Melwood Today: Bill Shankly 52nd anniversary, Lucas & Agudelo

December 1, 2011
Mark Broomy

In Thursday’s Melwood Today….

Bill Shankly – December 1, 1959
Lucas Leiva Injury Latest
Shelvey – From Blackpool to Liverpool
Suso’s Goal Gives Liverpool’s Reserves The Points
Carra’s Wembley Dream
Juan Agudelo to train with Liverpool
Daily Merseyside Rumours: Eduardo Vargas
Liverpool face Man City in League Cup Semi’s
Thursday Morning’s Premier League News

December 1, 1959….

Its December 1, a date that will forever be etched in the annals of Liverpool football club’s history… 52 years ago, on 1 December 1959, Liverpool Football Club announced Huddersfield Town boss Bill Shankly would be their new manager in succession to Phil Taylor.

Back on December 1, 1959, Liverpool’s chairman TV Williams issued the following statement…

Mr Bill Shankly, manager of Huddersfield Town was last night appointed manager of Liverpool Football Club in succession to Mr Phil Taylor, who resigned on November 17. He has accepted the position, but has agreed to stay on at Leeds Road for another month before coming to Anfield in the early days of the New Year, unless circumstances permit an earlier release.

It is 52 years since Bill Shankly took over at Liverpool where he transformed the club and laid the foundations for our subsequent European and domestic success.

The Shankly Story

Shankly Video Compilation

Bill Shanklys Liverpool Honours

League Championships – (1963-64), (1965-66), (1972-73)
FA Cups – (1964-65), (1973-74)
UEFA Cup 1972-73
Second Division Championships (1961-62).
Charity Shields (1964 – shared), (1965 – shared), (1966)
FA Cup – (1970-71)
European Cup Winners Cup – (1965-66)
Charity Shield – (1971)

“‘Liverpool was made for me and I was made for Liverpool.”

Bill Shankly

In other Melwood Today News this Thursday Morning….

Lucas Leiva Injury Latest

The extent of Lucas Leiva’s knee injury has been revealed and Wednesday’s scan results has confirmed Lucas has anterior cruciate ligament damage to his left knee. Lucas will now undergo surgery which ultimately means he’ll miss the rest of the season.

Lucas underwent the scan on Wednesday afternoon to assess the injury to his knee sustained during our 2-0 victory over Chelsea in the Carling Cup on Tuesday evening when he collided with Chelsea‘s Spanish midfielder Juan Mata and immediately pulled up clutching his left knee.

Lucas had been in impressive form so far this season and has grown into the role of Liverpool’s main defensive midfielder starting 12 League games out of 13 this season.

Liverpool are still waiting for news of Liverpool’s captain Steven Gerrard’s return who is still working his way back to fitness following an ankle infection and no date has been set for when he will return.

Shelvey – From Blackpool to Liverpool

Meanwhile, Jonjo Shelvey is on his way back to Melwood having been recalled from his loan spell at Blackpool with immediate effect. With news of Lucas’ knee injury with rumours of our Brazilian midfielder facing a possible six months on the sidelines, Dalglish has opted to recall Shelvey.

Shelvey has been hitting the headlines for the Seasiders in his short loan spell where he has scored an impressive 6 goals in 10 appearances.

“Obviously this is a setback to us as Jonjo has done ever so well in his short time with us,” Seasiders manager Ian Holloway told the club`s website, blackpoolfc.co.uk.

“We knew that Liverpool had the recall option on him and it is only the unfortunate injury to Lucas that has prompted them to take this course of action.” Holloway has not ruled out a return to Blackpool for Shelvey “We will be in regular contact with Liverpool about trying to bring him back in January should Liverpool`s injuries clear up.”

Suso’s Goal Gives Liverpool’s Reserves The Points

The Liverpool Reserves were in action on Wednesday evening and secured a valuable 1-0 win over Wolves thanks to an early goal from Suso.

Suso opened the scoring with a seventh minute strike when he found space in the Wolves area and his low shot just inside the near post beat Wolves goalkeeper Aaron McCarey.

