Anfield Iron

Description

A Liverpool legend tells his story... Footballing legend Tommy Smith played with Liverpool for eighteen years from 1960 to 1978. During this time he won almost every honour club football has to offer - 4 First Division Championship medals, 2 FA Cup winners medals, 2 European Cups, 2 UEFA Cups, 1 European Super Cup and 5 Charity Shields. He captained Liverpool for a number of seasons and played under both Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley, widely regarded as two of the greatest managers British football has ever produced. In that time he was forged into one of football's original hard men - Shankly once said, 'Tommy Smith wasn't born, he was quarried.' A uniquely tough but thoroughly fair player (in spite of his fame for the most punishing of tackles), he was sent off only once and booked only twice, on all three occasions for dissent. In this fascinating autobiography, Tommy gives us the inside story of a whole host of footballing legends - Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Ron Yeats, Kevin Keegan, Matt Busby, Brian Clough, George Best, Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Moore, Denis Law and Pele, as told by one of their own. A nostalgic view of a golden age of English football, this is a window on the glory days of Liverpool. It is also the story of the time before the game was all about the money and Tommy has a lot to say about football today - so he's not changed. As Bob Paisley once said, 'Tommy doesn't tackle opponents so much as break them down for resale as scrap.'

Tommy Smith was born in 1945. He played at Liverpool football club for eighteen years from 1960 to 1978. During this time, other than the European Cup Winners Cup, he won every honour club football has to offer - and more than once. He captained Liverpool for a number of seasons and played under both Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley. In 1977 Tommy was awarded an MBE for services to British football. He is now a newspaper columnist and after-dinner speaker.

As challenging and entertaining as Shankly... Hats off to Tommy Smith for breathing fresh life into a story familiar to his target market of Liverpool fans * FourFourTwo *