Bob Paisley

Bob Paisley
OBE

Plaque to Paisley at the Anfield gateway named in his honour
Personal information
Full name	Robert Paisley
Date of birth	(1919-01-23)23 January 1919
Place of birth	Hetton-le-Hole, County Durham, England
Date of death	14 February 1996(1996-02-14) (aged 77)
Place of death	Liverpool, England
Position(s)	Left-half
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1937–1939	Bishop Auckland
1939–1954	Liverpool	253	(10)
Managerial career
1959–1973	Liverpool (assistant manager)
1974–1983	Liverpool
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Robert Paisley OBE (23 January 1919 – 14 February 1996) was an English professional football manager and player who played as a wing-half. He spent almost 50 years with Liverpool and is regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time.^[1][2][3] Reluctantly taking the job in 1974, he built on the foundations laid by his predecessor Bill Shankly.^[4] Paisley is the first of four managers to have won the European Cup three times.^[5] He is also one of five managers to have won the English top-flight championship as both a player and manager at the same club.^[6]

Paisley came from a small County Durham mining community and, in his youth, played for Bishop Auckland, before he signed for Liverpool in 1939. During the Second World War he served in the British Army, and could not make his Liverpool debut until 1946. In the 1946–47 season, he was a member of the Liverpool team that won the First Division title for the first time in 24 years. He was made club captain in 1951, and remained with Liverpool until he retired from playing in 1954.

He stayed with the club, and took on the two roles of reserve team coach and club physiotherapist. By this time, Liverpool had been relegated to the Second Division and its facilities were in decline. Shankly was appointed Liverpool manager in December 1959, and he promoted Paisley to work alongside him as his assistant in a management/coaching team that included Joe Fagan and Reuben Bennett. Under their leadership, the fortunes of Liverpool turned around dramatically and, in the 1961–62 season, the team gained promotion back to the First Division. Paisley filled an important role as tactician under Shankly's leadership, and the team won numerous honours during the next twelve seasons.^[7]

In 1974, Shankly retired as manager and, despite Paisley's own initial reluctance, he was appointed as Shankly's successor. He went on to lead Liverpool through a period of domestic and European dominance, winning twenty honours in nine seasons: six League Championships, three League Cups, six Charity Shields, three European Cups, one UEFA Cup and one UEFA Super Cup. He won honours at a rate of 2.2 per season, a rate surpassed only by Pep Guardiola.^[8] At the time of his retirement he had won the Manager of the Year Award a record six times.^[9][10] He retired from management in 1983 and was succeeded by Joe Fagan. He died in 1996, aged 77, after having Alzheimer's disease for several years.