I've heard that you could handle yourself, so to speak,
I think we've got a video here to prove that.
- No? - Maybe.
Here we go.
What game is this?
Oh!
- Go on then. - Oh, aye, how many are joining in here?
ALL: Whoa!
He's out cold!
He's out cold.
I told it was a bit rougher, but...
- Right-right-left. - Wow.
Good combo.
Just a yellow, or...?
No, a warning.
Oh, it was a warning?
Was that a red card, that one?
I think I did get...
a holiday.
Ian, how are you?
James, all right, son?
- You good? - Not too bad.
Just taking in the views?
Well, fantastic. Look at the pitches and...
Yeah, immaculate.
Bit different to when you played? Slightly.
No, I've got to tell you, honestly, the groundsmen here were terrific,
Bill Shankly wanted the best playing surfaces,
so the pitches were always good.
In fact, the one over there, it's called "Wembley",
the lads called it Wembley, you were only allowed on it at special times.
- Right, before big games? - Before big games.
I just want to show you a picture inside, if that's all right.
- Of me? - Well, we'll see.
You can tell me about it.
There we are. Now, they were some five-a-side team.
And if you had been injured and were trying to get fit again,
you ended up being incorporated into their five-a-side.
Right.
Joe used to look after the reserves, Bob, the first team,
and then when Ronnie finished, he ended up looking after the reserves
and Joe sort of stepped up.
But you would never talk back to them.
JAMES: No. IAN: Oh, never!
Bill Shankly was a steaks man.
He read somewhere that Joe Louis,
who was the heavyweight champion of the world, trained on fillet steaks.
So we had fillet steaks for breakfast, for dinner!
There's people who do that now though, so it must be something.
We had fillet steaks! He just thought that that was the greatest thing ever.
We'd have steak before the game, midday.
If you were vegetarian, you couldn't have played for Liverpool.
I'm thinking back 50 years, and we were great boys.
Everybody was a great boy. If you've got the good lads, great.
The dressing room is a great place, if you go back in time,
the Peles and all the rest of it, they were all good guys.
That's correct, and the bigger they are, the nicer they were.
Jürgen, back to work, pal.
Do the business.
The jerseys, I always felt,
I thought they were great at the time, but people say they were heavy.
Do you think they're heavy?
I don't think they're too bad now, I think if they got wet...
I'm guessing they could have been very heavy.
Compare it to that.
You get a good stretch on it, pull them back and get a good stretch on it.
Yeah, I think the difference is, with sweat, they're designed to take the moisture away.
Don't forget we do play in the winter, you know, you need warm clothing.
Make sure you run around enough and you won't be cold!
Oh, there's the Scotland strip. Here's an interesting one here.
In fact, can I just borrow this to show someone for a second?
I'll be careful, I'll be careful.
I've had that for 50 years.
I'll tell you what, you could do a bit of damage with these.
Looks all right, actually.
Doesn't look too bad, I don't think.
How are you, you OK?
Suits me, don't it?
Looking smart. Ladies and gentlemen, what do you think, eh?
Thank you very much.
It fits you as well.
Fits me, I know.
I wouldn't have thought I was that thin!
He's definitely not a No. 9 though.
Nah, I don't think I'm a No. 9.
- Attacking full-back. - Yeah!
How are you, you all right?
I'm not so bad, son, aye.
Enjoying being back?
Yes. I'm not really back yet, but, you know.
I might be fit for close season.
Here, listen, I've got something here to show you.
You young fellas today, do you get a cap per game?
We get a cap per competitive game.
Right. In the season I've got Scotland-Wales, Scotland-Ireland,
Scotland-England.
Now, today, you would have had three caps.
We'd get three for them, yeah.
And we got one.
Oh, did you? So that's all your three games?
- They were tight, weren't they? - Tight, yeah!
That Scottish FA, so they were.
One cap, I should have had three.
I'm not sure if you know this, but we see you every day when we walk into Melwood,
so me and James will go down and show you, if you don't mind?
I don't believe this.
Is it an old newspaper article?
Oh, here we go!
Yeah.
So what did it mean to you to play for this club?
Nobody really knew Liverpool, we were a Second Division team at the time.
You were the record signing as well, weren't you?
I was the record signing, yeah, ten quid.
Bill Shankly started it all off here.
He convinced me to come,
he said we were gonna be the best this and the best that,
so I believed him, and he was right.
But I'm just looking at the boots they've got there, do you see in that picture there?
Bit different to ours now, aren't they?
Some tatty-looking boots there.
You always had an apprentice who looked after your boots,
and you'd give him something at Christmas, you know.
They get away with murder now, they don't have to do that anymore.
Right, we're gonna let Andy go now, cos he needs to go practise his heading.
Saint, nice meeting you, OK.
See you later on, bye-bye.
Keep it going.
So I don't know how your warm-ups were and what your routine was before training,
now we've actually got two gyms, a gym for rehab and a gym in here,
all the lads come in before training,
pre-activation, so it's a warm-up before a warm-up really.
It just gets you activated to go out and start the session a bit...ready.
Our warm-up would be bending down to tie your boots.
THEY LAUGH
That was it.
We'd go...
JAMES: "I'm ready now."
IAN: And that was your warm-up.
If I had your height I'd have been the leading goal-scorer.
You did pretty well anyway, didn't you?
So you're saying he should do better, for goals?
No, I'm looking forward to him doing better.
And would he have got in your team?
Well, we were used to defenders that could play a bit, you know.
And in the air, you've got to think he's going to win everything in the air.
Mostly, yeah.
What was it like to play against defenders back then?
Obviously it was much rougher than it is right now,
but could you tell me a little bit about how it was?
Have you seen some of the old clips of big centre-halves...?
Sometimes, yeah.
Big guys that would kick little fellows like us.
I've heard that you could handle yourself, so to speak,
I think we've got a video to look at here to prove that.
- No? - Maybe.
Here we go.
What game is this?
Oh!
Go on then.
Oh, aye, how many are joining in here?
ALL: Whoa!
He's out cold!
He's out cold.
I told you it was a bit rougher, but...
Right-right-left.
- Wow. - Good combo.
Was it just a yellow or...?
No, warning.
It was a warning, yeah.
What do you think the biggest differences are from today's game
compared to your time, when you were playing?
The modern goalkeeper who thinks he can play - he's dangerous!
Ali can play though.
Yeah, I'm not saying it about our goalie!
I'm just saying about the modern goalkeeper.
And after 20 passes, the ball is going back to the goalkeeper
and you're going, "Oh, don't."
He wants to then become a player, doesn't he?
He forgets he's wearing gloves.
And I'm talking all goalkeepers.
It's today's game, isn't it?
I think the football the club are playing at the moment, they're playing great football.
Exciting football. Scoring goals, we're playing a brand of football
that you can sit back and enjoy.
Ian, it's been a pleasure having you, thanks very much for coming.
I hope you've enjoyed it,
it's been amazing listening to your stories and seeing how the game's changed.