As the most successful English football club ever, it isn’t hard to imagine a world in which Liverpool have had more than their fair share of talented players line up in Red over the years. You can also figure out from that that a player has to be something pretty special in order to be given the label of ‘The King’, yet that is exactly what happened with Kenny Dalglish.
It isn’t just that the Scot was a brilliant player, though he was, nor that he was an exceptional manager, which he also was, but that on top of both of those things he was also an amazing person who carried the club on his shoulders at its darkest time.
Starting Out at Celtic
Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish was born in Glasgow on the fourth of March 1951, the son of an engineer. When he was a 14-year-old, the family moved to a tower block that overlooked Ibrox, the home of the team that he had supported during his youth, Rangers. Having played football as a youngster, he had unsuccessful trials at West Ham United and Liverpool before signing with Celtic in the May of 1967. He continued to work as an apprentice joiner just in case, but Jock Stein, the Celtic manager at the time, gave his debut in 1968 in a Scottish League Cup game against Hamilton Academical.
Slowly, he made his way out of the reserves and into a regular first-team spot, getting his first goal for the first team in the August of 1971. In what was something of an irony, the goal came against his boyhood club, Rangers. He scored 29 goals in 53 games that season, helping the club to its seventh successive league title as well as a Scottish Cup win. He was also the club’s leading goalscorer the following season, winning another league title, before another league and cup double followed. He was made captain in 1975, winning another double before Liverpool came calling.
Playing for Liverpool
If ever a player was made for Liverpool, that player must surely have been Kenny Dalglish. He was signed for a British transfer record of £440,000 in order to replace Kevin Keegan, making his debut in the Charity Shield at Wembley on the 13th of August 1977. When he also scored on his debut a week later, Liverpool supporters knew that the club had signed a special one. Having won the European Cup the year before, Liverpool took on Keegan’s Hamburg in the European Super Cup, winning 6-0 in the second-leg. At the end of the season, they won the European Cup again.
@deadlypoolbook LIVERPOOL EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS 1978- Liverpool 1-0 Club Brugge #liverpool #lfc #soccer #footballtiktok #deadlypool #champions #championsleague #europe #uefa #dalglish #king ♬ original sound – Deadlypool
Dalglish scored the only goal at Wembley as Liverpool ran out 1-0 winners over Club Bruges. In the years that followed, Dalglish continued to help the Merseyside club to trophy after trophy, including a European Cup and League Cup double in the 1980-1981 campaign. The Reds won their third title since his arrival the following season, then their fourth European Cup in the history of the competition in 1984 thanks to a penalty shootout win over Roma in the Italian side’s home stadium. Tragedy was to follow a year later, however, when the Heysel Stadium Disaster resulted in the deaths of 39 people.
Dalglish the Manager
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The Heysel Disaster resulted in Joe Fagan stepping down as Liverpool manager, with the board asking Dalglish to take over as player-manager. In his first season in the role, he took the club to its first league and cup double, pipping Everton to the post in the First Division by two points and also beating their local rivals in the FA Cup final. The 1987-1988 saw Dalglish assemble what is considered by many to be Liverpool’s best team ever, going 37 games unbeaten and topping the table for virtually the entire season. Another tragedy was to follow at the end of the following season, however.
Police negligence led to the deaths of 97 people at Hillsborough Stadium, with Dalglish taking the weight of the club on his shoulders in the months that followed. It led to his eventual resignation as manager midway through the 1990-1991 campaign. He returned to management in the October of 1991 when he took over at Blackburn Rovers, who he led to the Premier League title in 1995. In the October of 2010, Dalglish became Liverpool manager once more when he took over from the hapless Roy Hodgson, winning the League Cup and just missing out on the FA Cup.
Although he was made a Sir in 2018, Liverpool fans will always think of him as the King.