'I'd loved to have played for Shanks'
Jamie Carragher has always wondered what it would have been like to play and train under the great Bill Shankly.
The duo would have made a fiery combination - and Shankly would have no doubt thrived on Carragher's unerring commitment to the Liverpool cause.
The Bootle boy is passionate about the club's history - and while Shankly was before his time, Carragher is well-versed in the Scot's achievements between 1959 and 1974.
"I would have loved to have been managed by the great man," he said. "His team talks, passion, enthusiasm and, of course, his famous one-liners would have been a great education for anyone who played under him.
"I had the next best thing to that. I was introduced to the club through Steve Heighway, a player under Shankly, then onto the first team with the last of the famous Boot Room boys in Roy Evans and Ronnie Moran.
"I always knew what they were passing onto me had been passed onto them from the great Bill Shankly."
When Shankly arrived on Merseyside in December 1959, he was disappointed by what he saw at Anfield and at the club's training ground, Melwood.
Both venues had fallen into a state of disrepair, and after watching the team get hammered 4-0 by Cardiff in his first game as boss, the Scot knew he had to revolutionise the side as well as the buildings.
"Shankly started by renovating Anfield and Melwood but, most importantly, creating a style of football that is still prominent today in how Brendan Rodgers wants the team to play," said Carragher.
"When I think of Bill Shankly, I automatically think of the iconic picture of him in front of the Kop, arms aloft with a scarf around his neck in front of his army of worshippers.
"It was another title won but, more importantly, it showed a special bond between manager and fan that has stayed until this day.
"Liverpool is a managers club. If the club is successful, the manager becomes a god-like figure even more than the players and that very rarely happens anywhere else in world football. The respect shown to future Liverpool Football Club managers from fans and players started in the Shankly era.
"All those managers should be eternally grateful for that. Shanks is not just one of the great managers of Liverpool FC, we are talking about a giant in the game who is respected world-wide.
"There is always a debate about who was the best LFC manager. Bob Paisley's record of three European Cups may never be beaten but none of that would have happened without Shanks."
These quotes were taken from Carragher's touching foreword for Shankly's My Story centenary edition. Click here to purchase.