[NJ10]

Kenny Dalglish

"King Kenny", i'm told, was the greatest Liverpool player of all time. signed from Celtic for a club record £440,000 to replace Hamburg-bound Kevin Keegan in 1977, Dalglish settled nicely into the reigning European Champions' side, despite some doubting voices apparently. he scored on his league debut and come the end of the season he had scored 31 goals. undoubtedly the most important was his winner in the European Cup final against Bruges at Wembley, a typical Dalglish goal as he latched on to Graeme Souness' poked pass and chipped the ball over the diving keeper. A legend inside a season.

Dalglish was instrumental in Liverpool's sustained success over the next fewyears, he was a key player as they lifted back to back league titles in 1979 and 1980, and three more in a row 1982, 83 and 84, four successive league cups between 1981 & 1984, and two further European cups in 1981 and 1984, forming a deadly partnership with a young Ian Rush. Those achievements alone would have guaranteed him legendary status, but in 1985, after manager Joe Fagan's resignation, Dalglish became player manager at Anfield. His first season was a tricky one, the club were banned from Europe following the Heysel disaster at the previous seasons European Cup final against Juventus, but Dalglish still managed to lead the Reds to their first ever League & Cup double, scoring the goal that clinched the league at Chelsea, before leading his side to a 3-1 win over local rivals Everton at Wembley in the FA Cup final.

A quiet 1987 was followed by 1988, and what many people have claimed since to be the finest Liverpool side of all time. The likes of Barnes, Aldridge, Beardsley, Houghton, Hansen, McMahon & Lawrenson were a class apart from the rest of the league, and reclaimed the title at a canter, at one point going 37 games unbeaten. However he was denied another double by one of the biggest FA Cup upsets of all time as Wimbledon defeated his allstars 1-0 at Wembley.

1988/89 was probably the beginning of the end of Dalglish at Anfield, the events of April 15th 1989 hit him hard, as did Arsenal's dramatic last gasp last day winner which took the league championship to Highbury. A 3-2 FA Cup final win over Everton paled into insignificance, Dalglish became increasingly detatched from the emotions involved in the game. Even another league title in 1990 couldnt paper over the cracks, and on Feb 21st 1991, following an epic 4-4 draw with Everton in the FA Cup 5th round replay, Dalglish stunned the world of football by resigning as Liverpool manager,. citing the pressure he was putting himself under. Liverpool havent won the league since.

Since then, Dalglish has won the Premiership (ironically, at Anfield) as Blackburn manager in 1995, with a side that was in the Old second division only 3 years earlier, but again stunned football by quitting to become Director of Football at Ewood Park straight after. He again replaced Keegan, this time as Newcastle manager in January 1997, but his reign was not particualarly successful, bar an FA Cup final appearance in 1998. he left and formed a largely unsuccessful managerial partnership with old pal John Barnes at Celtic, the only high point coming with a Scottish cup win in 2000 (four months after Barnes had been sacked).

Dalglish's main attributes as a player were his exquisite touch, fantastic spacial awareness, ability to use either foot to deadly effect, and tremendous work and team ethic. Ask any Liverpool player/fan/manager who witnessed those great days of the 1970s/80s who their favourite player was, and 9 out of 10 will say Kenny Dalglish. He was that good.

All in all, a great player, a great player manager, a great guy. His charity, the Marina Dalglish Appeal (Kenny's wife battled and overcame breast cancer) was set up in 2004 and has raised thousands for cancer awareness through a variety of special events and fundraisers (many of them in conjjunction with Liverpool FC).

Oh, and his daughter is pretty fit as well.