Phil Thompson was bestowed with an honour that solely he can lay declare to and it got here because of years of dedication to a membership that has lengthy been in his coronary heart.
Someplace within the early months of 1970, a younger Phil Thompson is strolling away from Melwood, the soon-to-be iconic coaching base of Liverpool Soccer Membership.
Alongside him is his mom, June, the girl who had launched him to the staff that will finally eat the remainder of his life. They’re on their method into city to fulfill his aunty, however the teenager solely has one factor on his thoughts – will the membership he loves provide him an apprenticeship?
June and her twin sister, Might, have been following the Reds from their seats within the Paddock, simply behind the dugout, because the Fifties. It had been his mom’s affect, not his father’s, that guided her son to his second trial for Bill Shankly‘s Liverpool. Owen Thompson, Phil’s father, was a service provider seaman and sometimes labored away. He was additionally an Evertonian.
The dream begins right here
For Phil, soccer had been the dominant power in his life for so long as he might bear in mind and he was not often seen and not using a soccer in his hand. Born within the Kensington space of the town on January 21, 1954, Thompson was certainly one of seven youngsters. Regardless of his father’s allegiances, he had developed a ardour for Liverpool FC and had already graduated from the Boys’ Pen and was an everyday on the Kop.
In his autobiography, Stand Up Pinnochio, he recollects climbing up a drainpipe to get into the bottom and getting chased by stewards. It had been a proper of passage shared by many children in Liverpool, however quickly he would step down from the steps of that well-known previous terrace and take his place on the pitch alongside most of the males he had worshipped as a fan.
Within the early ’60s, the Liverpool Company started an enormous housing enchancment scheme, and Phil’s household together with many extra moved out of Kensington to locations like Kirkby. For the younger Thompson, Kirkby had two issues going for it. The primary was the River Alt (it could have been simply 4 ft vast and doubtless simply as deep) however so far as he and the household have been involved that they had moved to the ‘seaside’. The opposite promoting level was the truth that the brand new household dwelling backed onto a enjoying area.
He would spend each obtainable hour on it, kicking a soccer, or enjoying video games of S.P.O.T. in opposition to the entrance wall of his household dwelling. The sport was a easy one, you hit the ball in opposition to a chosen spot, and in case you missed you got the primary letter of that phrase. You have been out when you had acquired all 4 letters. These 1000’s of follow hours little question helped him on the street to knowledgeable profession, which might truly begin with an invitation to coach with Everton, a suggestion he accepted regardless that he would later say it felt like “a betrayal.”
It might be whereas enjoying for St Joseph’s, a neighborhood Sunday League aspect, that Thompson was dropped at the eye of Shankly’s Liverpool. The staff’s supervisor, Jimmy Gamble, was a steward at Anfield and he had invited one of many membership’s scouts to come back and watch Phil in a recreation, an invitation to coach with the membership on Tuesdays and Thursdays would quickly comply with.
At Anfield, Phil was below the tutelage of the likes of Reuben Bennett, legendary membership stalwart George Patterson and Tom Bush. His first trial would finish in heartbreak when the membership didn’t take him on. Nevertheless, there could be a glimmer of hope and an invitation to return for a second trial in pre-season.
He felt the trial had gone effectively however had been given no indication from Bush that he could be signing papers. Together with his father away at sea, Phil turned to his mom and pleaded along with her to search out out if his dream would lastly be realised or not.
As they strolled alongside Melwood Drive towards the bus cease on Mill Street, previous a patch of land that will later be named the ‘Bill Shankly Enjoying Fields’, Thompson’s mom might resist her son’s pleas no extra. She turned to him and swore him to secrecy. Bush had advised her that a suggestion of an apprenticeship could be made the next day. The teenager might hardly consider it and instantly started dancing and shouting with pleasure.
He would throw himself into life at Anfield, giving all the things in coaching, whereas off the sector he would polish the professionals’ boots and clear up across the floor. This was a dream come true and he wasn’t going to let it slip from his grasp and not using a combat.
