Bob Paisley Biography; The Most Successful English Manager in History

Playing his entire career as a defender for Liverpool from 1939–1954, Bob Paisley life story narrates him staying at Liverpool, initially taking a role as a self-taught physiotherapist and then as chief coach to Bill Shankly, who reshaped Liverpool into a giant club in England, until he took over from the great Bill Shankly, who retired following the 1974 FA Cup Final victory. Far from suffering in comparison to his predecessor, Paisley led the club to almost unimaginable levels of glory, literally conquering all the Europe.

The great

is credited with turning Liverpool's fortunes around throughout the 60s and early 70s, and deservedly so. He took a team floundering in the second division, and returned them to the top of English football, aiming the bow for a period of unparalleled success until he surprisingly retired in 1974.

But the man who was chosen to fill the large boots of one of the greatest ever, represents the greatest managerial appointment in the history of football. The man who had gates erected in his name at Anfield alongside those built in Shankly's honor, Bob Paisley.

All You Need to Know About Bob Paisley Biography

Although Paisley’s quiet, humble personality makes him less remembered as fondly as Shankly, or another countryman in

. But either man would happily tell you that any comparison is utterly redundant; Paisley's legacy stands up to any, and dwarves most. Here, in

Bob Paisley bio

, you’ll learn why.

Bob Paisley Information

Bob Paisley date of birth

is 23 January 1919, here are some basic facts about one of the greatest managers ever.

• Full name: Robert Paisley

• Nick Name: Quiet Genius

Personal information

• Date of death: 14 February 1996 (aged 77)

• Zodiac sign: Aquarius

• Place of birth: Hetton-le-Hole, County Durham, England

• Karim Adeyemi religion: Christian

• Father’s name: Sam Paisley

• Mother’s name: Emily Paisley

• Bob Paisley nationality: England

• Marital status: Married

Body Measurements

• Hair color: Dark Brown

• Eye color: Blue

• Body Type: Athletic

• Preferred Foot: Right

Bob Paisley Early Life

Born on 23 January 1919,

Bob Paisley childhood

started n the small County Durham coal mining village of Hetton-le-Hole which is seven miles from Sunderland.

His father Sam was a miner and his mother Emily a housewife. They had four sons: Willie, Bob, Hugh, and Alan in age order. From his very birth he had to observe economic and political crisis as on the day Paisley was born, 150,000 miners nationwide went on strike for a shorter working week.

Paisley was an outstanding footballer from his early ages as at Eppleton Primary School, he helped his team win seventeen trophies in four years. Paisley had joined Hetton Football Club after leaving school in 1933 and continued to attract notice as a member of their junior team. He had a boyhood dream of playing for Sunderland but when he was recommended to them by Hetton he was rejected as being "too small".

However, Paisley signed for Bishop Auckland before signing for George Kay’s Liverpool in May 1939. However, the second world war prevented him from making his official debut for almost 7 years.

Bob Paisley Profile

Bob Paisley biography

gets a bitter twist as he had to confront the Second World War when he was 19 and in October he was called up into the Army who assigned him to the Royal Artillery in which he was a gunner in the 73rd Medium Regiment. This regiment was a war-formed battery unit utilizing medium-range artillery (field guns) that saw service in the United Kingdom until August 1941, North Africa until 1944, and finally Italy until 1945.

Paisley was given clearance by the Army to play for Liverpool against Everton in the 1940 Liverpool Senior Cup final. To get there, he had to use his bicycle and cycle nearly the whole way. He left the bike in Birkenhead and hitched a lift through the Mersey Tunnel. After the match, he had to do the same journey in reverse to return to camp. Although it was a relatively unimportant match of local interest only, Paisley recalled that "

an estimated 30,000 turned up

". Everton, the reigning league champions, won the match 4–2.

Paisley took his revenge when on 1 April 1940 he played alongside Matt Busby and Billy Liddell in a depleted Liverpool team surprisingly defeated Everton 3–1 at Goodison Park.

