Bill Shankly Quotations

If you are first you are first. If you are second, you are nothing.

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.

Aim for the sky and you'll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you'll stay on the floor.

What a great day for football, all we need is some green grass and a ball.

Football (soccer) is a matter of life and death, except more important.

Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that.

A lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are.

If Everton were playing down the bottom of my garden, I'd draw the curtains.

The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game.

I'm a people's man - only the people matter.

If a player isn't interfering with play or seeking to gain an advantage, then he should be!

I have not been short of invitations to other clubs and have been received more warmly by Everton than I have by Liverpool.

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.

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.

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.

Liverpool was made for me and I was made for Liverpool.

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.

Train the right way. Help each other. It's a form of socialism without the politics.

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.

I don't drop players. I make changes.

If you can't support us when we lose or draw, don't support us when we win

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.

Tommy Smith wasn't born, he was quarried.

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.

Denis Law could dance on eggshells.

We are a team. We share the ball, we share the game, we share the worries.

It's the greatest thing in the world, natural enthusiasm. You are nothing without it.

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.

First is first,Second is nothing

Football is a simple game made complicated by people who should know better.

This city has two great teams – Liverpool and Liverpool reserves.

Its great grass at Anfield, professional grass.

What can you do, playing against eleven goalposts? (after 0-0 draw at Anfield)

The problem with you, son, is that all your brains are in your head. (to a Liverpool trainee)

Just go out and drop a few hand grenades all over the place, son. (to Kevin Keegan)

The best side drew (after a hard fought 1-1 draw)

I was in the game for the love of football - and I wanted to bring back happiness to the people of Liverpool.

It's to remind our lads who they're playing for, and to remind the opposition who they're playing against. (on the 'This Anfield' plaque)

He's not just the best centre-forward in the British Isles, but the only one. (about Ian St John)

Don't worry, Alan. At least you'll be able to play close to a great team. (to Alan Ball, who'd just signed for Everton)

If he isn't named footballer of the year, football should be stopped and the men who picked any other player should be sent to Kremlin. (on Tommy Smith)

The very word 'Anfield' means more to me than I can describe.

My life is my work. My work is my life

With him in defense, we could play Arthur Askey in goal. (after signing Ron Yeats)

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.

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.

I've had many skilful men and the likes of Peter Thompson, Ian St John, Kevin Keegan and Steve Heighway were the ones who caught the eye. But the best professional of the lot was Gerry Byrne. He wasn't flashy and he wouldn't score you goals. But he was hard and skilful and gave you everything he had. More than that he was totally honest. Which is the greatest quality of all. He was a true Liverpudlian who couldn't look his fellow Scousers in the face after a game unless he'd given everything he had for 90 minutes.

Chairman Mao has never seen a greater show of red strength.

I want to build a team that's invincible, so that they have to send a team from bloody Mars to beat us.

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.

Tom Finney would have been great in any team, in any match and in any age, even if he had been wearing an overcoat.

If you're not sure what to do with the ball, just pop it in the net and we'll discuss your options afterwards.

Although I'm a Scot, I'd be proud to be called a Scouser.

When I've got nothing better to do, I look down the league table to see how Everton are getting along.

For a player to be good enough to play for Liverpool, he must be prepared to run through a brick wall for me then come out fighting on the other side.

I always look in the Sunday paper to see where Everton are in the league - starting, of course, from the bottom up.

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.

Above all, I would like to be remembered as a man who was selfless, who strove and worried so that others could share the glory, and who built up a family of people who could hold their heads up high and say 'We're Liverpool'.

Yes, Roger Hunt misses a few, but he gets in the right place to miss them.

I would have played Tom Finney in his overcoat - there would have been four men marking him when we were kickin' in.

One day in 1959, when Huddersfield were playing Cardiff City, Tom (T.V.) Williams, who was then chairman of Liverpool, and Harry Latham, a director, came down the slope at Leeds Road to see me. Mr Williams said, 'How would you like to manage the best club in the country?' 'Why, is Matt Busby packing it up?' I asked.

I never drop a player I only make changes.

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.

We absolutely annihilated England. It was a massacre. We beat them 5-4.

If a player is not interfering with play or seeking to gain an advantage, then he should be.

The difference between Everton and the Queen Mary is that Everton carry more passengers!

Laddie, that man scored 200 goals in 270 matches - an incredible record - and he has won cup after cup as a manager. When he talks, pin back your ears.

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.

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.

Me having no education. I had to use my brains.

The socialism I believe in isn't really politics. It is a way of living. It is humanity. I believe the only way to live and to be truly successful is by collective effort, with everyone working for each other, everyone helping each other, and everyone having a share of the rewards at the end of the day. That might be asking a lot, but it's the way I see football and the way I see life.

A football team is like a piano. You need eight men to carry it and three who can play the damn thing.

If a man….who’s playing in front of the public, is being well paid, and he doesn’t dedicate himself to the job, I’d be hard on him. If I could I would put him in jail, out of the road of society. Because he’s a menace

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.

In my time at Anfield we always said we had the best two teams on Merseyside - Liverpool and Liverpool reserves.

I was only in the game for the love of football -- and I wanted to bring back happiness to the people of Liverpool.

Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don't like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that

Denis, it's you, ... Where have you been? We have been worried about you.

They say Football's a matter of life and death - but it's more important than that

It was the most difficult thing in the world, when I went to tell the chairman. It was like walking to the electric chair. That's the way it felt.