innocently answered the phone at home in the early spring of 1991. "It was Kenny Dalglish" , explains Moran. "Me and the wife were just on our way out and I asked him what he wanted. 'I've packed in' he said 'I've had enough'. I thought he was joking, as he was a great practical joker and I told him to stop messing around. He must have filled up because he put the phone down and the line went dead."

The next call Moran took was from Liverpool chairman Noel White, who confirmed Dalglish's resignation and promptly offered the freshly vacated manager's job to the scarcely believing assistant. "Of course I accepted, but becoming manager was not something I'd ever envisaged, but then again, neither had Bob ( Paisley ) nor Joe ( Fagan ) before me."

Bill Shankly's resignation in the summer of 1974 had visited a similar, though even larger shock, on the people of Liverpool. It had been Bob Paisley's calling to follow the great Shankly then and now Ronnie Moran was being asked to step into the shoes of another Liverpool legend, Dalglish. Thus, the inexorable path to the top that had begun with apprenticeship in the austere post war year of 1949 had finally delivered Ronnie Moran to the pinnacle of club football, manager of the league champions.




The history books will show a record of ten games played, 4 won and 5 lost during Moran's short lived 'caretaker' reign. It was a curious set of results that saw a 7:1 win at Derby County's Baseball Ground followed a few weeks later by a 5:4 victory over Leeds United at Elland Road. "The win at Derby is still the record away victory for this club" says Moran with obvious and deserved pride. But despite this seven week spell at the summit of Britain's greatest ever club, Ronnie Moran is forever destined to be remembered as a stalwart of the back room staff, the local, or some would say 'vocal', hero of the boot room.

Nobody ever saw him as destined to play a lengthy role as manager, and at the age of 57, Moran too felt that he was only holding the fort until a long term appointment was made. "I spoke to the chairman and told him that I couldn't do the job long term. I would only have been cheating them and I told them I wanted to go back to doing what I had been doing in the background.

Speculation in the media suggested John Toshack was going to make an emotional return to the club but it was another old boy, Graeme Souness, who was quickly ushered in to take the reigns from Moran. Initially, Souness was to take over at the end of the season but the media got hold of the story and Glasgow Rangers and Liverpool decided between them it was best for Souness to take over straight away.


Club captain

Over forty years earlier, Ronnie Moran as a fresh faced 14 year old, had first joined the club that was to become such a big part of his life. He began his playing career as an apprentice electrician playing 'C' team football. He was offered professional terms by manager Don Welsh in 1952 and quickly established himself as a promising full back. Liverpool though, were relegated to the old second division in 1954 and languished there until the arrival of Bill Shankly in December 1959. Ronnie Moran was club captain by this time and well remembers the impact Shankly made on his arrival.

"No disrespect to the previous management but when Shanks came he was like a breath of fresh air. He completely changed the club around and took it to were it is today, renowned all over the world." Moran had suffered with a serious injury and soon found his place in the team under threat from the emerging Gerry Byrne. By the time the side was re-established in the first division the writing for Ronnie Moran the player was firmly on the wall.

During the pre-season of 1966-67 Shankly steered him towards a new direction he had barely thought about taking previously. "Shanks called me to one side. I thought, this is it, he's going to tell me another club's come in for me' and he said to me 'Ronnie, how would you like to join the back room staff ?'. I went off and discussed it with my wife. We are both from Liverpool and didn't want to leave, and the next day I told Bill, 'yes'."

Now a member of the burgeoning boot room, Moran gradually worked his way up the ranks from working with the youngsters, through to first team trainer and then manager.




Moran was to become the sergeant major of Melwood, bellowing instructions and keeping any inflating egos firmly in check. "We never really discussed specific roles, I guess Shanks and Bob had seen me shouting and talking a lot when I was playing and liked what they'd seen. They just let me get on with it."

The training pattern that had been laid down by Shankly also agreed with Moran. "Previously, we used to run down to Melwood from Anfield, which was about 3 and a half miles, do our training, and run back. Shanks did away with all that. He said 'you don't run on the road in a match so we won't do it in training'. He introduced lots of work with the ball. We played a lot of small sided games where the emphasis was put on simple quick passing. I learnt so much from him and from Joe Fagan about the game and how it should be played."


Simplicity

The simplicity of the approach Shankly took to training led to much confusion and disbelief amongst his peers. As the trophies began to roll in, a growing band of onlookers gathered at Melwood to watch and learn. They would all go away muttering about how little Liverpool actually did.

"People missed what it was all about. They would just see us do a bit of jogging then go straight into small groups for games of 5-a-sides, or maybe a bit of ball work. They never saw the little things that we were doing, teaching the players when to pass, how to move into space. Sometimes players would be corrected for passing to someone who was marked for instance. I was blessed as a player, I found it easy but some didn't and they had to be taught."