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King Kenny Interview
Did this interview with King Kenny and thought that you might like it.
Kenny Dalglish Interview
Paul Grech
Kenny Dalglish is a living legend. He might minimise his achievments, yet it is a title that he fully deserves both for what he did as a player and then as a manager. But the attachment that Liverpool fans feel for him goes far beyond a simple appreciation for results on the pitch. His passion and feelings for the club mirrored their own.
After the Hillsborough disaster, Dalglish attended every single funeral. Nobody would have blamed him if he’d made his excuses and missed most of them, but that was never the option for him. It is an attachment that he still retains to this day. A regular at Anfield, he is now more than ever one of us – a Liverpool supporter.
You’re still quite attached to Liverpool FC. Why is it that former Liverpool players maintain an attachment, perhaps more than at other clubs?
I don’t know whether it’s more than other clubs but certainly, as far as Liverpool are concerned, they’ve always been regarded as a family club. And if they need the endorsement of former players coming to the ground and watching matches, they’ve got it. Any old player that goes along is made totally welcome and a lot of them work at the ground on match days as well.
Is it more frustrating to see the game as a supporter or as a manager where you can influence proceedings?
Its certainly more relaxing as a supporter than it is as a manager. As manager it’s less enjoyable than it is as a player. So you’ve got different roles to play. The role of the supporter is to back the team, and that has happened most of the time. The fact is that I feel a lot more relaxed.
So you don’t find yourself thinking that the manager should do that or he should play there?
No, that’s gone. That has been thrown in the bin at the moment.
Going back to your playing career, was scoring the winning goal in a European Cup final the pinnacle?
I don’t think it was the pinnacle. It is difficult to be specific about just one time but it was certainly a very enjoyable moment and I showed that in the way I celebrated. When I left Celtic a year earlier I was hoping for some European success. I’d tasted domestic success at Celtic and I just wanted to go a little bit further. Within a year, fortunately, that had been achieved. So, it was a great moment not just for myself but also for Liverpool Football Club because they retained the cup.
When you scored that goal against Brugge, you ran towards the supporters. Was that something you had planned earlier or was it simply an instinctive reaction?
It wasn’t planned. It was just instinct. There is always a special relationship between player and supporters, especially at Liverpool. I always thought that I was carrying out a dream that they couldn’t achieve. At the same time they were doing things that I couldn’t. I would have loved to stand in the Kop and watched a game. I would have loved to take my son to the Kop and watch a game. But I couldn’t do that. So, it was just an instantaneous reaction.
It is said that under Bob Paisley training sessions consisted only of five a sides. Is there any truth in that or is it simply a myth?
It’s a myth. If we’d never done any proper training I can assure you that we would have never been successful. And we were very successful. Back in those days players were expected to play around seventy games a year. So there wasn’t much time for training but the training we did was an extremely important element for the success of Liverpool Football Club.
How does it feel to be held in the same regard as managers like Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley?
Everyone’s entitled to an opinion. Shankly set it off for everyone. Bob and Joe Fagan carried it on. I had the honour and the privilege to carry on from Joe and we won one or two trophies. Everyone played a part and if people want to say that mine was a productive part, obviously it’s a great honour especially to be mentioned in the same breath as them.
Why do you think that Scots make such good managers? Shankly, Jock Stein, Alex Ferguson, yourself…
George Graham. I don’t know. We certainly don’t have the same parents! I don’t know. Perhaps its because the Scots love their football and are passionate about it. They’re knowledgeable and they’re brought up with football. Maybe that’s why. They’re also determined. There are three things you can do in a game: win, lose or draw. And by far the best one is to win. I think they enjoy winning. There’s also a little bit of aggression about them as well.
What do you think of the current Liverpool side? What can they achieve?
It was a disappointment to go out of the Champions League at such an early stage. I think the players were disappointed with that. But I think they’re going from strength to strength. They’ve improved every year: fourth, third and second in the league. Liverpool have been criticised for not being the most attractive team to watch but there are many ways to win a game. Football’s as attractive as you have to be and as long as you’re successful than that’s satisfying.
You mention the Champions League. Was it a disappointment that you didn’t have the opportunity to take the 1986 into the Champions Cup? That maybe you could have matched the Milan side that dominated in Europe?
It was a disappointment but who knows? There’s no time wasting your time worrying what might have happened. All I can say is that after we won the double we didn’t win anything the following year. So maybe we wouldn’t have been successful. We signed a few players and won more trophies the following year.
Is there any managerial job that might tempt you back?
Not at this particular moment, no.
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