Here we want to give us your views of Bob Paisley and we will publish them at our site. What we are looking for is in tune with these tributes from Liverpool fans.
But before that a tribute from his granddaughter, Kirsty.
Hi
As the seventh grandchild of bob paisley I would like to thank you for your effort in making this site dedicated to my granddad.
This site is full of the amazing things done or said by my granddad and like Bob it is great. It is not quite finished but im sure it will be even greater when it is.
Many thanks,
Kirsty McMahon
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Whenever anyone ever starts on about just how good any manager is or was, I always get slightly frustrated, then I realise it doesn’t really matter too much. Because I know the truth. I watched it happen. As someone who isn’t a scouser, was never really a fan of Liverpool as a kid, even when Shankly was about.
What I saw, unfolding right before my eyes, so that even I could grasp was the sight of someone moulding and forming the best set of teams ever to grace the game. He altered all of it; from the way the players physically became slimmer and lither than the past, to their astounding fitness levels, to the tactics he employed.
I’ve seen the lot in my time: all the great teams; all the great players. All of them. And not one manager could make great team after great team like Bob Paisley could. Look at his record.
So let others go on about Sir Alex and everyone else they want to hold up as an example. It doesn’t really matter. Because like the jockey who rode the amazing Secretariat said once, ‘Personally, I never get involved when people start talking about greatness. Because none of them who ever talk about it, ever rode this horse. I did. I know‘
And that’s how I feel still. I’m nearly 60 now and I’m not likely to see a football manager again who could hold a candle to Bob Paisley. Let others yak on and talk. I know he was the best I’ll ever see in my life. I know.
Chris Hayes
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I'm always amused how little people appreciate just how revolutionary a management Bob Paisley was! To dispense with the old fashioned centre-half (a position that had dominated Enlish defending for 40 years), to build his central defensive partnerships around two wing-halves (Thompson, smith, Hughes, Lawrenson, Hansen), and to have entrusted the mid-field screening job to a passer of the ball like Souness was a mastersroke!
It is a sad loss to the game that Bob didn't reveal his thoughts on the game to all and sundry. If only this man had been more vocal, he would have set in train a tactical revolution that would still influence the English game today!
At a time when the English national side couldn't punch its weight internationally, and English self-esteem was at its lowest ebb, Bob Paisley managed to win three European Cups!
That's greatness!
Phil Ritson
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For me Bob was the best manager of all time. His record speaks for itself. I have been a life-long follower of Liverpool, and am probably a bit biased! I do get slightly cheesed off with the idea that the current manager of Salford plc is not only his equal, but better! Shanks was in a different category, having rebuilt Liverpool and putting into place a winning philosophy and infrastructure which forms the basis of the "Liverpool ethic", and from which future success would flow.
Michael Phillips
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In the very early sixties Bob Paisley trained us (Unit Const. Co.) twice a week at our Speke Football Ground. He said to me once “Son, if a man is going past you and maybe score then kick his bloody legs from under him”. I will never, ever, forget that night.
Tom Elliott
** WE ASKED MEMBERS OF THE MOST PROMINENT LIVERPOOL FORUMS FOR THEIR VIEWS ON UNCLE BOB **
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I met him when I was a kid, I was suffering with Glandular fever and had been off school for ages. As I recovered my mum took me to Anfield to get a load of autographs of the players.
Bob pulled up in his brown Rover 3500. As he got out I walked up and politely asked him if he would sign my book. He looked at me and asked why I wasn't in school. (he did sign the book and I still have it)
He was a great man, a humble man. In my opinion the greatest manager ever. I can't see why the club cannot build a statue of him. It's not as if the fans wouldn't contribute.
Dave Usher - The Liverpool Way
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A Scouse mate of mine who's a GP in New Zealand called into Anfield one summer. He told the receptionist he was on a flying visit to his parents in Liverpool and asked if it might be possible to see inside the stadium. She picked up the phone, passing on this request to the person at the other end of the line. Seconds later, Bob Paisley came into the Main Stand foyer, greeted my mate like an old friend and gave him a guided tour of the ground.
This was the manager of the European champions going to the trouble of welcoming a complete stranger. What a man. Yet after all Bob's achievements, especially his three European Cups, which no one has equalled, he wasn't worthy of a knighthood. Well, if he wasn't, then I'm damn sure no one else deserved it.
"Frisbydyke" from RAWK (RedandWhiteKop.com)
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Loved the man to bits - was simply THE best manager I have ever seen.
I remember being taken to the FA Cup 3rd round at Stamford Bridge back in 1982, I was 11yrs old. Walking to the stand where we were sitting, I remember my mates dad (Frank) saying "Look who's coming, it's the Great Man himself". I looked up and scanned the area for a matter of seconds. Then, I knew who he meant - Bob Paisley was walking directly towards us and there I was, draped in red and white round my neck and on top of my head.
Frank, who was 'known' in the football world, held out his hand to Bob and we stood there for about 3 minutes chatting with the Great Man. I remember to this day, the warm, smooth, gigantic hand that smothered mine as we finally shook hands. I didn't speak a word until I was spoken to....he asked if I was looking forward to the match and make sure I had a good one! A gentle 'scruff' on the head and we parted company...me looking round at who we had just met! I was beaming from ear to ear and could have gone home there and then.
The result in the end, 2-0 to Chelsea, didn't really matter....I'd met the Great Man himself.