However, at the end of August 1941, on the bank holiday, Paisley was posted overseas and did not return to England until 1945.

Playing Career

Bob Paisley nationality

was English as he served the country during wartime before continuing his career as a player later when the war ended.

After the conflict ended, Paisley was stationed at Woolwich for three years and only permitted to return to Liverpool on weekends, not that it stopped him making 33 appearances as the Reds won their fifth league title in 1946-47. It was the beginning of a downward spiral for the club, who would languish in mid-table for the next six seasons before being relegated in 1954. The 1950 FA Cup final offered hope of a glorious interlude but Liverpool lost 2-0 to

and Paisley was left out of the squad despite fighting back from injury just in time to feature.

Paisley made a total of 253 appearances for the Reds in a 15-year spanned career as a solid defender. He won only one major honor, the 1946-47 league title, and missed the biggest game that took place during those 15 years - the FA Cup final of 1950.

The end to Paisley’s sadly truncated on-field career came when he was left off the list of retained players for the 1954-55 campaign.

Anfield was a very different place during Paisley’s playing career, and so was the world of football at large. Young people nowadays can easily ask older relatives or look up YouTube clips if they want to know how Liverpool played during the 1970s or 1980s, but the period during and immediately after the war remains somewhat shrouded in mystery.

Heavy leather footballs, scoreboards operated by hand, goalkeepers in flat caps, and wooly jumpers - it might seem romantic and richly evocative now but at its core that era was rough and unglamorous. It was a time when clubs like

, Bolton Wanderers, and Portsmouth all vied for major honors while Liverpool spent eight years in the Second Division; Anfield falling into such disrepair that it lacked even running water before the transformative event that was Shankly’s arrival in 1959.

Assistant Coach

In this part of

Bob Paisley biography

, we tend to the time he spent as a physio and assistant coach in his beloved club.

Having already completed a correspondence course to become a qualified physiotherapist and masseur before hanging up his boots, Paisley sought and was granted permission to visit Liverpool’s hospitals and learn about how injuries were treated after club director TV Williams and Littlewoods founder John Moores intervened on his behalf. Williams, who would later become the Liverpool chairman that appointed Shankly, clearly saw something in Paisley and also entrusted him with the leadership of Liverpool Reserves, a decision vindicated when the club’s second string won their first Central League title in 1957.

The arrival of Bill Shankly as the manager in December 1959 transformed the fortunes of the club and Paisley recalled that "

from the moment he arrived, we got on like a house on fire

". On his first day in charge, Shankly held a meeting with the coaching staff which consisted of Paisley, Reuben Bennett, and Joe Fagan to tell them that he was not bringing in his own coaches. He wanted to work with them and so guaranteed them their jobs. Shankly pointed out that he would decide the training strategy and they must all work together with absolute loyalty to each other and to the club.

Shankly's biographer Stephen F. Kelly describes Paisley as "

the perfect number: never a threat to Shankly but always offering wise counsel

". Paisley was an unassuming character and "

happy to play second fiddle

", but Kelly recognizes his influence because although Shankly was "the great motivating force behind Liverpool, it was Paisley who was the tactician".

Under Shankly's management over the next fifteen years with Paisley as his assistant, Liverpool won three First Division league titles, one Second Division League title, two FA Cups, and one UEFA Cup.

Managing Career

Shankly unexpectedly announced his retirement after the victory in the 1974 FA Cup Final. Although Paisley was initially reluctant to take on the role as Shankly’s replacement, the

directors appointed Paisley as his replacement in the hope of maintaining continuity.

After finishing second in 1974–75, the team went on to win the league title and UEFA Cup in 1976. This period marked the beginning of Liverpool's dominance of English and European football, as the team went on to become champions on six occasions, finishing second twice, as well as winning three League Cups, one UEFA Cup, one UEFA Super Cup, six Charity Shields and, most significantly, three European Cups.

