This is the first in a series of free audio documentaries, brought to you by The Anfield Wrap, reliving significant days in the history of Liverpool Football Club, in the words of those who were there to witness.
Part one of “TAW Moments In Time” tells the story of Kenny Dalglish’s resignation as manager of Liverpool, one of the most groundbreaking couple of days in the club’s history, with the circumstances surrounding his departure in February 1991 still being debated and discussed to this day.
Detailing the events of that fateful day are former players Bruce Grobbelaar and Glenn Hysen, former coach Roy Evans, journalists Graham Beecroft, Tony Evans, David Prentice, Brian Reade, Clive Tyldesley and Henry Winter, supporters Rob Gutmann, John Mackin, Mike Nevin and Kev Sampson, and TV presenter and daughter of Kenny, Kelly Cates.
We hope you enjoy listening, and if you want to hear more from The Anfield Wrap, and you don’t already subscribe to TAW Player, you can do so HERE for just £7 a month.
If you do subscribe you can log in and listen here.
Really looking forward to this. I remember that day, that week. This is what is great about TAW, thanks to all contributors.
This is excellent, but John Gibbons narration reminds me a little, of short-lived 80’s classic tv show, ‘Police Squad’. Good work though Gibbo’, superb audio-doc’.
Is right John, I really enjoyed that. I love that it finishes with the King back at home lifting a trophy.
Brilliant
Just finished, absolutely superb. Very well done.
Apart from reminding me how much I’d still like to marry Kelly Cates (Hi ‘dad’, you don’t mind if I call you that do you?) it also made me think about the reaction at the time to Souness’s appointment. I remember feeling sad but excited. Souey’ at the time was looked at as the best possible replacement, and although he acted too swiftly, it was recognised that the squad needed overhauling. It definitely feels like, with the benefit of hindsight, Kenny stepping down was the final act in a drama that had begun in ‘73 with our first league title in eight years. As a historian, we were always taught to eschew the idea of ‘great men’ being responsible for the success of entities such as unions, companies, political parties, or even nations, in favour of ‘structural causes’. However, in the case of the Liverpool dynasty which came to an end that fateful week, it is difficult, miserly even, to discount the impact and legacy of Shanks, Bob, Joe, Kenny with Ronnie and Roy. Even with an Anfield alumni and a successful, up and coming manager (at the time) such as Souness, taking over, something fundamental was lost that day.
Superb show lads, loved it!
Had me welling up in parts, doesn’t help that gibbo sounded like Simon Bates doing ‘our tune’!
I thought it was more Frank Drebin (Police Squad/ The Naked Gun). “At 0800 hrs on…..Glenn Hysen was contemplating the day, minding his own business..”. Meanwhile……
:)
Think you’ve missed a trick here. The theme music should be the The Anfield Wrap crew singing “TAW moments in time” to the Whitney Huston song. While we’re (I’m) on the subject, surely the Carabou cup music should be “Carabou cup, now we’re feeling the same thing, and our hearts must beat as one….” by the ‘great’ body of water that is…the Billy Ocean.
Think I need a new career, ‘complete bullsh*t artist’ ahem, I mean ‘theme music management specialist’. Available for panto…… :)
Haha, we’ve been singing that all week in the office to be fair!
Ha, knew it! Excellent new show by the way. It’s why TAW is a cut above. Thanks.
Thank you so much for that wonderfully produced piece.
It gave me a lump in my throat in places.
That day is my ‘J.F.K’ moment as that generation would describe it…”I remember where I was when I heard the news”
It had a similair impact on me,same as when Lennon had been gunned down in New york.
The 22nd of February had always been a special day to me up till 1991,It is my date of Birth.
To come home from work on that day and be told by my Dad that ‘The King’ had resigned broke a little piece of me that couldn’t be fixed.
When it was on the evening news that night I openly cried in front of my Mum and Dad.It was an uncontrolable outpouring of emotion,and one I’m not ashamed of.
So on every Birthday since,I have always thought of that news of the Kings abdication.
He is perhaps the finest man I have never met.
If all young men today were half the men that Kenny Dalglish is,then the world would be a better place fo it.
He is first and foremost a giant amongst men,and he wasn’t to bad a football player either.
Incredible that lads, superbly edited to tell such an incredible story in our club’s history.
Tyldesley’s and Reade’s recollections reflect exactly how I recall it all at the time.
Another really great show to add to the many TAW puts out for just a fiver a month.
Well in to John and Josh and all involved brilliant show .
It’s an interesting way to start a series really- at the end. That is to say that a sort of legacy that was built up from shanks, Paisley Fagan and then Kenny came to an end at this moment. It’s always nice to look back at when Liverpool were a dominant side, especially since I was born in 2002 so never experienced any of this. It’s interesting to see the thoughts of the time and how everyone thought it would go on as usual with Souness. Though he was a great player for Liverpool, he was never quite as good at management, at least for Liverpool anyway. I find it difficult to believe that any of the previous four managers would allow the ‘spice boys’ to act the way they did for example. That being said, since I wasn’t alive when this all happened I can’t possibly have as much knowledge as anyone who was watching at the time so who knows.
