Of the many pertinent comments to be heard in ‘THE THREE KINGS‘ (Dir Jonny Owen, 104 mins, 2020), a documentary chronicling the lives of Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and Jock Stein, three Scottish managers who stand among the true defining figures of British football, Stein makes a statement that carries even more resonance today than when he made it some fifty years ago.
Spoken at a time when he had already become the first British manager to win the European Cup, Stein says:
‘You play a football match without fans you’ve got nothing. It can be the greatest game in the world, but if there’s no people there to watch it becomes nothing. Go to an average game with a big crowd, the excitement and atmosphere makes it a great game.’
Such are the sentiments it would not have been a surprise to hear any of the trio make those remarks. The similarities between the three men begins with each of them born into impoverished circumstances within twenty five miles of each other in the Lanarkshire and Ayrshire coalfields – and ends with Busby (Manchester United), Shankly (Liverpool) and Stein (Celtic) becoming talismatic figureheads of clubs in cities where passion for football runs at its hottest.
At 16 years of age they were each miners, inter-dependence on work-mates and friends in the villages from which they emerged shaping the football philosophies of Busby, Shankly and Stein. In describing his approach to football management, Shankly called it ‘football socialism‘ – in other words each player serving the team on behalf of the greater good.
If differences in personality were reflected in the way their teams were moulded into the trophy-winning machines they became, the documentary, for the most part a fascinating watch, shows a sure touch in depicting individual traits; Busby (wise and reserved), Shankly (witty and intense), Stein (calm and thoughtful).
It is less assured when presenting the cultural background against which the triumvirate enjoyed their halcyon days, some of the journalistic theories put forward as social context too highfalutin for their own good.
Not those, however, voiced by sports writers Patrick Barclay and Archie McPherson, whose observations on the divisions within Scottish society, especially in regard to Stein and his coupling with Celtic, are particularly insightful.
The elder statesman of the group, Busby (1909-1994), was 18 years of age when spotted by Manchester City, who took him from junior football in Scotland to Maine Road, whereupon he became a right-half of some repute – going on to make over 200 first team appearances and play in two FA Cup Finals before joining Liverpool in 1936.
His playing career ended in 1939 by the outbreak of World War Two, Busby, serving as an army PT instructor during the conflict, was appointed manager of Manchester United when it ended in 1945 – telling the directors at his interview he wanted to build not just a team, but a football club. Armed with unstinting belief in his ideas, it is Shankly who best describes what Busby took on:
‘I was in Manchester in 1945 and saw for myself how Old Trafford had been blitzed by bombing,’ recalled Shankly, ‘and thought to myself ‘they’ll never be another football team from here again.’ That the club and ground rose from that is tribute to Matt Busby.’
At the end of his first season (1946-47) Manchester United finished as first division runners-up, but went on to win the FA Cup the following year, the league title, after a couple of near misses, finally secured in 1952. Sensing it was time to begin rebuilding the team, Busby, who had made development of young talent a priority on becoming manager, began introducing a crop of gifted teenagers into the side, who collectively became known as the ‘Busby Babes‘ – their abundant ability making them league champions in 1956 and 1957.
With designs on becoming the undisputed champion team of Europe, Busby showed ambition beyond the domestic game, fighting (and winning) battles with the Football League and the FA for Manchester United to compete in the fledgling European Cup competition – only for tragedy to strike on February 6 1958.
Returning from a second leg quarter-final tie against Red Star Belgrade, in which United had secured a semi-final place, the aeroplane on which they were travelling crashed on take-off at Munich airport where it had stopped to refuel.
Eight players, including a 21 year-old wonder named Duncan Edwards (who Busby described as ‘incomparable‘ and ‘the most accomplished player I have ever seen‘), died as a result of the disaster, Busby surviving the crash despite sustaining life-threatening injuries. Stricken by guilt and grief, at the behest of wife Jean he decided to continue as manager, believing it was what those who perished and the players who survived would have wanted him to do.
12 months after the tragic events at Munich, Busby recommended fellow Scot Shankly (1913-1981) to the directors of second division Liverpool when they went in search of a new manager.
After a distinguished playing career spent largely with Preston North End, that was reaching its peak as the second world war began, Shankly, the youngest of five brothers who all played professional football, cut his managerial teeth with Carlisle United, Workington and Huddersfield Town – arriving at Anfield aware of enormous potential waiting to be unlocked.
Inheriting a team of no great merit, but a first rate backroom staff (who included future Liverpool managers Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan), Shankly quickly built a strong and lasting camaraderie with supporters on the Spion Kop terrace. With input from his coaching cohorts they put in place a system of play lacking only good quality players to make it work.
As homegrown youngsters such as Roger Hunt and Ian Callaghan began to make their mark they were supplemented by the signing of future Scottish internationals Ron Yeats (Dundee United) and Ian St. John (Motherwell) – and no sooner had Liverpool won Division Two in 1962 than designs were set on winning the league championship, the stories of Busby and Shankly from this point onward intertwining until the end of the decade.
During one interview contained in the documentary, Busby recalls, ‘when Bill became manager of Liverpool he gave us problems as they started fighting us every inch of the way and we arrived at the situation where Liverpool became a real danger to us.’
Hence the great rivalry between Manchester United and Liverpool begins with Busby and Shankly. Yet theirs was borne out of mutual respect, the documentary portraying their relationship as one of deep affection with older/younger brother connotations, this clearly evident in one (joint) early-70s interview.
