Right, here he comes.
Let's keep nice and quiet now, right?
JOHN MOTSON: Can we just do this bef...? Thanks very much.
< I don't want any noise.
MOTSON: OK, I think they'll be alright.
Go on, Joe!
Ssh(!)
Joe was always the quiet man. Very shrewd, very knowledgeable.
He knew his football.
- If a player at Liverpool Football Club was struggling, needed a pick-up,
needed someone to listen to them, it was always Joe.
He was a man who'd given his life to Liverpool Football Club,
creating these teams and producing this fantastic success for Liverpool and its people.
- There's this man, thrown into a job which he probably didn't want,
and what does he do? In his first season, the team wins a treble.
It's phenomenal.
- Joe was, to me, a manager before he was made manager.
The biggest thing, see, is the knowledge of the game,
and how to work with people.
- I was his captain and I responded to his type of management,
he was just a lovely, lovely human being.
JOE: It's the people in the club, it's the people that make it really.
There's no magic. No, there's no magic.
Joe was born in Walton Hospital
in Liverpool, March 1921.
His parents were Irish, lived in the north end of the city, Scotland Road area.
Joe did well at school, but nevertheless, at 14,
he had to leave school and he got a job in a tannery works,
mainly to bring some money into the household.
It was a hard life, I don't think there's any getting away from that.
Joe played for a St Helens club, Earlsetown Bohemians,
they were well-known in the area, and he was outstanding, clearly.
When he was a schoolboy
he was offered a trial with Liverpool,
and he also thought Everton were interested in him,
but somebody said, "Look, if you go to one of the local clubs and anything goes wrong,
"the locals will be the whipping boys, so don't go."
JOHN WILLIAMS: I suspect that Joe wanted to get away from the city for a while
and wanted a bit of freedom.
Manchester City was a big club. Here was Joe about to embark, he thought,
on a professional career in his late teens.
And suddenly, the war arrives.
He plays occasionally for City in regional football,
but he soon joins up, he joins the navy,
and he ends up playing mostly services football during the Second World War.
It was a huge chunk of his career.
Joe makes his full debut for Manchester City in 1947, on New Year's Day.
He's 26 years of age.
City are in the Second Division, but he helps them get promoted.
Some people describe him a plodder, a bit of a 7/10 player,
but he's a key figure.
JOHN KEITH: Joe exuded this calm authority.
Very little ego actually, which is unusual in football.
He also had the ability to acquire knowledge - he listened and he learned.
He knew the game and he knew how to communicate it.
JOHN WILLIAMS: 1950, he gets injured, a breakage above the ankle,
and he decides to leave Manchester City
and look at possible routes into management or coaching.
He starts to work at Nelson as player-manager,
and is really successful there,
he then moves on to do some coaching at Bradford Park Avenue,
he goes to Altrincham briefly.
Harry Catterick - who was later to become the Everton manager, of course -
is the manager of Rochdale, and he recruits Joe.
It's Harry Catterick who recommends him to Phil Taylor at Liverpool in 1958.
At that time Liverpool are in the Second Division and frankly not doing very well.
Phil Taylor, the manager, is not really his own man,
he's not picking the team.
Liverpool doesn't look like a club going somewhere.
But nevertheless, Joe can see that it's a step up.
Well, I first met Joe when I was playing in the first team, when he joined us in '58.
He was a great bloke; he treated the players the right way, they respected him,
right away you could see he was going to make the club better.
JOHN WILLIAMS: In 1959, a whole number of things occur to change
the very future of the club.
One is Phil Taylor resigned,
and for the first time the Liverpool board show some ambition.
They decide to recruit a manager who himself has real ambition.
Towards the end of 1959 Bill Shankly sweeps into Liverpool Football Club.
JOHN KEITH: Managers now get rid of the backroom - Shanks got them all together.
There was Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan, and Reuben.
He had the wisdom and foresight to say, "I'm keeping you",
and he got rid of 24 players.
JOHN WILLIAMS: His job is really as the reserve team coach in the Central League.
