Ian Callaghan talks
EXCLUSIVELY
to shankly.com
| Ian Callaghan stands alone as Liverpool's greatest ever servant. His record 856 appearances is never likely to be challenged. Here he talks exclusively to shankly.com about the invaluable advice given to him by Bill Shankly, his World Cup adventure and that famous Gary Sprake own goal ! |
place to start when dealing with the remarkable playing record of Liverpool's most battle hardened servant of all time. Yet Ian Callaghan will admit with an indifferent shrug to not really knowing how many games he played throughout an illustrious career that ran on and on, even after he finally left his home town club in 1978. A Liverpool player for over twenty years Ian Callaghan saw the lot, from Arsenal to Aldershot, from the old Second Division to the European Cup. So, are you sitting comfortably ? Then we'll begin. 1 Second Division title, 5 League Championships, 2 F.A. Cups, 2 U.E.F.A. Cups, 1 European Cup, 1974 Football Writer's Footballer of the Year. 856 first class matches for Liverpool, 69 goals, 87 matches for Swansea, 17 for Crewe, 4 England caps, 4 Under 23 honours. A grand total of 968 games and 70 goals spread over three decades from the 1960s to the 1980s. Oh, and throw in the small matter of being a key member of England's World Cup winning squad of 1966 and you can see it adds up to quite a career. Inevitably perhaps, it's Cally's appearance record for Liverpool that he is most recognised for. In an era when Liverpool players were collecting medals like Steve Redgrave at the local regatta, Callaghan's astonishing appearance record for the club is the one thing that sets him apart from his peers. Furthermore, it's a record Callaghan himself sees as one that will stand the test of time."I can't see it being broken", he says simply. "Players don't stay that long these days, it's different now with the transfer system we have. You can't see players getting in the team as a seventeen year old and staying there for eighteen years and not missing many games. The game has got quicker and players make contact at greater speed." Typical of the man, there is no arrogance or crowing in his assessment. Just plain logic. The different demands of today's game coupled with the more liberated 'hired gun' approach of it's stars make his record virtually untouchable. 
Ian Callaghan holds another sobering distinction too. He is the only Liverpool player whose career at Anfield spanned that of Bill Shankly. "I was only a kid when he came and I can't say I knew much about him. He made an immediate impression at the club though and the best advice he gave me was to say 'You get out of the game what you put in'. It worked for me." Simple counsel perhaps, but Callaghan's adherence to it was to bring him career long recognition as an industrious hard working midfielder. "Right from the start I liked the man, his honesty, his enthusiasm, and of course, things started to move at Liverpool." 
Born and raised in Toxteth, Ian Callaghan could imagine himself becoming nothing other than a footballer. "Everton were the glamour club back then, they had a much better stadium and I had a chance to go to them, but I was a Liverpool supporter and signing for them appealed to me more. The fact that two of my heroes, Alan A'Court and the great Billy Liddell were here made it easy for me to sign." In a remarkable twist of fate, the seventeen year old Callaghan was destined to take the place of Liddell on the right wing. "Yeah, it's incredible to think that I replaced him. The club used to be called 'Liddellpool' in the 1950s, which shows you just how much he was respected. In my opinion Liddell, Kevin Keegan and Kenny Dalglish were the three best Liverpool players ever, but I would put Billy ahead of the other two as the greatest." In an era of small squads, when substitutes were not even allowed, a place in the first team was everything. Once he established himself during the promotion push in 1960-61, Ian Callaghan clung onto his place with both hands. "I would have hated squad systems. Young English lads don't get the chances we had. There are far too many foreigners in our game these days. In my time you were given four or five games to prove yourself but nowadays, unless a youngster is absolutely outstanding, he gets very few chances." Ironically, given his dislike of today's squad systems, one of Callaghan's proudest achievements arrived in 1966, when he was named, alongside Liverpool team mates Roger Hunt and Gerry Byrne, in Alf Ramsey's England World Cup twenty-two. "We all felt part of it. The team spirit throughout the tournament was first class." Callaghan actually played in the final group match against France, helping England to a 2-0 win at Wembley. "Alf took me to one side afterwards and explained that he wanted to play without wingers from then on in. You couldn't really argue with it because we won the tournament of course. To have played and worked with Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton and all those guys was a fantastic experience. Even now, we all still keep in touch and have regular get togethers." 
