Phil Thompson - Coach of his beloved Reds

You talk about Ronnie Moran as your mentor. When you became coach you took up his methods?

Yes. Never pleased, always demanding. Wanting the best out of people. Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and whatever Ronnie was always there for you. Through the difficult times and the successes. Ronnie was fantastic to me and helped me regularly. Even when I was assistant manager and manager he would come and to chat about what had happened.

Ronnie Moran could have become Liverpool's manager on a permanent basis

Kenny left and Ronnie took over. I was with the reserves. I stepped up and helped Ronnie and Roy. It was the three of us. Ronnie straight away said: 'I don't want this. I can't handle the press. I can do all the things on the training field, but dealing with the media, signings and everything I don't think.'

After a few good weeks Ronnie decided that: 'I can handle this.' He went to see Peter Robinson and Sir John Smith and he said: 'I can do this. If you want to offer me the job again I'll take it.' They went: 'Ronnie, I wish you had come last week because we've got a new manager. It's Graeme Souness.' Ronnie's chance of being manager at Liverpool ended then and there.

The central defenders must have benefited from your experience in that position?

I was always taught: The centre backs are your main people. People might think think attackers and strikers, yeah that's fantastic. If your centre backs are rock solid the rest of the team can have an off day, but you won't lose a goal. They are your strength and I have always believed in that. If you go and step out, get back in your position, make sure you stay very strong there and organised.

You are looking at the habits and lifestyles of players like Jamie Carragher. Jamie and Stevie loved the social side, but it had to be tempered. Gerard always told Jamie Carragher this: 'You'll always be in my squad. You'll always be in my mind, but you will have to change your habits. If you don't you'll be finished by the time you're 25.' Jamie was just a young lad. I've seen myself in him. He's had a wonderful career and still playing now.

What do you think of the current centre halves, like Sami Hyypia?

Sami has been a fantastic signing. I have great pride in Sami coming to the football club. I went to see him in Nuremberg playing for Finland against Germany. We signed him because we thought he had great potential. At the time we brought Stephane Henchoz at the same time, we didn't think Sami would make the impact straight away. In those first few days of training you were looking at him passing the ball and doing his thing. My goodness, he was like a central midfield player. He had so much ability in his feet and he's 6 ft. 4in. He was so mobile and so quick with his feet and had great passing technique. You went, 'My goodness, this fellow is a player.' We were training and he was heading the ball and you would go 'Ah'. Straight away Sami told you: 'I'm, a great player, I'm going to be in that team straight away' by his performances in training and everything.

Sami turned out better than we expected and he's clever. He is not quick and he has to use his head. He is a wonderful player. He sees things happening early and he gets himself into position. The only thing with Sami is he should have scored more goals for the size of him, he's such a clean header of the ball. Over the years I coached him, I helped him and Stephane. Worked with the likes of Carra when he went to left full-back. It was my job as a defensive coach to work with them. It's a shame people remember players more when they have left the football club. It will happen with Sami Hyppia. But I think now he should have the respect. He IS a legend. He's played ten years at Liverpool as a foreigner and he's been one of our best ever signings.

What about the signings that got away?

Alan Shearer:

Gerard came to me one day and said: 'Phil, we've got a great chance to sign Alan Shearer.' It was always in the press that Newcastle were not going to offer him a new contract. They didn't want to offer him big money because of his age. I think Gerard had seen Alan as a masterstroke that we had with Gary McAllister. He said: 'We are going to sign him'. I said: 'Are you sure, Gerard? Is he maybe not just using us as leverage to get a new deal?' He said: 'I've spoken to him. Come on, we're going to my office now and are going to speak to him.' He put Alan on the conference phone. Alan said: 'I would love playing for Liverpool. I don't think I am going to be offered a new contract here.'

That was great. Then we said: 'How do we go about signing him? Contact was made. 'If you're willing to to let him go, we are willing to sign him.' 'No, no we're going to offer him a new contract. He's not for sale.' We thought: 'Here we go.' Within 24-48 hours Alan Shearer had signed a new contract with Newcastle. Again Gerard put him on the conference phone and he said that he would have loved playing for Liverpool, but he had been offered a new contract and he was signing it. He promised us he had not been using us a leverage to get a new contract, but I beg to differ. I said that to Gerard, I thought he did use us.

Cristiano Ronaldo:

He was not just offered to Liverpool; Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Newcastle, everybody. His agents were proactive. A guy in particular called Tony Henry who used to play for Manchester City. I went to see Sporting Lisbon play Porto. I had a meeting with Henry and and he said: 'He will only cost you 4 million pounds.' 'What's the salary going to be?' 'He wants one million pounds net.' 'He's 18 years of age and that's way out of his bracket and our bracket', I said. They were saying it could be split over the four years of his contract. I came back and mentioned it to Gerard and we mentioned it to Rick Parry. Rick said: 'I'll have to have a word with the board to try and see if we could do anything. Within a week, me and Gerard were having lunch at Melwood. It came up on Sky Sports News: 'Manchester United have signed Cristiano Ronaldo.' 12,2 million pounds!! Why and where had it jumped in 7 days from 4 million to 12,2 million pounds? It was absolutely incredible.

John Terry:

When we lost out on 4th place to Chelsea in the final game of the 2002-2003 season, they beat us 2-1 down at Stamford Bridge. John Terry had been outstanding. I like to think I know a bit about centre backs and I said while we were doing our lap of honour and they were doing theirs: 'John Terry is fantastic, Gerard. He's brilliant. Get over there and speak to him.' Terry had said he hadn't been offered a new contract and it looked as though he was going to leave. Chelsea were nearly going bust. Gerard then spoke to him: 'Would you like to play for Liverpool?'. Terry said: 'I would do. I would love to play for Liverpool.' Gerard said we would be in touch. We sent our chief scout to see Terry in the players' lounge and he asked: 'Can you let me have your agent's telephone number?' Terry said: 'I'll do more than that. Here's my personal number.' About four days later when Abramowich came to town John Terry signed a new contract and that was it. He was on the verge of coming to us.

Why didn't Liverpool sign Anelka?

Nicolas would have upset the football club. Nicolas is a nice guy, but he's moody. He doesn't mix. There weren't any great problems while he was there, but we had problems with his brothers, his contract and everything. Arséne Wenger rang up Gerard and said: 'Gerard, I have to tell you. Nicolas' brothers have just rang me up and they've asked me to take Nicolas back to Arsenal.' Once his brothers tried to sell Nicolas to Arsenal while he was on loan at us, that was the end.

You didn't buy the right sort of players in 2001-2002 needed for the club to step up from 2nd place.

Diouf, Diao and Cheyrou will always be there as failures, if you want. You live and die by your signings and your results. We spent 20 million pounds on these players. They just never hit it off. Maybe the club was s bit too big for them. They certainly weren't of the calibre that we wanted. That was a shame. When you buy a foreign player and even when you buy an English player, he might be a great player at another club. When they come to your club it can be totally different. The training, the methods and everything. It's sometimes not bad if you can buy a foreign player who's been at a Premiership club. They know what it's all about. 

Diouf has proved himself a good player, but his off the field antics were not what was required at Liverpool Football Club. Bruno and Salif were not good enough. At that particular time we needed the money to be spent more wisely and we just got it wrong. Three players for so much, that's a third of a football team.  

What could have been...

I just think Rafa could have done with me. It's alright when things are nice and everything, but when it's difficult that's when you need somebody with knowledge. I like to think that I'd have a role to play with Rafa.

Interview by Arnie ([email protected]) and SF Gutt. - Copyright - LFChistory.net