"El Phes" from RAWK
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He embodied everything I love about this club: greatness and dignity. I knew, even as a six-year-old, watching his team in 76-77, that he was a decent man. You could just tell. And the way he got the boys to play as a team, and kept his own counsel, and won with humility, and lost with class. The best ever.
"That Kennedy Moment" from RAWK
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He was fucking sound, wasn't he mate. Ruthless winner disguised by the wooly cardie and slippers of humility.
And that's one of the things I miss nowadays mate, the dignity and humility of them auld fellas. I'm not just giving it the, ohh the good old days bit. There's really none of them people left, who'd seen proper hardships and rose above them. And at times, I honestly hate this, I want it and I want it now age that we live in. Bob Paisley, as was Shankly, was a symbol of an age and people that have sadly gone.
"Fat Scouser" from RAWK
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3 european cups (only manager ever to achieve this) and 6 league titles in 9 years at a time when english teams were dominating europe says it all. The greatest european club manager of all time!
"DangerScouse" from RAWK
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have the greatest respect for Bob. astute manager, perfect gentleman, and a saddening end to his last few years.
ps: id love a statue of him when we get that new stadium..
"conman" from RAWK
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Wasn't even born when he was managing Liverpool. The stories my dad told me about him and his team are just amasing.
One word - LEGEND
"Scousejon" from RAWK
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Shankly set the foundations. Paisley built the bastion of invincibility. Simple as.
"Gazzalfc" from RAWK
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Bob Paisley carried on where the great Bill Shankly left off, putting his own stamp on the team and leading this great club to unprecedented success. We owe so much of what is great about Liverpool Football Club to these two decent, honest and inspirational men.
"Davies9" from RAWK
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Love reading the recollections posted of Uncle Bob.
His achievement was the greatest just for what it was. But the context in which he did it, as the man who had to escape from the shadow of the most charsimatic, messianic figure English football has ever known, Bill Shankly, just makes what he did all the greater, all the more unbelievable in many ways.
I have always thought that Shanks was like Jesus and Bob was like St Paul, who built the church and spread the gospel.
"Stussy" from RAWK
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Words are not nearly enough to describe his achievements and character. An unassuming legend.
If Shanks was the genius visionary, the Da Vinci of LFC, then Sir Bob was the inspirational sculptor, the Michelangelo.
"Rossi per sempre" from RAWK
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Great Manager
If you ask me he is still the most successful manager to grace English football since the war to win what he did in 9 years is just Amazing, most people would have crumbled with taking on a team from a manger who was so well respected and successful but to win even more and take the team even further is just so exceptional.
"LFC4life" from RAWK
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Greatest English manager of all time and the shrewdest transfer dealer in British Football history. The guy was a genius.. LFC having him and Shanks together was little short of a gift from the footballing gods..
He would have been a great manager in any era and his footballing brain has never been bettered.
"donniebrasco" from RAWK
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The best ever.
His teams used to destroy all before them as I grew up, and I went everywhere with Liverpool. A proper gentleman, great servant to the club, and epitomises the Liverpool Way.
"PageMossScrapper" from RAWK
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The most shamefully underrated manager in the history of the game.
"redpuma" from RAWK
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an absolute legend and should have his own statue at anfield like the great bill shankly.
"gadair" from RAWK
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He was the greatest manager this country has ever seen and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
"barneyrubble" from RAWK
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The greatest manager the world has ever seen.
Bob loved Liverpool and we love him.
"Carras Left Foot" from RAWK
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An absolute hero. The Liverpool manager when I was growing up and so will always be special to me. I would not say he was under-rated, as anyone who knows football appreciates his achievements, but he doesn't get the profile he deserves due to other managers who had bigger personalities or bigger publicity machines behind them, which is a shame.
"otottottfn" from RAWK
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The things that stand out for me are that he took over from the living legend that was Bill Shankly and managed to stamp his own authority on the club and that he also won three European Cups in seven seasons...which is the best return by any manager in this land by a very long way.
Olivavu from talklfc.com
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Pure legend. 3 European Cups in 5 seasons. Not to mention the UEFA Cup the year before we won our first European Cup.
The only manager in history to win 3 European Cups.
Greatest manager of all time.
Kinkz from talklfc.com
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People often equate the Liverpool way with a style of management. Not washing dirty linen in public. Having respect for other clubs. No nonsense approach to the game, modesty and doing talking on the pitch. That characterised Paisley's era, and I think became the model for many people's understanding of the Liverpool way.
doctor_mac from sixcrazyminutes.com
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Shanks was the progenitor of the "Liverpool way" and Sir Bob enabled it to evolve in a wonderful way. We were an example to all clubs as to how things should be done.
One of my favourite aspects of the Liverpool Way was the way in which we dealt with the rare defeats along the way. Unlike modern day managers/players our Managers and Players never made excuses; injuries, bad refereeing, poor pitch etc and always made a point of complimenting the opposition. I remember Sir Bob in particular on many occasions being offered the chance to blame various injuries or a mud-caked pitch (usually Derby's) for a defeat but he always rejected these arguments in favour of us losing because the opposition played better than us - The Liverpool Way.
Pesam from sixcrazyminutes.com
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In terms of accomplishments on the pitch he was the best manager we've ever had. He gave this club some of it's best ever moments, some of it's best ever players and was at the club 40 odd years. The man is the definition of Liverpool Legend.
Fallon from sixcrazyminutes.com