Robert Paisley OBE (23 January 1919 — 14 February 1996) was an English footballer and manager who spent almost fifty years with Liverpool as a right-back, physiotherapist, coach, and finally manager. In nine years as manager, Paisley led Liverpool to win twenty honours – six First Division Championships, three League Cups, six FA Charity Shields, three European Cups, one UEFA Cup and one UEFA Super Cup. He is often cited as one of the greatest football managers of all time, and is to date the only manager in history to have won three European Cups.

Biography

Playing career

Born in Hetton-le-Hole, County Durham, England, Paisley joined Liverpool from non-League Bishop Auckland F.C. in May 1939. However, as with so many of his generation, the outbreak of World War ll delayed the start of Paisley's career. He eventually made his debut on 5 January 1946 in Liverpool's first post-war competitive match, which was an FA Cup 3rd round, 1st leg match at Sealand Road, Chester City. Liverpool won the game 2-0. Paisley's first goal didn't come until the 1 May 1948 in a League game at Anfield, against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Paisley's 22nd-minute strike along with a Jack Balmer goal in the 80th were enough to help the Reds win 2-1.

In the first full season after the war, 1946–47, he helped Liverpool to their first league title in 24 years, making 34 appearances in the 42-match season. He remained a fixture in the side, appearing in 30+ matches in 1947/48 and 1948/49 and 28 in 1949/50, a season of both highs and lows for Paisley who scored the opening goal of a 2-0 FA Cup semi-final win over Merseyside rivals Everton only to be dropped for the Final against Arsenal, the club's first appearance at Wembley. Paisley later said that the experience stood him in good stead when it came to telling players they were not going to play in big games as he knew how they felt. Paisley became club captain the following season.

Coaching career

After retiring as a one-club man in 1954, he joined the back room staff as self-taught Physiotherapist and had a knack of being able to diagnose a player's injury just by looking at them. He later became a coach for the reserves. The arrival of Bill Shankly as manager in December 1959 transformed the fortunes of the club. Shankly utilised The Boot Room for a second purpose, a room for coaches' meetings. Paisley was one of Shankly's founder members of the boot room staff along with Joe Fagan and Reuben Bennett. Under Shankly's management Liverpool won three league titles, two FA Cups and a UEFA Cup over the next fifteen years.

Managerial career

Following an FA Cup final victory, in July 1974 Bill Shankly, unexpectedly announced his retirement. The directors of Liverpool turned to the unassuming Paisley.

His managerial record would better Shankly's: Paisley led the team for nine seasons, winning at least one trophy in eight of those. Disappointed by finishing second in his first season as manager, the team went on to win the title in 1976. This was the beginning of Liverpool's dominance of English football. During Paisley's nine seasons in charge, Liverpool were League Champions on six occasions and finished second twice, won three League Cups (the first time that Liverpool had won the trophy), 1 UEFA Cup, 1 European Super Cup, 5 Charity Shields and, most significantly, they won the club's first 3 European Cups.

Liverpool's dominance of the era in English and European football was primarily challenged by Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa under Ron Saunders and later Tony Barton. Paisley remains the only man in history to manage three European Cup-winning sides (1977, 1978 & 1981). His success was honoured with six Manager of the Year awards. Only the FA Cup eluded Paisley, although Liverpool would be runners-up in 1977 and beaten semi-finalists in 1979 and 1980. But Paisley's three European Cups is still a record in 2012.

Retirement and later life

Paisley had left school in 1933 to become a miner, and was later apprenticed as a bricklayer before turning to professional football. He married his wife Jessie in 1946 and they had two sons, Robert junior and Graham, and a daughter, Christine.

Having first signed for Liverpool in 1939, Paisley's managerial career came to an end at the end of the 1982-83 season after spending 44 unbroken years at the club. He was replaced by Joe Fagan, another of the Boot Room old boys.

He worked as a consultant and advisor to Kenny Dalglish for two years from his appointment as player-manager in June 1985, before being appointed as a director.

In early 1986, aged 66, he was interviewed by the Football Association of Ireland, discussing coming out of retirement to take charge of the Republic of Ireland national football team. However, Jack Charlton was soon named to the Irish post instead.

He continued to serve Liverpool as a director until he retired in early 1992 due to ill health, having been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease, which became apparent in his early seventies when he was unable to remember his way home when driving from Anfield.

He died on 14 February 1996 at the age of 77, and after his death he was honoured by the club with the opening of the Paisley Gates at one of the entrances to Anfield, complementing the existing Shankly Gates. He had spent the final months of his life in a nursing home.

He was buried in the churchyard of St Peter's Church in Woolton, Liverpool.

His son Graham Paisley is the rector at this church.

Paisley was made an Inaugural Inductee of the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002 in recognition of his impact on the English game as a manager.

Among the memorials to Paisley is a sheltered housing complex in Hartnup Street, Liverpool, which was opened in 1998 and named Bob Paisley Court.

There is also a small commemorative plaque on the front of the supermarket on Front Street in Hetton-le-Hole town centre.

He was survived by his wife Jessie, a school teacher four years his senior. She died in the early hours of 8 February 2012 in a Liverpool hospital as a result of a heart infection, aged 96.