| Player homepage | Player Pictures |
Kenny Dalglish left Celtic for Liverpool 40 years ago to the day and here’s his story through the eyes of his friends
Aug 2017
We hear from a team-mate who was devastated the striker left – and another who was delighted to see him arrive.
ByGary Ralston
On August 10, 1977, Kenny Dalglish was paraded at Anfield as Liverpool’s most expensive signing after Celtic agreed to sell their talisman for a British record transfer fee of £440,000.
The Scotland striker was an idol to the Parkhead support, but went on to became a legend as player and manager in his adopted home city by the Mersey.
Record Sport ’s Gary Ralston gauges opinion from a team-mate who was devastated to leave – and another who was delighted to see him arrive.
ANDY LYNCH
Lynch watched Dalglish exhibit grace under the most extreme pressure in club football and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
An absorbing European Cup Final hung in the balance at Wembley as Graeme Souness clipped a pass into the path of his Scotland team-mate on the fringes of the 18-yard box.
Dalglish, alive to the creation of history, held his line against the Club Brugge defence, stayed half a yard onside and pounced, his eyes widening to the penalty-box opportunities he craved most.
Danish keeper Birger Jensen blinked first, shaping his body to dive at the feet of the Liverpool striker and it was the moment Dalglish anticipated as he calmly dinked the ball over his rival’s right shoulder and into the far corner of the net.
The goal, in the 64th minute, would be all that separated the sides as Liverpool retained the trophy they had won 12 months earlier in Rome, when Kevin Keegan was the idol of the Kop and Borussia Moenchengladbach were put to the sword.
Back in Glasgow, Lynch was left to reflect on what-might-have-beens on a season that had promised so much and yet ended with so little as Rangers lifted a domestic Treble for the second time in three years.
The departure of Dalglish, even for a then British record fee of £440,000, was sorely felt in the Parkhead dressing room says Lynch, who reckon his exit cost the club a serious chance of making their own impact again in Europe.
The former full-back said: “There was a growing belief within our squad we were the real deal at the end of the 1976-77 season as we had just won the double.
“The season before we had reached the quarter-finals of the European Cup Winners Cup but lost to an East German side, Sachsenring Zwickau. We should have done better.
“However, with Jock Stein back after his car accident we thought we could do good things in Europe in the 1977-78 season. I was at Celtic for seven seasons and effectively played for three different teams, but that 1977 side was the best.
“We were solid and we’d also signed Pat Stanton, who helped keep the door shut at the back. We could have made an impact in the European Cup, the semi-finals at least and then who knows what might have happened.
“However, we never recovered from losing Kenny to Liverpool. He was such a phenomenal player. We struggled when he left us, but what he went on to achieve at Liverpool was incredible.”
Hopes were high Dalglish would extend his career at Celtic, which began as an apprentice in 1967, when he entered transfer talks shortly before the 1977 Scottish Cup final. Lynch’s penalty was enough to secure a 1-0 victory over Rangers but the joy of the Hoops fans would be short-lived.
Dalglish, then 26, signed the deal but it would later emerge he only put pen to paper because he would have been ineligible for the cup final in the days before freedom of contract.
He went on tour to South America with Scotland at the end of the season, but pulled out of a subsequent Celtic trip to Australia and the Far East citing tiredness.
Lynch added: “By that time it was clear there was the possibility of Kenny moving on. I know Big Jock still hoped he would come with us on tour, but there was also talk Manchester United were hot on his heels.
“In the end, I believe Jock had something to do with his eventual destination of Liverpool because he had been close with their managers, especially Bill Shankly.
“It was a blow to lose Kenny. His departure scuppered our chances of doing anything significant that season and were were also hampered by injuries to half the team.
Celtic and Liverpool striker Kenny Dalglish played 102 times for Scotland and scored 30 goals in an amazing career that saw him lift three European Cups
“We didn’t want to lose him but at the same time we knew he had been given a bigger platform to showcase his talents so we were also pleased for him and proud to have helped some way in his development.”
Lynch’s relationship with Dalglish began when they were teenage team-mates at crack juvenile side Glasgow United and their friendship off the pitch was matched by huge respect on it.
Lynch added: “Kenny was creative, courageous, consistent and confident in his ability. He was never afraid to try something different and was a great team-mate, encouraging other players in the side at all times.
“He could take a tackle and was two-footed. He had it all. He wasn’t blessed with an abundance of pace, but he wasn’t a slouch either.
“He read the game so well and knew where and when the ball would drop at his feet. He was the guy who could create something out of nothing in a game where there was 20 minutes to go and defences had been on top.
“I saw it time and again. He would take the ball with his back to goal and find a half yard of space with a turn or a drop of the shoulder and bang a shot into the net. He was an expert at creating something out of nothing. He was a huge miss when he left Celtic for Anfield.”
IAN CALLAGHAN
Liverpool legend Callaghan watched from the bench as Dalglish made himself an idol of Anfield with one flick of his right boot.
The goal scored by Dalglish at the end of his first season with his new club helped retain the European Cup and ended the fretting among fan over the departure of Kevin Keegan to Hamburg the previous sumer.
Callaghan is a Kop colossus – the club’s record appearance holder with 847 games to his credit over almost 20 years.
He was also part of the first, fabled Liverpool side to win the European Cup, with a 3-1 victory over Borussia Monechengladbach in Rome in 1977.
Now 75, he recalls with crystal clarity the impact made by Dalglish in his first season at his new club following his record £440,000 move from Celtic on August 10, 1977.
He told Record Sport: “We were all sorry to see Kevin Keegan leave after the European Cup Final and wondered how we were going to replace him.
“Suddenly, this guy came along from Celtic and became one of the best players in the history of the club, arguably even the best.
“Actually, we didn’t know a lot about Kenny before he joined Liverpool because we didn’t always hear a lot about Scottish football.
“Of course, we knew he was an important player at Celtic and with the Scotland national team, but we didn’t know just how fantastic he would turn out for us.
“The goal he scored to win us the European Cup in 1978 summed him up. I was on the bench that night and it was a great pass from Souey into Kenny’s path.
“He chipped it over the goalkeeper under great pressure, but his ability to keep a cool head in those situations was always his greatest asset.
“Really, he was one of the best we’ve ever seen inside the penalty box. He has a calm head anyway, but inside the box he was just incredible.
“Once some players are in those goalscoring positions all hell can break loose in their minds, but not Kenny. He always kept his composure and was rewarded with some wonderful goals throughout his career.”
The Liverpool team, including, left to right, Geoff Strong, Ron Yeats, Gordon Milne, Ian Callaghan, Chris Lawler and Peter Thompson parade the trophy on the lap of honour after the Liverpool v Leeds United FA Cup Final held at Wembley Stadium, London on the 1st May 1965. Liverpool won the match 2-1 after extra time (Image: Getty)
Callaghan played one season with Dalglish, but the arrival of the new signing from Glasgow, as well as Graeme Souness from Middlesbrough and Alan Hansen from Partick Thistle, indicated a changing of the guard under the wily and astute Bob Paisley.
Callaghan added: “Kenny has a great sense of humour and knitted in straight away with the players at the club.
“We also brought in players that year such as Souey and Alan Hansen. Yes, a Scottish colony, but we’d had one for years anyway with players such as Ian St John, Ron Yeats, Billy Stevenson and, of course, manager Bill Shankly.
“Kenny is such as icon at Liverpool, an ambassador now and they’ve just named one of the stands after him. It shows you just how highly he’s though of by everyone at the club.”
**********
**********
