Robinson: Shankly had to rip-up rule book

IAN ST JOHN stood five feet seven-and-a-half inches small in his stockinged feet. Kevin Keegan was barely half an inch taller, while Ian Callaghan was never going to audition for a part in Land of the Giants - and all three are Anfield icons.

Yet none might have signed for Liverpool but for Bill Shankly's insistence in sweeping away the outdated rules and boardroom practices which were suffocating the club in the 1950s.

Peter Robinson is recognised as one of Anfield's greatest administrators, having served as club secretary, chief executive and vice-chairman - and for more than a decade he was Shankly's closest confidant at Anfield. And the pair were totally bemused by the level of bureaucracy which hindered progress while Shankly was trying to construct his "bastion of invincibility."

"I think Bill was the right man for the time because the club certainly needed changing, explained Robinson.

"There was a minute in the boardroom minutes book that staggered me. It recommended that Liverpool shouldn't pay more than £12,000 for any player, and if you bear in mind the going rate for any top player in the late 50s was well above that, Liverpool were getting what they were paying for.

"There was also a minute which stated every player should be seen by at least two directors before he was signed and, if possible, they should be in excess of six feet tall.

"Obviously Bill changed all that. We paid £37,500 for Ian St John and £22,000 for Ron Yeats. Under the previous regime they simply wouldn't have been bought."

While Shankly was the wind of change, he had an able and ambitious ally on the board in the shape of Eric Sawyer. His presence, Robinson believes, was vital in helping Shankly shape the club.

"Eric Sawyer came at the same time as Bill and was appointed managing director," he explained.

"John Moores did have great interest in both clubs, and he persuaded the Liverpool directors to put Eric Sawyer on the board. He knew the club needed change. He came on board with a totally different outlook.

"It was a partnership. Eric was a brilliant businessman. He was the man who built the Littlewoods empire into what it became - and as well as rebuilding the team, they started to rebuild the ground."

Sawyer, Shankly and Robinson were the visionaries who helped transform Liverpool. Robinson arrived when the club had already been crowned league champions and remembers his first official meeting with the manager clearly.

"I had been on nodding terms with him before, because I'd worked in football for several years. When I arrived I was greeted by two or three directors who spent two hours introducing me to the club, with Bill lurking in the background.

"As soon as they went he took me down to his office where I then spent another two hours with him telling me how I had joined the best club in the world.

"He then went through what he thought about every director!

"I saw him every morning, because the players would change at Anfield then get a coach to Melwood. Then he would have half-an-hour after training with me over a cup of tea, then I would probably get a phone call two or three times every night."

Robinson's closeness to Shankly meant he was charged with trying to change Shankly's mind when he delivered a bombshell which shook Anfield to its foundations in 1974.

"I was in my office when he came in to tell me he wanted to resign. I phoned the chairman, people came to talk to him and I made a final effort.

"I think I was as close as anyone to him and I tried desperately to get him to change his mind.

"I spent hours with him trying to get him to reconsider. I knew I could persuade the directors to offer him any position he wanted at the club if he stayed, and I told him he could have any title he wanted if he would just agree to stay.

"Other people at the club, like Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan felt exactly the same, but he just would not change his mind.

"He did make a mistake. I told him he was going to miss it and he did, but we need to take into account how difficult it was managing a football club then compared to now.

"Clubs were very much director-run.

"There was a weekly board meeting attended by nine directors where Bill had to come and give a written report on the first, second, third and fourth teams, then give a verbal report with directors asking all sorts of silly questions.

"I don't think Rafa Benitez has ever sat down with the full Liverpool board!

"Because the directors changed every three years it was difficult for Bill to build any kind of rapport with them and he hated those meetings.

"He would have to tell them of his plans and there would be leaks to the press about players he wanted to sign.

"I used to tell him 'if you dislike these meetings so much why don't you find a match to go to when they're held?'

"Gradually he would start attending them fortnightly and then monthly. And I can't tell you how many times I covered for him."

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