Fifty years ago this season Liverpool went to Watford, then struggling near the bottom of the Second Division, in the sixth round of the FA Cup. On a dreadful pitch, its central third rutted and bare, they lost 1-0 to a diving header from Barry Endean. Bill Shankly called Watford the worst team that ever beat us. He was aware the upset could be as epochal as the defeat to Worcester City that had led to him replacing Phil Taylor as manager in 1959 and was provoked into action. I knew I had to do my job and change my team, he said. It had to be done and if I didnt do it I was shirking my obligations.
Although Liverpool had finished second the previous season, they were enduring a major stutter, having won only five of their previous 18 in the league. He raged in the Vicarage Road dressing room, telling a number of players they were finished. Over the following weeks Tommy Lawrence, Ian St John, Ron Yeats and Geoff Strong were all discarded. Peter Thompson, struggling with cartilage problems, departed a few months later. The players changed, but the method did not. The policy of the new team was the same as that of the old, Shankly explained. We played to our strengths. We pressurised everybody and made them run.
Related: Tottenham love to talk of glory, but for Daniel Levy business is business
Spurs have paid 12.5m to release a well-respected and in-demand manager with a proven record of working on a budget
Related: Mourinho brings good, bad and ugly, but in what ratio at Tottenham?
Continue reading...