Paisley, having won 20 major honors in his time as Liverpool manager, remains, to this day, the most successful manager in the club’s history and the most successful English manager of all time. He is also the only manager of an English club (that remains in the first division today) to win and defend the European Cup/Champions League, doing so in the 1977/78 season. He won honors at a rate of 2.2 per season, a rate surpassed only by Pep Guardiola.

And yet, even despite the success he achieved, Paisley never once felt that he was an adequate replacement. His humble, understated nature summed up in clear terms by something he is frequently quoted as having told his players upon arrival:

"I'm only minding the shop until a real manager comes along

."

Having spent 44 unbroken years in various roles with Liverpool, Paisley retired at the age of 73. His contribution to the club led to him being made a freeman of the city of Liverpool in 1983. Liverpool unveiled the "Paisley Gateway", commemorative gates to Bob, in front of the Kop stand on Walton Breck Road shortly afterward.

In January 2020, a statue that depicts a scene from 1968, when Paisley carried the injured future Liverpool captain Emlyn Hughes off the field, was unveiled outside Anfield. The plinth features a quote from Paisley:

"This Club has been my life; I'd go out and sweep the street and be proud to do it for Liverpool FC if they asked me to

."

Style of Play

Doughty, hardy, diligent, committed, are the kind of adjectives invariably used to describe Bob Paisley’s style of play. Even the position he played, variously described as left-half, wing-half, or half-back, now feels like a relic of a bygone age, although the consensus seems to be that he was essentially a full-back who played slightly further forward, albeit with more of an emphasis on defense than attack.

“

He did get forward, but not in a

or Andy Robertson way

,” explains journalist and author Ian Herbert.

“A lot of the stuff you read about Bob in match reports touches on stout defending and last-ditch tackles. There was more of a balance between defence and attack in those days, and before he turned up in a very advanced position and scored against Everton in the FA Cup semi-final in 1950 he’d been warned - a bit like Bob would warn Alan Kennedy in later years - not to go up the field too much.”

Paisley himself described his style saying:

“I was aggressive but I played the game because I loved and enjoyed it. I might have hurt people and I got hurt myself a few times, but not with any malice. When I went on the field I just wanted to play football.”

Reception

Being remembered as

, Paisley won 20 major honors in his time as Liverpool manager. He remains, to this day, the most successful manager in the club’s history and the most successful English manager of all time. He is also the only manager of an English club (that remains in the first division today) to win and defend the European Cup/Champions League, doing so in the 1977/78 season. He won honors at a rate of 2.2 per season, a rate surpassed only by Pep Guardiola.

Paisley remained the only man in history to manage three European Cup-winning sides until Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane matched the feat in 2014 and 2018 respectively.

Paisley was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1977 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews on board a coach in central London. Following his death in 1996, Paisley was honored by the club with the opening of the Paisley Gateway at one of the entrances to Anfield, complementing the existing Shankly Gates.

In January 2020, an 8 ft statue that depicts a scene from 1968, when Paisley carried the injured future Liverpool captain Emlyn Hughes off the field, was unveiled outside Anfield. The plinth features a quote from Paisley:

"This Club has been my life; I'd go out and sweep the street and be proud to do it for Liverpool FC if they asked me to

."

Goal Celebration

Scoring 12 goals for Liverpool, there is no specific record of Paisley’s goal celebrations.

Bob Paisley Outside Football

Bob Paisley religion

is Christianity as he was born and raised in a Christian family. After leaving school at the age of 14, Paisley initially worked alongside his father at the pit and was there when his father suffered an underground accident which rendered him unable to work for five years. The mine was closed down and he trained to become a bricklayer.

However, Paisley ended up dedicating most of his life to Liverpool football club inside and outside the pitch as even after he retired from managing, Paisley continued to serve Liverpool as a director until he retired in early 1992 due to ill health, having been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, something which had become apparent in his early seventies when he was unable to remember his way home when driving back from Anfield. He died on 14 February 1996 at the age of 77, several weeks after moving into a nursing home on Merseyside.