The eleven players who went on to tackle the West Germans in the final are, to this day, household names in England. The other eleven members of the squad are less well remembered. So, step forward and take a bow; Callaghan, Byrne, Ron Springett, Peter Bonetti, Ron Flowers, Jimmy Armfield, Norman Hunter, George Eastham, John Connelly, Terry Paine and Jimmy Greaves. Heroes one and all. After a very short summer break, messers Callaghan, Hunt and Byrne reported back to Anfield for the start of the '66-'67 season. "Shanks was really proud of us. He was made up that his players had won the World Cup." However, with typical comedic undertones, an outraged Bill Shankly threatened to sue Alf Ramsey for returning his players in poor condition. Hunt, in particular, was unsurprisingly lethargic after the Wembley dramas of the the previous weeks "There was humour without him knowing it. He didn't say things because he thought they were funny. They were funny to us, and we would all have a laugh at the things he said but we would never ever laugh at him or in his presence. We just believed in him and he commanded total respect from us. It was like a school kid and headmaster relationship that you had with him." 
Billy Liddell - The greatest ever ? The winning of the World Cup capped a magnificent three years for Ian Callaghan. Shankly's Liverpool had captured the league title in '64, the F.A. Cup for the first time ever in '65 and taken the league title again in the spring of '66. At the Charity Shield match between Everton and Liverpool, played at Goodison Park in August 1966, Liverpool and Everton between them paraded the First Division Championship trophy ( Liverpool ), the F.A. Cup ( Everton ) and the Jules Rimet World Cup ( paraded jointly by Hunt and Everton's Ramon Wilson ). It was an astonishing array of silverware and that one afternoon symbolised more than anything else the city of Liverpool's place at the forefront of English football in the mid 1960s. |
After usurping Everton as the major force on Merseyside, Shankly's Liverpool had now stamped their presence nationally. To those who witnessed it, the years between 1963 and 1966 were the greatest in the club's history. Shankly had the team ticking over like a well oiled machine. "He never gave me any special instructions. It got to the point where we all played that much together that we all knew what we had to do. Maybe in particular games, say against United, he would tell me to try and stop Bobby Charlton's feed, but that was an isolated thing really. He normally just wanted the opposition to worry about Liverpool." "Liverpool was certainly the place to be at that time. The city was buzzing and the whole Beatles thing was going on." The Kop of course, had become famous too by this time and Ian Callaghan was often amazed to hear the chants and songs spring up seemingly spontaneously from the terraces. The classic example was the famous Gary Sprake incident, when the hapless Leeds United keeper threw the ball into his own net. It was a moment Ian Callaghan actually had a direct role in. "Gary went to throw the ball out to their left back, a guy called Willie Bell, and Gary saw me move up closer to Bell in anticipation. He half changed his mind and ended up bringing his arm right round and throwing the ball straight into the Kop goal. We didn't even realise at first that it was a goal. Anyway, the next thing, the Kop start singing 'Careless Hands'." ( a Des O'Connor chart topper of the time - no really ! ). The incident immediately became part of Kop folklore. 
"They used to say the Kop was worth a goal start but I don't know about that ! I'd sooner take a goal any day, but they used to frighten the life out of the opposition that's for sure." If the Kop fulfilled a role at Anfield for Liverpool the boot was certainly on the other foot the day Shankly's side invaded the San Siro stadium in Milan to play the second leg of a European Cup semi final against Internationale. "It was the most threatening environment I've ever been in. They had banners saying we were on drugs and stuff like that." Liverpool had gone there with a hugely impressive 3-1 advantage from the first leg at Anfield. "What made the night at Anfield was Liverpool winning the F.A. Cup on the Saturday before. It must have been an awful match to watch but from a personal point of view that cup final was special for me because it was the first time I'd played at Wembley and I crossed the ball for Ian St.John to score the winner. Playing Milan afterwards at Anfield - well the atmosphere was electric. They had some magnificent players. There was a guy called Luis Suarez and another who I really admired was my direct opponent Facchetti." The disappointment of the second leg ( Milan won 3-0 ) was made more so by the revelation, years later, that the poor refereeing that night owed much to the bribing of the match officials. "It was one of those things. Let's just say we were never going to win the match." 
