Bill Shankly Quotes: Bill Shankly was a Scottish football manager and a legendary figure in the history of Liverpool Football Club. He was born on September 2, 1913, in the small mining village of Glenbuck, Scotland, and passed away on September 29, 1981.
Shankly is best known for his transformative and visionary leadership as the manager of Liverpool FC from 1959 to 1974. When he arrived at the club, Liverpool was struggling and languishing in the Second Division (now the Championship) of English football. However, under Shankly’s guidance, the club underwent a remarkable transformation, becoming one of the dominant forces in English and European football.
Bill Shankly Quotes
1. “If you can’t support us when we lose or draw, don’t support us when we win.” — Bill Shankly
2. “My life is my work. My work is my life.” — Bill Shankly
3. “I was in the game for the love of football – and I wanted to bring back happiness to the people of Liverpool.” — Bill Shankly
4. “If you are first you are first. If you are second, you are nothing.” — Bill Shankly
5. “It’s the greatest thing in the world, natural enthusiasm. You are nothing without it.” — Bill Shankly
6. “Aim for the sky and you’ll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you’ll stay on the floor.” — Bill Shankly
7. “Liverpool was made for me and I was made for Liverpool.” — Bill Shankly
8. “If Everton were playing down the bottom of my garden, I’d draw the curtains.” — Bill Shankly
9. “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it’s much more serious than that.” — Bill Shankly
10. “The socialism I believe in is everybody working for the same goal and everybody having a share in the rewards. That’s how I see football, that’s how I see life.” — Bill Shankly
11. “At a football club, there’s a holy trinity – the players, the manager and the supporters. Directors don’t come into it. They are only there to sign the checks.” — Bill Shankly
12. “The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game.” — Bill Shankly
13. “A lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are.” — Bill Shankly
14. “If you get to the edge of the penalty area with the ball and don’t know what to do next, just stick the ball in the net for now. We can evaluate the other options later.” — Bill Shankly
15. “If you’re not sure what to do with the ball, just pop it in the net and we’ll discuss your options afterwards.” — Bill Shankly
16. “Train the right way. Help each other. It’s a form of socialism without the politics.” — Bill Shankly
17. “I want to build a team that’s invincible, so that they have to send a team from bloody Mars to beat us.” — Bill Shankly
18. “Forget the Beatles and all the rest. This is the real Liverpool sound. It’s real singing, and it’s what the Kop is all about.” — Bill Shankly
19. “Fire in your belly comes from pride and passion in wearing the red shirt. We don’t need to motivate players because each of them is responsible for the performance of the team as a whole. The status of Liverpool’s players keeps them motivated.” — Bill Shankly
20. “Pressure is working down the pit. Pressure is having no work at all. Pressure is trying to escape relegation on 50 shillings a week. Pressure is not the European Cup or the Championship or the Cup Final. That’s the reward.” — Bill Shankly
21. “I’m a people’s man – only the people matter.” — Bill Shankly
22. “Although I’m a Scot, I’d be proud to be called a Scouser.” — Bill Shankly
23. “Chairman Mao has never seen a greater show of red strength.” — Bill Shankly
24. “I always look in the Sunday paper to see where Everton are in the league – starting, of course, from the bottom up.” — Bill Shankly
25. “It’s a 90 minute game for sure. In fact I used to train for a 190 minute game so that when the whistle blew at the end of the match I could have played another 90 minutes.” — Bill Shankly
26. “The very word ‘Anfield’ means more to me than I can describe.” — Bill Shankly
27. “I was the best manager in Britain because I was never devious or cheated anyone. I’d break my wife’s legs if I played against her, but I’d never cheat her.” — Bill Shankly
28. “I’ve been a slave to football. It follows you home, it follows you everywhere, and eats into your family life. But every working man misses out on some things because of his job.” — Bill Shankly
29. “My idea was to build Liverpool into a bastion of invincibility. Had Napoleon had that idea he would have conquered the bloody world. I wanted Liverpool to be untouchable. My idea was to build Liverpool up and up until eventually everyone would have to submit and give in.” — Bill Shankly
30. “If a player is not interfering with play or seeking to gain an advantage, then he should be.” — Bill Shankly
31. “We are a team. We share the ball, we share the game, we share the worries.” — Bill Shankly
32. “A football team is like a piano. You need eight men to carry it and three who can play the damn thing.” — Bill Shankly
33. “Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple.” — Bill Shankly
34. “Its great grass at Anfield, professional grass.” — Bill Shankly
35. “Of course I didn’t take my wife to see Rochdale as an anniversary present. It was her birthday and would I have got married during the football season? Anyway, it was Rochdale reserves.” — Bill Shankly
36. “Tommy Smith wasn’t born, he was quarried.” — Bill Shankly
37. “Tom Finney would have been great in any team, in any match and in any age, even if he had been wearing an overcoat.” — Bill Shankly
38. “I have been received more warmly by Everton than I have by Liverpool. It is scandalous that I should have to write these things about the club that I helped build into what it is today.” — Bill Shankly
39. “What a great day for football, all we need is some green grass and a ball.” — Bill Shankly
40. “The difference between Everton and the Queen Mary is that Everton carry more passengers!” — Bill Shankly
41. “Yes, Roger Hunt misses a few, but he gets in the right place to miss them.” — Bill Shankly
42. “Me having no education. I had to use my brains.” — Bill Shankly
43. “When I’ve got nothing better to do, I look down the league table to see how Everton are getting along.” — Bill Shankly
44. “I’m just one of the people who stands on the Kop. They think the same as I do, and I think the same as they do. It’s a kind of marriage of people who like each other.” — Bill Shankly
45. “I have always had the deepest respect for Bill Nicholson as a person and as a manager. The Spurs boss is an honest Yorkshireman and you will go a long way before finding a straighter character than that. Bill has never wavered in his determination to give White Hart Lane fans the best.” — Bill Shankly
46. “Football is a simple game made complicated by people who should know better.” — Bill Shankly
47. “Ian Callaghan is everything good that a man can be. No praise is too high for him. Words cannot do justice to the amount he has contributed to the game. Ian Callaghan will go down as one of the game’s truly great players.” — Bill Shankly
48. “Well the Kop’s exclusive. The Spion Kop at Liverpool is an institution. And if you are a member of the Kop you feel as if you are a member of a big society where you’ve got thousands of friends all roundabout you. And they’re united and loyal.” — Bill Shankly
49. “In my time at Anfield we always said we had the best two teams on Merseyside – Liverpool and Liverpool reserves.” — Bill Shankly
50. “I have not been short of invitations to other clubs and have been received more warmly by Everton than I have by Liverpool.” — Bill Shankly
