Archives for January 2011

Anfield

For more than a minute, as the flashbulbs popped, and the photographers begged him to look their way, and the journalists waited to ask him their questions, and the press officers glanced nervously, he waited, and took it all in. A few yards away, on the wall at Anfield to his right, as if to emphasise the legendary status he still enjoys, and must now avoid staining, hung an oil painting of himself.

An image of a younger Kenny Dalglish, among a small row of portraits celebrating Liverpool's greatest ever managers.

These were the men who had won the title here. His was the most recent in 1989-90. Memories of the way things used to be.

This was the very room in which he had first signed for Bob Paisley's Liverpool as Kevin Keegan's replacement back in 1977.The room where, in 1991, he had announced his shock-resignation as manager, and walked away, a departure he always regretted, and from which the club has never really managed to recover.

This was the Anfield Trophy Room he did so much to fill. 19 trophies in 14 years he helped to deliver to this treasure trove, as both player and manager.

Now he was back where it had all begun.

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