Summary
Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts champions the life of Liverpool’s football manager Bill Shankly.
In the 1960s, Bill Shankley took his team from division two to become one of the world's greatest sides.
Famous for his quip that "football is not a matter of life and death, it's much more important than that", Shankly lived and breathed football; but in his later years he felt that the Liverpool managers had frozen him out of the side he had nurtured, and betrayed him.
Shankly came from humble beginnings. After school he worked down the local coal mine until the pit was closed. He never became rich and lived in a modest semi-detached house where Liverpool fans were always welcome.
His life was a far cry from that of today's top managers, but through his canny playing of the transfer market, did he anticipate their methods?
Matthew Parris chairs the discussion, with the aid of Shankly biographer Stephen Kelly.
Producer: Jolyon Jenkins
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2013.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Once you've wrapped up this podcast, how about trying a very British cult? |
| 0:06.0 | What happens if the person you trust with your future isn't what you think they are? |
| 0:10.0 | I did feel the whole time he was watching me Yeti. I saw a footprint and that really gave me gusmas. |
| 0:16.4 | Or people who knew me. Emme, I remember every secret, every lie. I'm the only one who knows the truth. |
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| 0:29.0 | Great Lives is a download from Radio 4. |
| 0:32.0 | We hope you enjoy what you're about to hear. |
| 0:36.4 | This week we're talking about a footballing legend. As a football manager, |
| 0:40.8 | he became a folk hero. He was a Scott, but the city that took him to its heart was |
| 0:45.8 | Liverpool. He was Bill Shankly, who managed the club from 1959 to 1974. And my guest who's chosen him is Justine Roberts, the co-founder of Mumsnet. |
| 0:58.4 | Justine, I was fumbling for a phrase to describe M's net. Would parenting discussion website be accurate? |
| 1:05.8 | No, I don't think so because there's a lot more discussion than just about parenting. |
| 1:10.8 | In fact, parenting seems to be a minority of what gets discussed. |
| 1:14.7 | So I think an online network for parents would be how I would describe it. |
| 1:20.8 | When did Bill Shankly become a hero in your life? |
| 1:25.0 | I was about six I think, five or six when I first started following Liverpool and became very passionate. |
| 1:31.0 | And it was very odd considering where I lived. I lived in Surrey and my family was not really |
| 1:38.6 | a football family at all, but I became very, very passionate and slightly obsessed and I would keep every single score and every single score in a little book |
| 1:47.6 | Yeah, and I would go to school with my Liverpool bag and my Liverpool pencil case and everyone thought I was quite old. My love of |
| 1:55.1 | Liverpool started pretty much at the end of Bill Shankly's rain but it became |
| 1:59.7 | obvious to me that he had created something and all the success Liverpool enjoyed later |
... |
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