Bob Paisley Personal Life

In this part of

Bob Paisley biography,

we try to tend to the little known personal life of the Liverpool icon.

Having a happy marriage with three children, although Paisley’s personal life remains some kind of a mystery, we can assume he was successful both on and off the pitch.

Paisley was buried in the churchyard of St Peter's Church in Woolton, Liverpool. A memorial to Paisley has been erected in the main park in his hometown of Hetton-le-hole.

Family, Children and Relationships

Bob Paisley was married to his wife Jessie, a school teacher in Liverpool, from 1946 until his death 50 years later. They had two sons, Robert junior and Graham, and a daughter, Christine.

Bob Paisley's son, Graham, said of the influence of his mother, Jessie, on his Father's success:

"She was the driving force behind my dad."

"She idolised my dad and was very much Liverpool Football Club through and through. In fact, the last piece of good news she got was the team beating the two Manchester clubs in the cups - she was very pleased about that.

"She was so fully supportive of what my dad did - she was always 100 per cent behind him. There was no side to her and she never begrudged the time he'd have to spend away from home.

Philanthropy

Serving five years in World War 2, Paisley was a man of the people on and off the pitch. During periods of leave from the conflict, Paisley returned to Cairo where he was mostly involved in team sports, not only football but also cricket and hockey. He represented the Combined Services football team as well as played for his regiment.

Liverpool great,

says of Paisley: "

I owe Bob more than I owe anybody else in the game. There will never be another like him.

"There was only one Bob Paisley and he was the greatest of them all. He went through the card in football. He played for Liverpool, he treated the players, he coached them, he managed them, and then he became a director. He could tell if someone was injured and what the problem was just by watching them walk a few paces. He was never boastful but had great football knowledge...”

Legal Issues

There’s no reported legal issue in

Bob Paisley life story

. However, it's worthy to mention Paisley's football skills saved him once from a posting to the Far East which would inevitably have resulted in his becoming a prisoner of war of the Japanese. He was captain of the 73rd's team and, when his battery was due to be posted, his commanding officer transferred him to another battery so that he could remain in Britain and lead the regimental team. His old unit was subsequently overrun by the Japanese.

Bob Paisley Career Statistics

In this part of Bob Paisley biography, we take a look at the statistics of Liverpool’s most decorated manager of their history. A great father figure who knew when to get rid of players and when to stick to them.

In 1977, one of Liverpool’s greatest ever strikers,

, decided he wanted to leave the club, signing for Hamburg for £500,000. In a situation that looked lose-lose, Paisley signed a Scottish player who had spent his whole career with Celtic. In bringing Kenny Dalglish to Liverpool, Paisley molded him to become the greatest player to ever play for the Reds, and one of the club’s most influential figures on both sides of the touchline.

Club

Bob Paisley played a total of 277 matches for Liverpool, which saw him accompanying

and Billy Liddle in their prime time of playing. Playing as a full-back, Paisley also scored 12 goals for the Reds.

International

Paisley never made a cap for England international.

Managerial

In a total of 535 matches that Paisley managed Liverpool, the Reds won 307 times, a 57% win rate. Liverpool scored 955 goals during his time and became the reigning Champions of England and Europe.

Bob Paisley Honors

Although Paisley only won one trophy during his playing career, he had 20 as a manager. six League Championships, three League Cups, six Charity Shields, three European Cups, one UEFA Cup, and one UEFA Super Cup.

The only trophy that Paisley failed to win as a manager was the FA Cup, although Liverpool would be runners-up in 1977 final.

Paisley was officially recognized with an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) after he clinched his first European Cup in 1977. He also won an unprecedented six Manager of the Year Awards, one European Coach of the Season award, and has been a regular name in outlets' greatest manager of all-time lists.

In addition, he was inducted into both the English Football Hall of Fame and the European Hall of Fame as a manager.

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