I can not find a single quote from Bill Shankly that mentions Manchester United directly (the only indirect reference was when he lost Lou Macari to United), his big beef was really Everton at the time. Maybe it is because of the United Gaffer, Matt Busby (who was a former Liverpool player) was a good mate of Bill Shankly or the fact that when Busby retired the Mancs enjoyed a spell in the 2nd Division or maybe out of respect to the Munich tragedy. Things were sure different then, so what happened?
As the Red marched across Europe in the 70s & 80s more Mancs looked with envy at the Kop roaring in more and more trophies. Then In 1986 they brought in Alex Ferguson who made it his mission to stop Liverpool’s domination. He had to wait 7 years for this to happen and this was not due to his ability but the fact that Liverpool stumbled on their own.
As Liverpool struggled to reach the status they enjoyed back in the 70s and 80s Manure (as I prefer to call them) rolled along winning trophy after trophy. The Manure fans had also changed, the older generation of fans who stood by their team during their slump were replaced by glory hunters who know “Jack” about football and they could never produce the kind of atmosphere that the Kop has for last 50 years. Fergie ruled the Premiership like Al Capone ruled Chicago in the 30s. Everyone was afraid to say anything against Manure, the media was afraid, referees were afraid and even the players themselves were afraid. Manc heroes like David Beckham and Ruud Van Nisteroy left the club after bust ups with El Supremo.
Then there is the fact that Manchester United had done a tremendous job in marketing themselves and as the case with marketing you can take sh*t and if you package it right then people will buy. They easily grew their fan base as the Premiership was now being shown live in many countries around the world.
May 2005 came around and an event that sent shivers down the Manure spines. Liverpool F.C. had won European Champions Cup against the mighty AC Milan after being down 3-0 at half time. Fergie thought of this as a fluke so he wrote a nice note to the Liverpool Manager Rafa Benitez.
Under Rafa Benitez Liverpool soon established themselves a force in Europe and the envy now started to grow on the Manure end.
In the summer of 2006 England fans watched in horror as Cristiano Ronaldo got Wayne Rooney sent off during the World Cup Quarter Final match between England and Portugal. He even had the cheek to wink at his Portuguese team mates on the bench. Everyone was in shock how can someone do this to a fellow team mate? Pure Manure 100%.
Then in the Summer of 2007 there was the Heinze affair, Rafa wanted to purchase Heinze from United but they refused to sell a player to Liverpool. This is the kind of hostility that does not do any good for relations between clubs. A quick look at the Italian league you can see the big clubs buying and selling players from each other, why can’t this happen in England? Because “Sir” Alex Ferguson says no. Well the Kop finally got the last laugh when Heinze blunders contributed Liverpool’s destruction of Real Madrid early this week.
So what will happen when Fergie retires? Good question, one that Fergie himself does not want to answer. Unlike Shankly who developed Paisley to step in and continue the job Fergie does not have anyone yet. He has been relying on his veterans such as Scoles, Neville & Giggs to push the team but I can not see them continuing the momentum once Fergie steps down. This is why he will not retire.