Bill Shankly - Management Career

Management Career

Shankly wrote in his autobiography that he had long prepared himself "for the day when I would become a football manager". He pointed out that he had absorbed all the coaching systems with any useful qualifications and had full confidence in his ability and in himself to be a leader. For him, he had done the hard work and "it was simply a question of an opportunity presenting itself". Shankly summed up the essential criteria for success in football management when he said: "I could speak common sense about the game and I could spot a player". In terms of the latter criterion, he always applied "the same basic formula" in that, first and foremost, the player must have both ability and courage. Other attributes were physical fitness and willingness to work, especially to struggle against the odds.