Training ground bans, captaincy revoked - dressing room story of Liverpool's 'meanest' manager

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In the end the chairman, directors and I had gang up on him."Paisley admitted he reluctantly took the job as much to keep the rest of the backroom staff in jobs as much as anything else, with the late Ray Clemence revealing his honesty to the players over his feelings when he first faced them as manager."I think when he first succeeded Shanks, he was a bit overawed," Clemence said. I've got a personal connection on it and I thought Bob Paisley let me down around that time."Fairclough would start and get a winners medal in the following season's European Cup final against Belgian champions FC Bruges at Wembley, although had a transfer request written and ready to hand in if not selected, and would remain at Anfield until 1983, but the fact he only made 154 appearances - scoring 55 goals - in a Reds career lasting eight years spoke volumes about how the 'supersub' tag clung to him."In my early days, it was given as a positive, but it wasn't very long before I was pigeon-holed, and it became all about being more effective in the last 15 minutes," he said."I thought it hampered me in a way that turned out to be negative, the idea that I was unable to stand on my own two feet."Fairclough was critical of Paisley's man-management throughout his book, while also being quick to point to his proven track record of success."People always ask me what Bob Paisley was like, and I couldn't tell them in a few minutes," he wrote.

I don’t want to tarnish Paisley’s name, just give my version of events."I still give Bob lots of credit as he was doing what was right for the club. Both - along with plenty of their team-mates - were fond of enjoying themselves with a few beers which they would more often than not sweat out in training.The pair would occasionally get themselves into some scrapes but an incident which saw them arrested after being caught fighting in a Welsh hotel proved to be the final straw, with Case being sold the summer after playing in the 1981 European Cup final and Kennedy following him out of Anfield the following January.In Kennedy's case, the slight diminishing of his fitness and performances were almost certainly down to the early symptoms of the Parkinson's disease he would be diagnosed with in 1986, but Case would go on to play well into his late 30s and his premature sale would come back to haunt Paisley with the Allerton-born midfielder scoring the goal for Brighton at Anfield which knocked Liverpool out of the FA Cup in his old boss' final season as manager, depriving him of the only major trophy he never got his hands on during his decorated career.That 1981/82 season which saw Case and Kennedy's departure would prove to be one of the most testing of Paisley's career, with poor form in the first half of the season, as he sought to introduce youngsters like Rush, Ronnie Whelan and new goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar, leading to a Boxing Day nadir which saw Manchester City win 3-1 at Anfield to leave Liverpool an unheard-of twelfth in the First Division.Paisley again shook things up by taking the captaincy off Kirkby-born defender Phil Thompson, a figurehead of the backline for much of the previous decade, and handing the armband to midfield general Graeme Souness.It proved a masterstroke as the Reds embarked on a tremendous run in the second half of the season, regaining the league title they had lost the previous year to Aston Villa with victory over Tottenham on the final day of the campaign, having also retained their League Cup with a Wembley win over the same opposition.The ends justified the means but losing the captaincy was devastating to Thompson, who had achieved a lifetime ambition by captaining his boyhood club, that he'd used to watch from the Kop, and had, only six months earlier, lifted the European Cup for, as he revealed years later when discussing a similar situation during his spell as assistant manager to Gerard Houllier that had seen Sami Hyypia replaced as skipper by Steven Gerrard.Paisley had explained his decision in the club programme at the time, saying: "It was a difficult decision to take because Phil has been a first-class captain for the club."My reason for the decision was that I felt Phil had been going through a rough patch playing-wise and I thought the extra responsibility of leading the team was having an effect.""Phil told me he didn't believe his job as a captain had bothered him but I believe it has.

And you know what, when I had time to think about it, I realised he was right.”Souness as captain oversaw Paisley's final season at the helm, with the boss confirming at its outset it would be his last, and cajoled the now 63-year-old to lead the team up the steps at Wembley after the League Cup was won for the third year running following an extra-time victory over Manchester United, with yet another league title already a foregone conclusion.Souness confirmed Paisley's modest demeanour was something he used to his advantage publicly to lull opponents and even some of his players into a false sense of security, and that within the velvet glove there very much existed an iron fist."I was to learn that praise from Bob Paisley was rather like a snowstorm in the Sahara." Souness said. He was a commanding man and there were few who dared mess around with him."If we looked as though we were becoming a little complacent or if we were not performing up to the standard Bob would say, ‘if you have all had enough of winning, come and see me and I will sell the lot of you and buy 11 new players."Paisley's final tally of six league championships, three European Cups, a UEFA Cup, a European Super Cup, three League Cups and six Charity Shields may have been surpassed by other managers since but none of them did it within a timescale of only nine years.While he never truly received the recognition outside Anfield many at Liverpool felt he deserved, his modest outward persona merged perfectly with a confident inner steel and proved a perfect fit for the city in which he became an adopted son, another of his one-liners wryly summing up his contribution after an association with the club which spanned close to half a century."Mind you, I've been here during the bad times too.