Kwesi, I can wholly recommend ‘The Men in White Suits” by Simon Hughes if you’ve interested in this period (of you haven’t got it already). It’s a wonderful read. Also, just to correct you a tiny bit – The ‘Spice Boys’ era was actually ‘post – Souness’. It was actually Roy Evans (unfortunately) who presided over it. That said, Evans built a very, very good side and one that could compete with Fergies United, and Wengers great Arsenal teams. At the time I remember us fans, mostly being incredibly optimistic about that side as when in possession, they were possibly the best in the league. The problem was that they very much resembled Rodgers side of 13/14’, in that they were very soft-centred and suspect defensively. Souness side we’re just a real mess, the football was almost Hodgson level at times. He never really had a settled team as it was always in transition.
Best wishes.
Ps- Brian Read has written a couple of wonderful Liverpool books that are available quite cheaply on Amazon books in paperback. ‘An Epic Swindle’ about Hicks and Gillette, and also ‘44 years with the same bird’ are both worth a look, as is Jamie Carragher’s autobiography ‘Carra’.
Thank you for this superb retrospective. I’m 39, American, and have only followed Liverpool for about 5 years (I got drawn in by my girlfriend during the 13/14 run-in and haven’t looked back), so I’m always looking for ways to learn more about the club and its history. I certainly recognize names like Dalglish and Shankly, but they don’t evoke any particularly strong emotions in me, at least not beyond a kind of distanced, abstract admiration for what they accomplished. But this actually made me FEEL, in a very immediate way, the importance of Kenny Dalglish and the sense of loss and foreboding that followed his departure. In so doing, it deepened my understanding of, and identification with, the club that I support. Great stuff, guys — this alone is well worth the £5 a month!
Welcome to the mad, mad world of being a Red John (my greeting is 5 years late but better than never eh’). They absolutely ‘do our heads in’ but there’s just no-one quite like them for that magic and romance eh’. :)
Cheers, James! Yes, the 13/14 run-in gave me an overwhelming sense that being a Liverpool fan was not for the faint of heart…
Wow. Just amazing. Very moving very striking and amazingly put together well done to everyone at the Anfield wrap for this especially Gibbo and Josh for producing this magnificent audio documentary.
Absolutely brilliant!!! Loved every minute of it and was immediately transported back to my 12yr old self in February 1991. I can remember getting in from school and my Dad breaking the news to me that Dalglish had gone. I was devastated and couldn’t believe it. Like a few of the contributors said I thought the success would just carry on. I didn’t really appreciate the side was aging and would need an overhaul. Souness just went about it the wrong way. It took me years before I could stomach Souness after his time as manager. I just wished Kenny would have taken 6 months or a year off and then come back refreshed. He should have been lifting the title at Anfield with Liverpool instead of Blackburn in 1995. With Dalglish resigning and Souness being appointed it put us back years. Fantastic, fantastic show lads. I bloody love TAW!!! Keep up the great work. And only £5 a month!
Brilliant that. Brought back the emotions from all those years ago when the news broke that he had left. Must have been a half term as I remember us being off school and my mates banging my front door and shouting through the letterbox that he’d gone. Was totally stunned and remember us just walking to the chippy and getting a butty, sitting there reflecting on the news we had just heard. Then in total contrast, the news that he returned and having a ticket for United away the following day….just screamed the house down! Although we lost that game, the atmosphere was buzzing and I will never forget the sight of him leading the team out again. Dalglish!!!!!!
This was an absolutely superb pod-doc. In a world where football is so corporate and money is at the root of everything, this programme reminds you how human everything good about Liverpool has always been and still is. John Gibbons has done a fantastic job of capturing just how immense Kenny’s resignation was and how it was influenced so fundamentally by Hillsborough. We’re privileged to have had Kenny so intimately connected with our club since 1977 and John and all the contributors have reminded us so eloquently.
Fabulous. Well done and many thanks
This is brilliant stuff lads. Well done.
Fantastic piece. This one show is worth the 12 months subscription on it’s own.
In Kenny’s book, Kenny Dalglish My Liverpool, he describes that fateful day when he announced his decision to resign from the club. This is on page 264. Noel White(the then Chairman of Liverpool Football Club and Peter Robinson(the chief executive), were in shock and, Kenny describes how they needed time to compose themselves. They pleaded with him to reconsider, and, asked him to take a break, take a sabbatical, said Peter Robinson. He describes how Liverpool’s solicitor, Tony Ensor had a word, “Kenny, I’m talking to you as a friend. Why not have a sabbatical? Take some time off and then come back”. They suggested coming back the following season, don’t forget, this was February, so we are talking about 6 months. He refuses, he is adamant, he needs a clean break and in his words, “its over”. Then, on page 268, just four pages later, Kenny describes how his son, Paul, asked if they could go to Disney, which they did. Kenny describes how Tom Saunders(a legend at the club), who Kenny refers to as Old Tom, stayed in touch with Marina(Kenny’s wife), and then describes how Marina said, “Just leave him Tom, ask him back in a couple of weeks and he will come back”. Kenny then goes on to say that he would, saying that he would have jumped at the chance, but sadly the call never came. This just doesn’t make sense, the club pleaded with him to take some time off(as much as 6 months), which he declined, they didn’t ask him back, because he told them that was it. In the space of four pages he contradicts himself.