Welcome to my weekly blog “The Igor Bišćan Hall of Fame”
every week I’ll be adding two new additions, one will be a Liverpool Legend or
fans favourite, the other a Player, Manager or Club who have contributed to the
world game we all love (Gary Neville need not worry). Please comment below who
you’d like to see make the IBHoF, here are this weeks entries. YNWA
ALBERT SHELLEY
1936/59 (Trainer) - 1959/71 (General Staff)
Albert “Bert” Shelley was probably the original Anfield Boot
Room old Boy. Born in Romsey, Hampshire and after starting in local football,
had a distinguished career in military football whilst serving in India and
Egypt during the First World War. In India, he served with the 2nd/5th
Hampshire Territorials and was a member of the Battalion side which reached the
semi-finals of the Calcutta Cup tournament in 1915. By 1918, he was in Egypt
with the 1st/4th Wiltshires with whom he won the Divisional Cup.
Following his demobilisation, he signed for Eastleigh
Athletic in November 1919, but within weeks had signed for Southampton who were
trying to rebuild their side in readiness for their entry into the newly formed
Football League Third Division South at the end of the season. After spending a
few months in the reserves, Shelley was given his big chance in the first team
when Arthur Andrews broke his leg in an FA Cup tie at West Ham in January 1920.
In the absence of a recognised right-half, the directors were pondering buying
a replacement but they were persuaded by the club trainer, former England
right-half Bert Lee, to "give the young Shelley a chance".
Shelley made his debut in the Southern League in a 2–2 home
draw with Cardiff City on 17 January 1920. He rapidly gained considerable
repute as a consistent, reliable half-back in the "stopper mould",
having the knack of smothering opposing forwards by his ability to anticipate
and intercept through-balls. The Saints won the 1921–22 Football League Third
Division South championship, the half back line of Shelley, Campbell and Turner
cemented Saints place in the Second Division over the next few years, Shelley was
not selected for full international honours, but was a member of an F.A. XI
which toured South Africa in 1929. In his long playing career for Southampton,
he made 410 league and 38 FA Cup appearances, scoring nine goals. His total of
448 appearances remained a club record until passed by Tommy Traynor in the
mid-1960s.
Following his retirement from playing, he remained at The
Dell as coach to the club's first "nursery" team which competed in
the Hampshire League. His success with the youngsters led to him being asked by
manager George Kay to take over as first-team trainer following the retirement
of his mentor, Bert Lee in 1935, When George Kay left to take over at
Liverpool, he took Shelley with him. At Anfield, Shelley was a part of Kay's
coaching staff, helping the Reds take the Football League championship in
1946–47. After Kay's retirement in 1951, Shelley remained a member of the
coaching staff under Don Welsh and then Phil Taylor until 1959, when Bill
Shankly became manger Albert continued his involvement with the club by looking
after the Anfield treatment room and generally helping out wherever else he
could, famed for his 'no-nonsense' approach and his ' cold bucket of water'
treatment for most injuries.
He also helped the young Bob Paisley who was learning his
trade as an apprentice physiotherapist and masseur, he said “The first person I
ever treated was Albert Shelley, our first-team trainer, for a boil on his
backside. Albert was one of the old school. He taught me how to harden my hands
with the towels. When the physio machines came in I had to show him how to use
them, but he never really came to terms with them. He had a common-sense
approach to the practical side of it, but he was frightened by the electrical
stuff, he even used to put a handkerchief on the leads. So when the machines
came in I virtually took over the treatment of all the players." Albert
remained on the general staff in an unofficial capacity helping with the more
menial tasks until his death in December 1971, aged 72.
BORN: Romsey, Hampshire. 11.8.1899.
DIED: Liverpool. 29.12.71 (aged 72).
CLUBS: 1915–1919 Military football, 1919 Eastleigh Athletic,
1919–1932 Southampton.
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MARCO VAN BASTEN
Marco Van Basten was no disciple of the Dutch ideal of Total
Football. He was not one for drifting into midfield or out on to the wing a la
Cruyff but instead was a goalscorer pure and simple. As Cruyff himself once
remarked: 'He doesn't influence the play very much, but he decides matches.'
And when it came to scoring goals, particularly ones that
decided important matches, nobody did it better than Van Basten. This tall,
athletic striker lit up the 1988 European Championships with a hat-trick
against England, a late winner against West Germany in the semi-finals and a
memorable angled volley in the final against the USSR to secure a 2-0 victory
for Holland. Yet he had started the tournament as only his team's third choice
striker.
The Marco Goalo story began in Utrecht but it was the
Amsterdam giants Ajax who signed the teenager after spotting him at the club's
annual youth talent gala. His first appearance for Ajax was as a substitute for
the great Cruyff and by 1986 he was Europe's leading marksman, his 37 goals
that season earning him the coveted Golden Boot. With Van Basten spearheading
their attack, Ajax carried off two Dutch Championships, two Dutch Cups and, in
1987, the European Cup Winners' Cup at the expense of Lokomotiv Leipzig.
Naturally Van Basten scored the only goal of the game. The following season he
moved to AC Milan for £1.5 million, having scored an astonishing 128 League
goals for Ajax in just 143 appearances.
Forming a formidable partnership with fellow Dutch striker
Ruud Gullit, Van Basten helped Milan to their first Serie A title in nine
years, although his appearances were severely restricted by an ankle injury.
More significantly, his goals enabled Arrigo Sacchi's team to lift successive
European Cups in 1989 and 1990, Van Basten scoring twice against Steaua
Bucharest in the first of those finals. In the wake of the European Championships
the accolades flowed thick and fast -European Footballer of the Year in 1988,
1989 and 1992; World Footballer of the Year in 1988 and 1992; and FIFA World
Player of the Year in 1992.
He continued to re-write the record books, his spree against
Malta in 1990 making him the first Dutch player to score five goals in an
official international. A rare lapse occurred in the 1992 European
Championships when he missed a decisive penalty in the semi-final shoot-out
against Denmark. Holland were eliminated and Van Basten announced his
retirement from international football shortly afterwards.
Domestically, he helped Milan to two more League titles,
galvanized by a purple patch of thirteen goals in fifteen games against the
meanest defences in club football. However, amid all this success a dark cloud
loomed on the horizon. The ankle injury-a legacy of being hacked mercilessly by
tough-tackling defenders - flared up again, necessitating two operations. What
would turn out to be his last competitive game was Milan's contentious 1-0
defeat by Olympique Marseille in the 1993 European Cup Final. Marseille were
subsequently stripped of the victory and their French League title after the
club's owner, Bernard Tapie, was found guilty of paying three Valenciennes players
to take it easy in a League match a week before the European final.
Van Basten eventually gave up on his struggle to regain
fitness in August 1995 and was forced to retire from the game at the age of 30.
He had scored 90 goals in 147 matches for Milan and had set a European Cup
record haul of eighteen goals in 23 games for the club. He was also the leading
marksman twice in Serie A. Other players may have scored more spectacular goals
but when it came to the big occasion, no one could match Marco Van Basten.
BORN: Utrecht, Netherlands. 31.10.64.
CLUBS: 1981–1987 AFC Ajax, 1987–1995 AC Milan.
INERNATIONAL CAREER: Netherlands 1983-1992, Caps 58, Goals
24.
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