August 14 – Keegan Signs For Liverpool
WHEN you think of football in the seventies, big hair and Bill Shankly’s great Liverpool side are two of the abiding memories. It was on this day in 1971 that the two of these collided, as Kevin Keegan made his debut for the Reds.
Keegan was signed by Shanks as a fresh-faced twenty-year old from Scunthorpe for £35,000, and took to the field for the first time in a Liverpool shirt against Matt Gillies’ Nottingham Forest side. It didn’t take Keegan long to open his account, as he mishit a pass from Peter Thompson and ended up scoring, just 12 minutes into his Liverpool career.
This was just the start of six, trophy-packed and sometimes controversial years at Anfield for Keegan. 1973 saw the League title return to the Liverpool trophy room for the first time in seven years, with the UEFA Cup joining it, as Keegan scored twice in the final against Borussia Mönchengladbach. Two more league titles, another UEFA Cup and an FA Cup followed, but it was Keegan’s last game in which he is most fondly remembered for by the faithful of the Kop. Before the end of the 1977 season Keegan had announced that he would soon be leaving to try his luck on foreign soil, and his final appearance in a Liverpool shirt was to be in the biggest game of them all, the European Cup Final where they would again face Borussia Mönchengladbach. The famous scouse wit was in full effect, as one of footballs most famous banners read “Joey Ate The Frogs Legs, Made The Swiss Roll, Now He’s Munching Gladbach,” in honour of full-back Joey Jones, but it was Keegan that took the limelight, winning a late penalty to ensure the Red’s 3-1 win and a first European Cup.
Central to Keegan’s success at Anfield was his prolific partnership with Welshman John Toshack that was feared across Europe. The pair were so in-tune with each other that Shoot magazine dressed them up as Batman and Robin for a photoshoot – sadly not many of these pictures are knocking around these days.
Keegan left Liverpool to join Hamburg in 1977, where he would again be a terrace hero. Spells at Southampton and Newcastle followed before he hung up his boots in 1984. Eight years later he returned to the game and began his managerial career at St. James’, but that’s another story for another day. If you want to see how talented the man was, not just on the football pitch, see the clip below, making sure you get your speakers cranked up, and join us tomorrow when we look at a day where English football changed forever.
No related posts.
Loading ...2 Comments
August 14 - Keegan in at ‘Pool and Hoddle Mouths Off | On This Football Day on August 14th, 2009
[...] 1971 – Keegan Signs For Liverpool [...]
August 14 - Hoddle Strikes Again | On This Football Day on August 14th, 2008
[...] to watch with the clip below. Read the tale of another England manager making waves on this day here, and come back tomorrow for more from [...]