The desk Bill Shankly sat at to write out a furious resignation letter in 1964 is to go under the auctioneer’s hammer in Liverpool.
The roll-top desk is included in a bundle of artefacts that will be sold by Cato Crane next week.
It comes from a collection gathered together by former player, coach and club stalwart Tom Bush, who spent 37 years at Anfield.
His son, Alan, explained the desk was bound up in a power struggle between the board and the manager that has a resonance in today’s Premiership.
He said: “In 1962, Johnny Morrissey, a tough little Liverpool lad and striker, was sold to Everton by the Liverpool chairman TV Williams.
“Bill was so incensed he not been consulted that he typed his resignation out and left it on the desk.
“Walking out of the club he met my father, Tom, and Bob Paisley in the car park. Bill told them he had resigned and they were shocked.
“They made him go back into the club and they persuaded him not to resign. My father removed the letter and destroyed it.
“They then spoke to the club secretary the following day, and TV Williams effectively relinquished his power. He never bought or sold another player.
“That was the moment that managers began really to manage, and it was because of the stand that Bill took.
“It’s something that has been kept ‘in house’ at the club for years, and this desk is at the centre of it.”
When Mr Bush got hold of the desk nearly 40 years ago, he found a bundle of papers tucked at the back. They turned out to include some real gems, and the job lot will be auctioned off next Tuesday.
They include a match receipt from an FA cup tie between Liverpool and Everton, which reveals that Liverpool earned £2,607, 9 shillings from the gate.
There is also a “Liverpool Ladies Itinerary” for the players’ wives and girlfriends attending the Liverpool versus Arsenal FA Cup Final in 1950.
The schedule is likely to make today’s WAGs raise a well-sculpted eyebrow.
It includes a seaside visit to Brighton and Reigate as part of a tour that departed Liverpool Lime Street at 8.30am sharp on cup final Saturday.
The 1950s WAGs were put up in a Great Northern Hotel, the pocket-sized cardboard itinerary reveals.
Best of all may be a handwritten note from chairman George Richards to Don Welsh offering him the job as manager at LFC.
A simple three-page letter on headed notepaper in copper-plate script doubles up as Welsh’s contract, for which he would receive an extra £500 for winning the FA Cup or league championship.
Mr Bush said: “This was all the bits of administrative ‘rubbish’ in the back of the desk. In 1970, I was a student at Liverpool University and I was working at Anfield when they were building the new stand.
“I was in one part of the building and in the corner was this desk, in bits, I remembered from when I was a boy.
“It had been used by all the post-war managers up to then. I brought it home and got a furniture restorer to fix it up.”
Mr Bush wants the entire bundle of artefacts to be sold together and it is understood a representative from Liverpool FC Museum has been to look at it.
Auctioneer John Crane said: “The collection is so important, it would be a shame to spilt it up.”
He values the lot at upwards of £1,500.
The roll-top desk is included in a bundle of artefacts that will be sold by Cato Crane next week.
It comes from a collection gathered together by former player, coach and club stalwart Tom Bush, who spent 37 years at Anfield.
His son, Alan, explained the desk was bound up in a power struggle between the board and the manager that has a resonance in today’s Premiership.
He said: “In 1962, Johnny Morrissey, a tough little Liverpool lad and striker, was sold to Everton by the Liverpool chairman TV Williams.
“Bill was so incensed he not been consulted that he typed his resignation out and left it on the desk.
“Walking out of the club he met my father, Tom, and Bob Paisley in the car park. Bill told them he had resigned and they were shocked.
“They made him go back into the club and they persuaded him not to resign. My father removed the letter and destroyed it.
“They then spoke to the club secretary the following day, and TV Williams effectively relinquished his power. He never bought or sold another player.
“That was the moment that managers began really to manage, and it was because of the stand that Bill took.
“It’s something that has been kept ‘in house’ at the club for years, and this desk is at the centre of it.”
When Mr Bush got hold of the desk nearly 40 years ago, he found a bundle of papers tucked at the back. They turned out to include some real gems, and the job lot will be auctioned off next Tuesday.
They include a match receipt from an FA cup tie between Liverpool and Everton, which reveals that Liverpool earned £2,607, 9 shillings from the gate.
There is also a “Liverpool Ladies Itinerary” for the players’ wives and girlfriends attending the Liverpool versus Arsenal FA Cup Final in 1950.
The schedule is likely to make today’s WAGs raise a well-sculpted eyebrow.
It includes a seaside visit to Brighton and Reigate as part of a tour that departed Liverpool Lime Street at 8.30am sharp on cup final Saturday.
The 1950s WAGs were put up in a Great Northern Hotel, the pocket-sized cardboard itinerary reveals.
Best of all may be a handwritten note from chairman George Richards to Don Welsh offering him the job as manager at LFC.
A simple three-page letter on headed notepaper in copper-plate script doubles up as Welsh’s contract, for which he would receive an extra £500 for winning the FA Cup or league championship.
Mr Bush said: “This was all the bits of administrative ‘rubbish’ in the back of the desk. In 1970, I was a student at Liverpool University and I was working at Anfield when they were building the new stand.
“I was in one part of the building and in the corner was this desk, in bits, I remembered from when I was a boy.
“It had been used by all the post-war managers up to then. I brought it home and got a furniture restorer to fix it up.”
Mr Bush wants the entire bundle of artefacts to be sold together and it is understood a representative from Liverpool FC Museum has been to look at it.
Auctioneer John Crane said: “The collection is so important, it would be a shame to spilt it up.”
He values the lot at upwards of £1,500.
