never had to wash kits and footballs and deal with the day-to-day stuff like me.

Davies strains out the memory of leading Waterloo Dock to the final of the Liverpool Senior Cup in 2009, as one of his proudest moments to date. As he recollects the events of that day, he say “”We weren’t overawed and we only lost after a late goal against a strong Liverpool team who were managed by Gary Ablett [who has since passed away]. He came over and congratulated us afterwards.”

Davies’s retirement is a bitter sweet note in his book of life. More than thought of bidding his professional family of fifty years, goodbye, he is upset about the changing landscape of local grassroots football and how much the sport has evolved, inching towards condensation with every season.

“The FA [Football Association] say they’re trying to support grassroots football… locally, they’re making an effort. But it’s very hard. It’s much more costly than it used to be. Referees cost a lot, insurance is high and ground fees in Merseyside are astronomical.”

So what did Davies had to say when he was asked if he will be relieved when it’s all over? “No, I’ll be sad. I’ll step away but I’ll still come and watch them. I’ll haunt them like a spectre from the touchline. But I’ll keep my distance from the dressing room. It’s important to give the new manager some space.”