When it comes to Liverpool icons, there aren’t many bigger than Bob Paisley but one former Liverpool player has criticised their former boss.
Speaking on ‘The Football Historian Podcast, Phil Boersma said: “Bob was cute and learned off Shanks and went on to win more trophies than Shanks and he did well but he wasn’t a nice man, he wasn’t a nice man.
“I’ll give you one incident, Bob was the trainer and I had an unfortunate accident when Jimmy Armfield tackled me and I went up in the air and came down, when I came down, I landed on my shoulder, which is your acromioclavicular joint, I dislocated it.
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“Bob runs on and I said, ‘my shoulder’s gone,’ so he sprayed my shoulder and he said: ‘yeah, you’re all right now,’ he said: ‘run it off.’
“I said: ‘it’s my shoulder, Bob,’ I said: ‘I can’t move it, something’s come out,’ so I had to show him.
“‘Well, you better come off then.’ Run it off, a shoulder injury!”
It seems that there was more respect for Bill Shankly than his replacement at Anfield from the 74-year-old who had the honour of playing for both men.
There certainly wasn’t the same level of sports science around in the early 1970s but perhaps a dislocated shoulder should have been spotted regardless, although it takes a very brave man to question either of our legendary managers.
You can watch Boersma’s comments on Paisley (from 15:17) via The Football Historian Podcast on YouTube:
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