Now, the Central League has to deal with very ambitious young players,
it also has to deal with seasoned professionals left out the first team.
Joe is made for this job, Joe knows when to press the right buttons with players.
At the age of 15 I joined Liverpool and Joe was there,
he used to take care of the kids.
He put me on the straight road,
because Joe was somebody you could have a bit of a cry on,
you could put your head on his shoulder.
I could have a chat with him about why I'm not in the first team.
"Because you're not good enough, son."
Simple as that!
Well, if somebody answers you like that, boof, you go, "Well, OK."
"When am I gonna be good enough?"
"I'll tell you when you're good enough."
JOHN WILLIAMS: The manager had his office where he could retreat to,
the players had the dressing room of course,
but the coaches felt like they needed a space.
Joe had a contact in Guinness Exports, one of the famous local non-league clubs.
He did a bit of coaching for the Exports and allowed some of their players
to come and be treated occasionally.
As a thank you, Joe used to get some Guinness and other beers.
JOHN KEITH: So they decided to stack it in the Boot Room,
and that's how the thing began.
Shanks hardly ever went in, it wasn't his domain.
JOHN WILLIAMS: This was where Liverpool's coaches traded information,
and it was also where they invited the managers of opposing teams
to come and have a drink and a chat after matches.
Joe was the main man in the training regime,
he set out all the stuff for the day, he wrote it down in his book.
Joe would be the rock of Liverpool,
he kept everybody together because of his personality.
JOHN WILLIAMS: I think Joe's real input was to be part of that balance.
Shankly brought his charisma, his bravado,
the way he inspired people.
The achievements of Bob Paisley are so amazing.
The most successful period in the history of the club,
and without Joe none of this, I don't think, is likely to have happened quite the way it did.
RONNIE MORAN: Didn't want big-headed players.
If certain players didn't do it, you were away.
If anybody went through the motions in training, they were kicked up the backside.
He was that great back-up for Bob Paisley,
because Bob couldn't converse as much as Shanks had done.
When it was difficult to know what the team selection was or some other thing,
Joe would just have a quiet word and say, "Look, this is what it is."
When I went there my first game was West Brom away.
So 10 minutes before the game I'm there with all the senior players,
and I said to Joe at ten to three, "Can I have a word with you?"
He said, "Yes, son, what is it?"
I said, "I've been here a week and no-one's said anything to me -
"how do you want me to play?"
And he said in a big, booming voice,
"Eff off, we've spent all this money on you and you're asking me how to play football!"
That was how it was in those days.
JOHN WILLIAMS: Bob Paisley has had this unparalleled period of success,
but Bob is coming to the end of his time
and there's plenty of time for Liverpool Football Club to decide what happens next.
Bob had announced the year before he was gonna give it one more season,
and everyone knew it would be Joe.
I'll tell you who was great for Joe the first season he got the job - Graeme Souness.
Graeme called a meeting in the first-team dressing room and said,
"All the press are writing this fella off,
"let's make sure we can win every single competition possible."
And in Joe's first year we won three, I think.
JOHN WILLIAMS: Joe is 62 by this time, he's quite old to be taking on a manager's job.
He loses some games, one is a very famous defeat at Coventry City
in December 1983, Liverpool lost 4-0.
It's not plain sailing, but he keeps them on track, keeps the club moving forward,
and we know that incredible success followed.
The Milk Cup, in which Liverpool beat Everton, the first great Merseyside cup final.
Liverpool triumph in the end.
JOHN KEITH: When they clinched the title at Notts County, we went to the dressing room,
and there was Joe sweeping the dressing room.
MARK LAWRENSON: It was that simplicity, just such a nice bloke,
still lived within walking distance of Anfield,
even as manager I think he still went home for lunch!
A fantastic achievement for the club, the first to do it in three successive years
since Arsenal in the '30s...
Not bad. Not bad at all, is it?
I don't think we ever think about these things,
we leave it to other people to sort the, erm...
Statistics out.
Statistics - couldn't say that word, John, I still can't say it!