Thommo and Shankly
Quickly he could be approaching his seventeenth birthday, a tense time for apprentices. Nerves would begin to kick in and sleepless nights would comply with. Was the membership about to crush his dream by reducing him free, or was his life about to vary eternally with the provide of knowledgeable contract? The reply got here one afternoon at Melwood when none aside from Shankly himself approached him.
The nice man would enquire if the teenager had been sleeping and consuming effectively, then merely introduced that the membership have been happy along with his efforts, and he’d offer Phil knowledgeable contract on his seventeenth birthday. He would earn £7 every week.
For such a momentous second to reach in such a matter-of-fact method should have felt surreal, however he had, eventually, made the step he had all the time dreamed of. Thompson has usually spoken of his deep admiration for Shankly. The person was like a God to him. A lot in order that he cherished each dialog with the Scot, even those the place he was the butt of the joke.
Shankly as soon as remarked upon eyeing the teenager’s quite massive nostril, “Christ son, you should have advised a whole lot of lies as a child.” In one other barb, the legendary supervisor would quip that Thompson “had a toss-up with a sparrow for a pair of legs and misplaced.” The latter was a reference to Phil’s gangly body and the teenager was more than pleased to be attracting any form of consideration from the boss, even when it was at his expense.
Thompson could be within the travelling get together, on the street to Wembley, because the Reds bought set to tackle Arsenal within the 1971 FA Cup closing. He would watch from the balcony of the previous stadium and sobbed his coronary heart out when his beloved Reds misplaced the sport. This was a Kopite enjoying for the staff he adored, and he would endure that defeat alongside his fellow supporters.
Thompson made his skilled debut in a 3-0 win over Man United at Previous Trafford in January 1972, virtually three weeks earlier than his 18th birthday. With the sport heading into the final 10 minutes, and the Reds 2-0 up because of second-half objectives from Chris Lawler and John Toshack, Shankly determined to take off his Welsh hitman and provides a run out to his Scouse protege.
Inside three minutes, Emlyn Hughes had made it 3-0. Making your skilled debut in a 3-0 win away to United can’t be dangerous, however for Phil, this was solely the start.
Thompson by no means lacked confidence, he was a perfectionist and could be livid with himself if issues didn’t go his method.
He would famously stroll into Shankly’s workplace after the supervisor had dropped him from a recreation, and requested him, “Why didn’t you choose me, boss?” The supervisor regarded him up and down, little question admiring the teenager’s pluck, and stated:
“Son, you’ll play many video games for this membership, for a few years to come back. Someday you’ll captain this membership. I wouldn’t even be shocked in case you captained your nation. It is best to thank me for dropping you on Saturday.”
From pitch to backroom
Shankly’s phrases would show prophetic. Phil Thompson would certainly captain the membership. He would go on to play 477 occasions for Liverpool, scoring 13 occasions and gathering seven league titles, two FA Cups, two League Cups, two European Cups and two UEFA Cups. He would additionally serve the membership in assistant and caretaker supervisor roles.
Thommo could be a key backroom determine within the all-conquering Kenny Dalglish sides of the Nineteen Eighties and could be controversially sacked by Souness in 1992. He was additionally one of many architects of the 2001 treble season as Gerard Houllier’s assistant. It was, in fact, Thompson who led the staff for six months throughout Frenchman’s sickness the next season, serving to the Reds to a second-place end within the course of.
Above all he knew precisely what it meant to characterize the Kop, he as soon as referred to the terrace as his “pleasure and pleasure,” and he by no means allowed himself to present something lower than his all, in a Reds shirt or as a part of the backroom workers. That meant he couldn’t tolerate second-best from any participant in a purple shirt.
It might make him a tricky and generally unforgiving coach, a truth that after put him at loggerheads with a younger Robbie Fowler. A battle that resulted in a coaching floor bust-up, and a really public stand-off between the 2.
Fowler would go on to say that a whole lot of younger gamers despised Thompson for his hard-line angle to teaching. He would usually deal with dissent by demanding that the younger upstart put their medals on the desk, stating “let’s see who is aware of greatest.”
