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Birthdate:
04.03.1951
Birthplace: Glasgow, Scotland
Other clubs: Celtic
Bought from: Celtic
Signed for LFC: £440000 10.08.1977
International debut: 10.11.1971 vs. Belgium
International caps: Scotland 102/30
Liverpool debut:
13.08.1977
Last appearance: 01.05.1990
Debut goal: 20.08.1977
Last goal: 18.04.1987
Contract expiry: 1990
LFC league games/goals: 355 / 118
Total LFC games/goals: 515 / 172
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Player Notes:
Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley both consider King Kenny to be the best player that has ever worn the Liverpool shirt. Few would argue as Dalglish was a magical player who isn't only a legend at Liverpool but also Celtic. After 321 games and 167 goals for Celtic, he joined the current European champions Liverpool for a record fee. He replaced Kevin Keegan as Liverpool's talisman. Kenny scored the winner in the European cup final in his first season. He was voted player of the year by the Football Writers' association in 1978/79 and after three more championship titles, King Kenny was crowned by both the PFA and the FWA at the end of the 1982/83 season. He was without a shadow of a doubt the best player in Britain.
Ian Rush had by now entered the stage and Dalglish formed an incredible strikeforce with the Welshman. Dalglish turned provider, Rush delivered. Dalglish's 3rd European victory came in the 1983/84 season. He was now playing deeper, was turning 33-years old, but still had plenty of magic left in his boots. In 1985/86, he became Britain's first ever player-manager in the aftermath of the Heysel tragedy. Kenny brought three more championships to Anfield as manager and was voted manager of the year as many times. A great hat-trick by the greatest that Liverpool has ever seen.
As Liverpool Football Club began a new decade in 1990 as English champions, it was impossible to imagine that the club's unrelenting success would ever end. Yet end it did and that can possibly be traced back to the day when Kenny Dalglish resigned as manager in February 1991 after an astonishing 4-4 F.A. cup replay at Goodison Park, a match in which Liverpool had led four times but also in which increasing defensive frailties were shown up. Kenny had made some surprising deals in the transfer-market (principally Jimmy Carter & David Speedie) leading up to his departure but there can be no doubt that he was still hugely traumatised by what he had seen at Hillsborough and its aftermath.
Before the end of the calendar year in which he had left Liverpool, Dalglish was back in football as the manager of Blackburn Rovers and he took the Lancashire club not only to The Promised Land of the Premier League but to its very summit, achieved on a memorable afternoon back at Anfield in the middle of May 1995 when, despite losing 2-1 to Liverpool on the day, Rovers were crowned English champions. Shortly after that success, Kenny became Blackburn's Director of Football with Ray Harford replacing him as team manager. It was not a successful move. The team's performances at home and abroad started to decline and eventually Kenny left Blackburn 'by mutual consent'. In the middle of January 1997 he was unveiled as Newcastle United's new manager. He steered the North-East club to become runners-up in the Premier League in 1997; and also took them to an F.A. cup final the following year. But the real success he had enjoyed at Liverpool and Blackburn was elusive and after starting the 1998-1999 season with draws in the opening two League matches, Dalglish was replaced by Ruud Gullit.
Kenny became Glasgow Celtic's Director of Football in June 1999 with John Barnes appointed at the same time as Head Coach. But Barnes was sacked in February 2000 and Kenny took over the manager's responsibilities and guided the Celts to a Scottish League cup final success over Aberdeen. Despite that trophy, Kenny himself was soon replaced as manager by Martin O'Neill. But the way his contract was terminated led to a short legal battle, at the end of which Dalglish accepted Celtic's settlement offer.
Kenny Dalglish was inevitably linked with many managerial posts during the first decade of a new millennium. But it seemed nothing could tempt him back into the game that had become his life. Twenty years after the Hillsborough Disaster, Kenny spoke openly about that day and its aftermath in a frank television interview. He also spoke at the Memorial Service at Anfield in April, 2009. It was clear that Liverpool's supporters admired, respected and loved him as much as they had when he had been player and manager. Rumours started doing the rounds that Kenny would soon be back at Anfield in an official capacity. On the 3rd of July, 2009 the club officially announced Kenny's return to Anfield, where he will "assume a senior role at the Liverpool Academy and will also act as a Club ambassador working with the commercial side of the business around the world". Recently-appointed (22nd June 2009) Managing Director Christian Purslow added "In our very first meeting Rafa and I agreed that we wanted to try and bring Kenny back to the club to help Rafa really drive forward our Academy which is at the heart of our plans for the future. We are delighted he has agreed to join us and I am sure he will be very successful in his new role back at the club."
If Kenny Dalglish can be half as successful at the Liverpool Academy as he was as a player between 1977 and 1990 and as a manager between 1985 and 1991, then the future of the club looks to be in very good hands indeed. |
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