Related Quotes
"Phil whistles all the time during a game. And then suddenly he was searching for something in the grass. 'Phil, what are you doing?' I said. I thought it might be superstition or something. And then he showed me his teeth in his hand. He'd been whistling and they'd fallen out."
Houllier on his return to management in the Roma game
"I missed the 1977 final because I’d had a cartilage operation. Obviously I rejoiced in everything about the game itself, but it was disappointing not being fit to play."
Phil Thompson
"In 1984, 17 players travelled but I was left out of the 16 man squad. That hurt me immensely at the time. I sat in the stands but there was no-one more vocal watching the game, I promise."
Phil Thompson, he missed the 1984 Euro final
"Gerard and I first met in Valencia in 1998, It brings back some good memories for us because it's there were it all started really. I was introduced to Gerard by the late Tom Saunders in a Valencia hotel. I was working for the media at the time, but within a few weeks of that meeting I was back at the club."
Phil Thompson, when he first met Houllier
"This has gone on for far too long now. I know how views can be presented, but with Ian its all one way. What Ian should remember is from 1966-73 we never won a competition. He was part of that. He will remember he was a part of the team which lost to Watford in the FA Cup. That was a team which went down without a fight. That was a team I loved - a team which brought great honour and credit to the club over many years. I'm not stupid. You don't want people to talk ignorantly or only ever say supportive things about the team and players. But what you come to expect is constructive criticism."
Phil Thompson, as Houllier’s assistant, was getting annoyed at St John’s criticism of the team
"Phil Thompson was a coach who would push youngsters to see how tough they were, and a lot of the young lads coming through f***ing despised him for it. I'm amazed he never got properly sparked out there. One time I thought it was really going to kick off in the dressing room when he was the reserve boss, when he started having a right go at a young striker called Wayne Harrison, who Liverpool had bought from Oldham and had high hopes for. Wayne answered back, so Tommo starts on with the ole s**** about putting your medals on the table. So Wayne snapped back at him, 'No, f*** it, let's put our f***ing toes on the table.' Tommo has only got four on one foot, so you can imagine how ballistic he went. Everyone else in the dressing room was pissing themselves and trying to push their fists in their mouths to muffle the noise, because obviously he wasn't the sort of coach you wanted to do that with."
Robbie Fowler's great story about Phil Thompson
"Nobody likes being criticised, particularly by players who will be in Disneyland this summer on their holidays rather than the World Cup in Japan"
Phil Thompson replying Frank De Boer's criticism of LFC.
"Phil is the best back four player in the country. He reads the game brilliantly and never panics no matter what."
Emlyn Hughes in 1977 on Phil Thompson
"Aye, Phil Thompson. The boy tossed up with a sparrow for his legs and lost."
Bill Shankly on Tommo
After the Everton game we would only lose two more league games to the year-end, against Arsenal on December 2 and Bristol City on December 18. It was in the middle of all of this that the club named a new captain with Emlyn Hughes in and out of the team. They turned to Kenny Dalglish and I must admit that I was a bit miffed. So were some of the others. Terry Mac could not understand the logic and nor could Phil Neal who said: 'I just can’t understand , Thommo. It is your right to be captain of this football team.'
I suppose no one has a right. You have to earn it, but I had worked hard and had hoped that my chance would come with Emlyn’s games few and far between. I don’t think Kenny took to being skipper, but I still began to question myself....
Emlyn had been back in the side for another spell, playing at left-back with Phil Neal on the right and Jocky Hansen and myself in the middle. Then Emlyn succumbed to another injury that was to finish his career with Liverpool. It was April 7, 1979. An hour before our home game with Arsenal Bob Paisley started to name the team. I was fully expecting Kenny to be captain, but Bob turned round and said: 'Phil, you will lead the team today.' I was stunned. I always thought my chance would come, but not on that day. I never asked Bob or Kenny about the change of heart."
Phil Thompson explains in his autobiography how he got the Liverpool captaincy
Gerard told me at the end of our time: 'Phil, if you ever go to another football club in your work, first thing you must do, because you run the club, is to think: 'What is your legacy?' We changed the face of the football club from being on the front pages and took it to the back pages again. We were a proper football club again. We brought the club back from the players. We left one of the best training grounds in Europe. New people who come in will say: 'What a good job they did' and we did.
In the Liverpool Echo when we finished they had: '10 million pounds of cost to get rid of us.' They had pictures of us in the newspaper like we were criminals. That was absolutely dreadful. We put the smiles back on the faces of the Liverpool fans. We had the first European final for many years. People had only heard of the legends of European finals. We beat Manchester United in the League cup. That wasn't anything to be sniffed at. We had a wonderful day down at Cardiff. Over the few years we were there we gave some fantastic times. We were going down to Cardiff on a regular basis so it wasn't a failure. We were a part of the history of the club. We came, we served, we left. The club needs to move on. If people think that we took the club as far as we can, no problem, maybe it was."
Phil Thompson on his time with Houllier in an exclusive interview with LFChistory.net