As Shankly's great sixties side slowly waned and the fans waited patiently for the phoenix to rise again, Callaghan suffered his first major long term injury. "I was an outside right until 1970 when I got my cartilege injury. I lost my place to John McLaughlin and then Brian Hall. When I got back I was put in central midfield and I probably enjoyed playing there more than when I was on the wing. I probably got more recognition playing in that role." Slowly at first, and then with dramatic speed, Shankly's Liverpool Mark II was born. "Kevin Keegan was signed and made an unbelievable impact. He was the first superstar that Liverpool had. Kevin was a great player for Liverpool and I've nothing but admiration for him." Magical European nights became the norm at Anfield, as first Shankly, then Bob Paisley and then Joe Fagan led Liverpool to the heights of club success at home and abroad. "The night against Milan and the time we played the French side St. Etienne ( 1977 ) where the two most incredible nights I experienced at Anfield. To be honest, it was only a few years ago that I realised how good a goal it was that Davey Fairclough scored that night against Etienne, considering how young he was at the time." For Ian Callaghan, the charge to the European Cup final in 1977 owed much to Shankly. "It was such a big difference to go and play a European match and we became a seasoned European club through Shanks." The epic against the French champions, beaten in the previous season's final, was the moment when Shankly's dream of Liverpool becoming European champions really began to take shape. Shankly had long retired by then, of course, but it was his blueprint that Bob Paisley was working to, the blueprint laid down in the confines of the boot room and on the fields of Melwood. 
Ian Callaghan holds aloft his 1974 Footballer Of The Year Award "Liverpool wouldn't be the club it is today without Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley and the players who played there. When I first went there it was a typical Second Division ground and look at it now ! I feel proud that I was part of it all. To be in the promotion side of '61-'62 then to go on and win the European Cup in 1977 has been a marvellous experience. In my opinion I've played for the best club ever. The nice thing is that through the old boys club we've set up we all still get together and meet and we've all stayed the best of friends." At the end of the 1977-78 season, Callaghan set his sights further afield. After a magnificent Anfield career, the writing was on the wall as far as his first team opportunities were concerned. "Bob had bought Graeme Souness and he told me that he wanted to use me to bring the kids on in the reserves. I still felt I had more to offer than that so I went off on loan to Fort Lauderdale in the U.S.A. I was out there for about five months because we got to the semi final of the play offs. Banksie was in goal and after I arrived George Best joined us too. I roomed with George and it was another great privilege to spend time with him out there when he was still relatively young. Then I got a call from Tosh who was at Swansea." 
Callaghan joined up with old pals Tommy Smith and John Toshack at the Vetch and played his part in another equally spectacular meteoric rise. Swansea went from the old Division Four to Division one in Five seasons. "I was there for eighteen months and was part of the side that went from Division Three to Division Two." A further six months at Crewe under Arffon Griffiths was brought to an end after Callaghan suffered an achilles problem. He finally hung up his boots in 1981. So what of today's Liverpool ? It's clear Callaghan is still passionately fond of his old club though he fears for the future of English born players in the midst of today's foreign invasion. "I would question the quality of a lot of the foreign players. If you look at Liverpool now, the best players they have are still the local lads, like Fowler and Owen. Going back to the '80s you had Rushy too who was unbelievable. Any of those players would have walked in to our teams in the '60s and '70s. They would have walked into any team." It may be said with equal certainty too, that Ian Callaghan would have walked in to any side of his choosing. We would never expect him to acknowledge such a truth as his own personal modesty would make him baulk at the thought. Suffice to leave the final words to Mr. Bill Shankly himself... 'Ian Callaghan is everything good that a man can be. No praise is too high for him. Words cannot do justice to the amount he has contributed to the game. Ian Callaghan will go down as one of the game's truly great players.' Now that Shankly bloke wasn't a bad judge of a player was he ? © Spion Ltd November 2000 |
The Saint scores from Cally's cross and the cup comes back to Anfield
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