Revealing it took three years to recover his full strength after the Munich crash, by 1963 Busby had created an impressive team, survivors Bill Foulkes and gifted England international Bobby Charlton by now joined by Scotsman Denis Law, a striker of sublime skill.
In that year they won the FA Cup and when a prodigiously talented Belfast-born teenager named George Best was introduced into the line-up, the hallowed ‘Best-Law-Charlton’ trinity came into being. Playing a brand of expansive, exciting football Manchester United returned to the top of English football by winning the league title in 1965 and 1967.
In the years proceeding each of those triumphs, Shankly had guided Liverpool to the league championship, a 1965 FA Cup success coming in between. This powerful, unrelenting team were capable of putting any opposition under pressure, particularly at Anfield, where the raucous home support was dubbed by Shankly as their ‘twelfth man.’
In recent times the achievements of Shankly (‘Nature’s Fire‘), and Busby (‘Busby‘) have been documented in notable stand alone documentaries, which therefore makes ‘The Three Kings‘ at its most revelatory when the focus falls upon Stein (1922-1985).
Depicted as a combative rather than creative footballer, a somewhat low-key playing career grew in renown when he signed for Celtic in 1951, an increase in his standing as a professional coming at personal cost. Stein, a Protestant, losing friendships due to signing for a predominantly Catholic club – marriage to a Catholic gaining him more ‘former’ friends.
When injury ended his playing days Stein took the job as Celtic reserve team coach, developing a group of talented players who would later form the basis of the all-conquering team in his charge a few years later.
But in the meantime Stein found himself once more prey to the religious divide at the top of Scottish football. In describing sectarianism when applied to the rivalry between Celtic and Glasgow rivals Rangers, McPherson and Barclay acquit themselves well – the former remarking on how Stein ‘hated bigotry‘ on both sides.
Given the unlikelihood of Celtic appointing a Protestant manager, Stein left Parkhead in 1960 to take charge of Dunfirmline Athletic and on enjoying notable success there and then at Hibernian, returned to Celtic in 1965 to take charge of the first team.
Under his charge Celtic quickly became an expressive, attacking force, Stein guiding them to the league title in 1966. Their prowess then took them to the 1967 European Cup Final, where a side drawn from within thirty miles of Glasgow became the first British team to win the trophy – a 2-1 victory over Italian champions Inter Milan in Lisbon a triumph for ambition over attrition.
The only manager of an English club (England yet to produce a finalist) who saw Celtic prevail was Shankly – although twelve months later that was remedied when Busby led Manchester United to European Cup glory, the 4-1 extra-time victory over Benfica at Wembley. Redemption of sorts for Busby, there could be no more fitting tribute to what had been achieved in the ten years since Munich – or to those who had perished when he first harboured the notion of Manchester United becoming champions of Europe.
On his retirement two years later, Manchester United found a way of assimilating Busby into the hierarchy of the club in a way Liverpool and Celtic were unable to do with Shankly and Stein.
Having reestablished Liverpool as a major force with a run of early 70s trophies, Shankly resigned, apparently in haste, just two months after winning the FA Cup in May 1974, one observer describing him as ‘a king without a kingdom‘ through the last seven years of his life – this after being banished from the Liverpool training ground after making frequent visits early in his ‘retirement’.
Shortly after he retired in 1970, Busby, casting a long shadow over those who were to follow, shook hands with Stein on agreement of him leaving Celtic to take over at Old Trafford – only for Stein to have a last minute change of heart, commenting in a mid-70s interview:
‘I like being manager of Celtic and working with the players and directors – but most importantly I like to bring success to the people who come and watch us.’
But by 1978 his reign was over. After producing another wave of gifted players through the 70s, only to see several bought by top English clubs, Celtic were diminished again with the sale of Kenny Dalglish to Liverpool in 1977. On retiring Stein was succeeded by Billy McNeill, captain of the 1967 ‘Lisbon Lions.’
Offered menial roles as a means of remaining at the club, all of which he declined – his family more resentful of what Celtic proposed than Stein himself – at this point ‘Three Kings‘ once more allows McPherson to paint the scene:
‘Jock Stein had a great rapport with the Celtic supporters which could not be said of everyone inside Celtic Park. He was Protestant and because of his background some at the club didn’t like him and he felt there was a lingering resentment.’
Unlike Busby and Shankly, however, Stein remained in the game, a brief spell managing Leeds United followed by a seven season stint as manager of the Scottish national team.
Sadly his tenure ended in misfortune of the highest order, Stein suffering a fatal heart-attack in September 1985 at Ninian Park, Cardiff, just minutes after Scotland had played Wales in a World Cup qualifying fixture – this upsetting episode described with great poignancy by Sir Alex Ferguson, who was alongside Stein in the role of assistant manager on that fateful night.
Even beyond followers of Manchester United, Liverpool and Celtic, ‘The Three Kings‘ warrants a watch by anyone interested in how these three men shaped not just the clubs with whom they are identified, but British football as it exists today. Despite being two generations on, at least, from their heyday, the essence of what we know as Old Trafford, Anfield and Celtic Park dates back to the moment Busby, Shankly and Stein first walked through the door.
Shaped by principles taken from the hard economic times and close knit habitats from whence they came, their core football values were based upon giving entertainment to those who paid hard-earned money at the turnstiles – ‘The Three Kings‘ ultimately testament to a time when clubs, even the biggest ones, represented communities rather than conglomerates, richness measured in glory as opposed to cash.
‘THE THREE KINGS‘ is available to watch on Amazon Prime.
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