I reckon it's Gordon Milne, whose autobiography is just out. The title is 'Shankly, My Dad and Me', which is itself instructive. He had an incredibly distinguished career, but it's Shanks who gets top billing.
I've been speaking to Gordon this week, and I'll put the results of that interview on here shortly. As a taster for that, here's a brief run through of the highlights of that amazing career as a player and manager. After that, a brief chat with Steve Younger, who helped Gordon write the book.
1) England v Brazil, Wembley 1963.
We'll start with his England debut. Let's freeze the action just 12 seconds into the game. Bobby Charlton is in possession wide on the left, and that man with his hands in the air, keen to get his first touch in international football, is Gordon Milne of Liverpool. Bobby decides to give him the ball.
Look at what happened next - his first three touches in an England shirt:
Had the shot gone in, it would have been the most sensational start to any England career.
That was the first England XI chosen by Alf Ramsey. Milne was his type of player - a man who plays for the team, a hard worker (notice how quickly he tried to get back in position when the Brazilian keeper saved that shot), but with the technical ability to perform at the top level. After this impressive debut (it finished 1-1), he became a regular, winning 14 caps in the next year and a half. He must have been dreaming of glory in 1966.
But it didn't happen. Players such as Alan Ball and Martin Peters moved ahead of him, and like Paul Gascoigne in 1998, he suffered the heartbreak of being one of those chosen for the pre-tournament squad but left out of the final 22.
Is it any consolation that he later enjoyed a more successful managerial career than any of the 22 players Ramsey selected?
2) April 3rd 1974
Alf Ramsey's last game as England manager finishes in a dull goalless draw in Portugal. What should have been vital preparation for the World Cup Finals in West Germany was in the end just a meaningless friendly. We'd been knocked out in the qualifiers by Poland. At the end of the month, Ramsey was sacked.
Who would replace him?
The bookies had Coventry boss Milne and Ipswich's Bobby Robson as joint favourites to take over (with Clough fancied to take over at Villa Park). It was later revealed that Milne (but not Robson) was indeed on a shortlist drawn up by the FA - along with Leicester City's Jimmy Bloomfield. But when Revie threw his hat in the ring, it was he that the FA turned to, and Milne stayed at Highfield Road.
Let's go back and see how his managerial career began, at the start of the 70s:
3) June 5th 1971
It's the Football League's AGM, and Wigan Athletic are waiting to discover their fate. Milne had taken over at the ambitious non-League club a year earlier, and had already enjoyed spectacular success, taking them to the Northern Premier League title. Their dream was to enter the Football League, but there was no automatic promotion then. It all depended on the vote at the AGM. The previous season, Bradford Park Avenue had been the first club voted out in a decade - replaced by Cambridge United, who employed a PR company to devise a slick campaign to gather the necessary votes. This year, Wigan decided to employ the same company.
It all went disastrously wrong.
They had been promised 35 votes, which would have got them in. But when Len Shipman, Football League President and Chairman of Leicester City, announced the results, there was astonishment from the Wigan party. They received the support of just 14 clubs. What on earth had happened?
Prior to the vote, the PR company had arranged for an expensive Parker pen to be presented to representatives of each of the Football League clubs. According to newspaper reports at the time, this backfired spectacularly, taken as a crass gesture, akin to bribery.
Gordon Milne was stranded in non-League football. But the following season, success in his other job, manager of the England Youth team, got him his position in the First Division at Coventry (see previous thread about the Wallace/Milne connection).
Here he is at the time of his appointment - not the highest quality photo, but it captures a young, suave and successful Gordon, looking for all the world as though he's about to announce his candidacy for Presidency of the United States,
4) March 28th 1964
Gordon had played for three clubs before taking over at Wigan - Preston, Liverpool and Blackpool. When asked about the most memorable games of that career, he would point to Easter 1964, and a key game at Filbert Street.
Under Bill Shankly, Liverpool were chasing their first title in almost two decades. Three games in four days, from Good Friday to Easter Monday, would be decisive:
Tottenham (a) April 27th
Leicester (a) April 28th
Tottenham (h) April 30th
Tottenham were chasing the title too - they didn''t come this close again until 2015/16. Liverpool got a crucial 2-0 win at White Hart Lane, but Gordon Milne picked up an injury and was doubtful for the game at Filbert Street 24 hours later. Trainer Bob Paisley worked furiously on the injury when they arrived that evening at their hotel in Leicester.
Also in the city that evening were Liverpool fans who'd arrived early, desperate not to miss the game. Some of them broke into the ground overnight with tins of red paint, and when the groundsman turned up first thing next morning, he found red goal posts, and LFC graffiti at the back of the Main Stand Enclosure:
The graffiti was removed in time for the game, but as the Mercury reported, the goalposts still had a 'pinkish hue'.
Milne was declared fit, and he played a key role in Liverpool's 2-0 win that kept them on course. Here he is, centre of shot, celebrating the second goal:
Two days later Liverpool completed a perfect Easter, beating Spurs at Anfield to condemn them to decades of also-ran status, and a few days later Liverpool clinched the title to kick off the Reds' dominance of the next 25 years.
5) April 30th 1965
A year later and Liverpool are in the FA Cup Final v Leeds United, looking to break the spell and bring the trophy to Anfield for the very first time. For Milne, it''s a chance to claim the winners' medal that eluded his father Jimmy in 1938 when he missed Preston's triumph due to injury.
But incredibly, Gordon suffered the same heartbreak, injured against Chelsea just two weeks before the big game. This photo says everything - taken the day before the final as his teammates get the feel of the Wembley turf.
6) Autumn 1977
Anyone remember Brian Clough's message to Forest fans before a match at the City Ground?
This was actually a two-man campaign. A few days later, Gordon Milne made this appeal to Coventry City fans:
At Highfield Road two days later, Coventry beat West Ham 1-0 and fans sang 'We are not allowed to swear' (to the tune of 'Bread of Heaven' - you know - the 'we'll support you evermore' melody), and also sang 'you're a bounder, you're a bounder, you're a bounder referee!' and 'What the flip, what the flip, what the flippin hell was that?'
And we can't leave Gordon's Coventry years without a quick mention of this notorious moment four seasons later when Clive Allen's shot came back off the stanchion at the back of the net:
Wonderful line that from Terry Venables: 'If the ref's saying we've got to hit some particular part of the net to get a goal....' Milne was sympathetic, 'I have no doubt it was a goal', he said.
7) Gordon Milne and Terry Venables, in opposition here too - at the top of this list:
What's that stat about? Several bonus points for anyone who can guess the answer before I tell you.
The presence of Jock there is a pretty big clue.
OK - it's the managers Gary Lineker scored most goals for, whether for club or county.
Gordon's glorious first season at Filbert Street was covered recently on here, and there'll be more Leicester talk in the forthcoming interview. For the time being, here's the day he joined the club - saying farewell to players at Coventry, then shaking hands with Terry Shipman (eleven years after the Parker pens incident with father Len).
The presence of Tommy English in the top picture is ominous.
8) Besiktas May 1990
Gordon moved to Istanbul just after his 50th birthday, and enjoyed six years of remarkable achievement. Look at the reception the players get on the day they won the title - the first of three in a row under Gordon's guidance.
Gordon has god-like status among Besiktas fans, and I hope the book will bolster his legacy in this country - not least among Leicester fans.
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