Red Or Dead by David Peace

Author:David Peace [Peace, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Published: 2013-08-02T23:00:00+00:00

37. A PARTY OF A NEW TYPE

Two months after Liverpool Football Club had finished fourth in the First Division. Two months after Liverpool Football Club had lost the final of the FA Cup. The chairman, the directors and the manager of Liverpool Football Club held a press conference at Anfield, Liverpool. A press conference to announce changes at Anfield, Liverpool –

Bob Paisley was promoted from senior trainer to assistant manager. Joe Fagan was promoted from reserve-team trainer to first-team trainer. Ronnie Moran was promoted from looking after the junior teams to looking after the reserve team. Tom Saunders was appointed to look after the junior teams and the club’s youth policy. And Reuben Bennett was officially given the role of assessing players recommended by the scouts of Liverpool Football Club and of assessing the opponents of Liverpool Football Club; the job and the title of ‘special duties in conjunction with the manager’ –

And, said Eric Roberts, the new chairman of Liverpool Football Club, Mr Shankly was offered a five-year contract. But Mr Shankly has decided to settle for three years. However, Mr Shankly also knows he has a further option on his contract when this new one expires in May, 1974. Because Mr Shankly knows that the job is his for as long as he wants it. And we hope, and we pray, he will continue to want it for a very, very long, long time …

I have always said, said Bill Shankly, I am happy to go on working here. Here at Anfield, here in Liverpool. Because the happiest and hardest days of my life have been spent here. Here at Anfield, here in Liverpool. Only Celtic and Rangers in their pomp could begin to compare with Liverpool Football Club. But I don’t think I’ll be going back to Scotland. And so I see no reason why I should even think of going to another football club. And so contracts do not matter to me …

And retirement is something I rarely consider. For me, football is my life. Provided I can still do my job satisfactorily and as long as I feel able to carry on. It seems silly to me to say you are such and such an age and therefore you are too old to carry on working and you must retire. It’s that old motto: you are as young as you feel you are. And that will always be one of my yardsticks. And whenever I come round to thinking about retirement, I will base my decision on two things: how I feel. And also my means. Because, basically, any man must go on working until he has earned enough to live independently. A lot of publicity is given to the high salaries to be earned in football. Not only by the players but by the managers. But there is not a lot said about the vast tax that has to be paid. The higher a person’s income, the more severely he is taxed, with surtax and then supertax following the normal levels of income tax.

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