What you can do is manage a football team, your first year in charge,
two trophies on the shelf already - that must mean something to you.
Incredible, isn't it? Incredible. I don't know how it's happened, don't ask me!
I do really, cos the lads have done it. They've been magnificent.
At the end of the day, I think we deserved our league championship.
And a European Cup still to come, the final.
Well, I'm not going to think about it, can't think about that as well!
Mind you, it would again be something unique, wouldn't it, a treble?
No comment!
JOHN WILLIAMS: And then the final challenge,
the extraordinary challenge of not only playing in the European Cup final
but playing against Roma in their own stadium.
GRAEME SOUNESS: The morning of the game, we're having lunch,
and after everyone more or less finished
he tapped a spoon on the glass, and we're all nudging each other,
we think he's going to make a long speech, and we didn't have team meetings.
So he stood up, and it was obvious after about 30 seconds he was talking to himself.
And he said, "Big game tonight, these must be a good team,
"they've got several World Cup winners, Brazilians."
And then there was a pause, then he said, "They're not as good as us."
That was his team talk for the European Cup final.
Good evening to you from the Olympic Stadium in Rome, the perfect setting,
a spectacular arena for what promises to be an epic battle.
Might come for Phil Neal!
And it's given! Liverpool are in the lead!
Crossed in once more, flicked on again!
And Roma have equalised.
Extra time is over, it's penalties.
Grobbelaar, antics on the line.
Missed it!
If Alan Kennedy scores, it's all over.
Liverpool are European champions!
What joy!
JOHN KEITH: There's this man thrown into a job which he probably didn't want,
and what does he do? In his first season the team wins a treble.
It's phenomenal.
There's a lovely picture of him by the swimming pool in the hotel the day after.
Joe's got a smile as wide as the Mersey.
By halfway through that second season he was feeling it was a heavy load to bear.
And in February he went to the board and said,
"I want to finish at the end of this season."
It's difficult to reflect on that season now, because of what happened in the last game.
JOHN WILLIAMS: I think what happened to Joe at that match,
the European Cup final in 1985, was really difficult to take.
I think it broke him.
He just didn't understand it, couldn't comprehend it.
His life's work in creating these teams and producing this fantastic success
for Liverpool and its people,
how it could be reduced to this.
RONNIE MORAN: Coming off that plane it really got to him, and he was very upset.
He had to show some emotion sometimes, and he let himself go then.
JOHN WILLIAMS: He was a man who'd given his life to Liverpool Football Club,
and what happened in '85 in Heysel had really, really shattered him.
PHIL THOMPSON: He was a wonderful coach, he was a wonderful manager.
And he should be, I think, more appreciated for what he actually did.
JOHN KEITH: It's easy to make mistakes
when you're taking over a ship that's sailing serenely,
just one more little mistake and the ship can be on the wrong course,
but not only did Joe keep it on course, the team wins a treble.
RONNIE MORAN: He never changed. To me, his main thing was his treatment of people,
and his knowledge of the game and how to play it.
ROY EVANS: Joe became, I'd have to say, my father in football,
that's how much I thought of him.
GRAEME SOUNESS: We were playing Southampton away,
and we stopped at Oxford for lunch.
My mother had been seriously ill and I was late in getting on the bus,
because I'd been on the phone to my brother,
who'd told me my mother was going to die that night.
And then, from Oxford all the way down to Southampton,
he sat with his arm round me. I'll always remember that.
He was just a lovely, lovely human being.
I loved him.
JOHN WILLIAMS: I think the risk always with someone like Joe
is that his role is underplayed, because the character of Bill Shankly is so enormous,
because the achievements of Bob Paisley are so amazing,
but that doesn't mean that Joe isn't crucial - he is crucial,
he's definitely crucial for that whole period.
What a set of achievements, what a history,
what a place he has in the hearts of all Liverpool supporters.
Think the champagne might help to settle it tonight though, Joe.
Actually, this is whisky and lemonade.
Wrong again!
As usual you finish on top - we'll leave it there.
Thanks very much, John.
FANS CHEER
Cheers, cheers.