No person might query Thompson’s profession although. In spite of everything, none aside from Bob Paisley would have this to say of him:
“I regard Phil as the most effective attainable examples of a real skilled. His best asset as a participant is his skill to learn the sport, he confirmed that present at the same time as a youngster.
“He isn’t the most important man bodily for his function in defence however his soccer mind is excellent.”
A primary with ‘Ol Massive Ears
After making his debut in 1972, Thompson would change into a league champion and UEFA Cup winner, earlier than being handed the duty of dealing with Newcastle‘s Malcolm Macdonald within the 1974 FA Cup Remaining.
‘Tremendous Mac’, as he was referred to as within the North East, and by Fleet Road, had famously boasted about how he would destroy Liverpool at Wembley within the run-up to the sport. Hindsight would show his phrases to be foolhardy, however when he should have rubbed his arms with glee upon realising that he was up in opposition to a spindly 20-year-old within the Reds’ defence.
Thompson completed the sport with the Newcastle man in his again pocket and would flip in a show of defensive solidity and composure that earned him many plaudits. His efficiency could be the cornerstone of Liverpool’s 3-0 demolition of the Geordies and helped to safe the membership’s second FA Cup.
Phil’s checklist of magical moments is nearly so long as his trophy haul. He maintains that changing into a Liverpool participant is his best achievement and, after that, captaining the membership. That honour would finally be bestowed upon him within the 1978/79 season.
That 12 months Emlyn Hughes’ powers have been starting to wane, and he was struggling to carry down an everyday beginning place. At one level Dalglish could be handed the captaincy within the absence of Hughes, who had succumbed to damage. It was an concept that brought on consternation amongst gamers like Terry McDermott and Phil Neal.
In line with his autobiography, Thompson admits he couldn’t perceive it and commenced to doubt himself. It was frequent for the captain to be a defender, and with Thompson a neighborhood lad who had been an virtually ever-present, he felt this could have been his time.
Finally, although, he would get to put on the armband with pleasure as he had all the time dreamed. With Liverpool getting ready to face Arsenal in a house recreation in April 1979, Paisley would ask him to guide the staff out. He by no means regarded again. With the Reds pursuing the title, this was an amazing honour and Phil wouldn’t let the staff down within the end-of-season run-in.
Reds of a sure classic will bear in mind how Thompson would drink champagne on the Anfield pitch after Liverpool had secured their eleventh league championship, following a 3-0 victory over Aston Villa in 1979. It might be his fourth league winner’s medal since breaking into the staff simply seven years earlier. He would inform the Liverpool ECHO, on the evening:
“For me, a boy from the Kop, to guide Liverpool out, on the evening they received the title, at Anfield, was a superb feeling.”
Issues have been destined to get even higher although for the lad from the Kop. Beneath his captaincy, the staff would retain the league title in 1980. Then, in 1981, Thompson would do the footballing equal of ascending the steps to heaven.
Although his beloved Liverpool had completed a distant fifth within the league and been dumped out of the FA Cup within the fourth spherical, he had led them to a League Cup win with victory over West Ham. However the perfect was but to come back.
Liverpool had reached their third European Cup Remaining in 4 seasons. The stage could be Paris and the opponents have been the mighty Actual Madrid. Thompson now had the possibility to change into the primary Scouser to elevate the most important trophy in European soccer.
In reality, it wasn’t the best recreation within the historical past of the competitors. The Reds laboured to a 1-0 win because of an iconic objective from left-back Alan Kennedy. That didn’t matter to Tommo although, as he proudly hoisted ‘previous huge ears’ aloft within the Parc des Princes on Might 27 1981, as captain of the staff he grew up supporting.
Others would comply with; Dennis Mortimer, a boy from Liverpool, would elevate it in 1982 for Aston Villa. In 2005, Huyton-born Steven Gerrard joined the unique membership by captaining Liverpool to their fifth European Cup in Istanbul.
Nevertheless, the honour of being the primary Scouser to elevate the most important prize as captain will all the time belong to Kirkby’s Phil Thompson.
