Joe Fagan

Joe Fagan
Personal information
Full name	Joseph Francis Fagan
Date of birth	12 March 1921
Place of birth	Walton, Liverpool, England
Date of death	30 June 2001 (aged 80)
Place of death	Liverpool, England
Position(s)	Right half
Senior career*
Years	Team
1937–1938	Earlestown Bohemians
1938–1951	Manchester City
1951–1953	Nelson
1953–1954	Bradford Park Avenue
1954–1955	Altrincham
Managerial career
1951–1953	Nelson (player-manager)
1983–1985	Liverpool
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Joseph Francis Fagan (12 March 1921 – 30 June 2001) was an English footballer and manager. He was a coach and manager at Liverpool for twenty seven years under Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley. As a manager he was the first English manager to win three major trophies in a single season and is one of only four English managers to win the European cup. He played for Manchester City in the Football League First Division as a wing half. As his playing career came to an end, he decided to become a coach and worked at clubs in lower leagues before getting the chance to join Liverpool in 1958.

From December 1959, he worked with Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley and was highly successful in his coaching of the club's reserve team, being mainly responsible for the development of future star players like Roger Hunt, Ian Callaghan and Tommy Smith. After Shankly retired in 1974, Fagan became assistant manager to Paisley and finally manager himself when Paisley retired in 1983. In his first season, Fagan achieved an unprecedented "treble" as Liverpool won the European Cup, the League Championship and the League Cup. He had decided to retire at the end of his second season but his final match in charge was the 1985 European Cup Final which was the scene of the Heysel Stadium disaster, an event that caused him great distress.

Fagan was an uncomplicated man who believed in the simplicity of football, a devoted family man who preferred to just get on with his job and shun the limelight. He was one of the most respected figures in the game. He and his family lived in the same house not far from Anfield throughout his Liverpool career and afterwards. He died of cancer in 2001, aged eighty.
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