In a busy Reserve League and NextGen schedule this season, Rodolfo Borrell’s Liverpool side now prepare to welcome Wigan next Tuesday, 6 December.

Wolves: McCarey, Doherty, Reckord, Price, Ihiekwe, Ebanks-Landell, Forde, Harris, Cassidy (McAlinden 83), Winnall, Ismail (Gorman 83).
Unused subs: Cotman, Whittall, Kostrna.

Liverpool: Hansen, Mendy (Roberts 55), Smith, Sama, Wisdom, Coady, Suso, Flanagan, Eccleston (Ngoo 64), Adorjan (Silva 75), Sterling. Subs not used: Roddan, Belford.
Unused subs: Rodden, Belford.

Carra’s Wembley Dream

After leading his team to a 2-0 victory over Chelsea in the Carling Cup Quarter Final, Jamie Carragher immediately set his sights to Wembley. Carragher has played in memorable cup finals at the Millennium Stadium on numerous occasions for Liverpool but the last time Liverpool played at Wembley was back in 1996 and Carra, speaking to Talksport, revealed he is relishing the thoughts of a possible final at Wembley…

“I’ve played at Wembley once or twice for England but I’ve never done it for Liverpool. I’d love to do that, When we have reached cup finals in the past they have been in Cardiff, so I’ve never been there with Liverpool. There is still a semi-final to play over two legs and there are some massive sides in there so it is going to be very tough. We’ll take the semi-final very seriously.”

Listen to Carragher’s Post-match interview over on Talksport Here

Juan Agudelo to train with Liverpool

American forward Juan Agudelo, currently with MLS side New York Red Bulls, will train with Liverpool FC this week. Agudelo, 19, will fly in from Germany where he has been training with VfB Stuttgart.

He has represented USA at U17, U20 and made his senior debut in November 2010, scoring the only goal as substitute against South Africa. He has made a total of 15 appearances for the national side, scoring twice.

NYRB manager Hans Backe described Agudelo earlier this year; “He shows such power. He is something special.”

Agudelo confirmed the news on his Twitter account.

The Daily Merseyside Rumours: Eduardo Vargas

Universidad de Chile forward Eduardo Vargas has again been linked with a possible move to Liverpool. Yesterday, Vargas’ agent Diego Cativa, spoke of how Universidad have opened talks with Liverpool, Arsenal and a number of other top European clubs for the highly rated 22 year old. Vargas has scored 2 goals in nine appearances for Chile since making his debut in 2009.

“The clubs are speaking a lot but little progress has been made,” Diego Cativa told supervasco.com.

“We are talking with AC Milan and Inter Milan, who have made proposals, as well as with Liverpool, Arsenal and a number of other clubs. Interest from Vasco de Gama? They cannot compete with the clubs that are already interested.”

Liverpool face Man City in League Cup Semi Final

The two Premier League sides remaining in the League Cup drew each other in the draw for the semi-finals, with Liverpool to face Man City.

Championship sides Cardiff City and Crystal Palace will fight it out in the other semi-final.

The first leg will take place at the Etihad Stadium on the week of January 9th, with the return leg at Anfield two weeks later (week commencing January 23rd).

The two sides drew 1-1 in the League at Anfield just last weekend.

Thursday Morning’s Premier League News

Steve Bruce is the first Premier League manager to lose his job this season after being sacked by Sunderland on Wednesday evening.
Crystal Palace recorded a stunning extra-time victory at Old Trafford to reach the Carling Cup semi-finals and send Manchester United crashing out on Wednesday evening.
The Guardian have reported that Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool were the top spenders on agents’ fees last year as the top-flight clubs spent a total of £71.8m, latest figures have revealed. City topped the payments table with £9.7m paid to agents, followed by Spurs on £7.6m, then Liverpool on £7m

Melwood Today – Your quick round up of some of Liverpool’s essential and not-so-essential news every morning on ThisIsAnfield.com …