Legendary Player, Manager and Supporter – Sammy Lee’s Liverpool Life – Liverpool FC

With a long football career that may not yet be over, Sam Millne caught up with two-time European Cup winner Sammy Lee to discuss life at Liverpool.

Not many in football can match the CV that Lee has built up over the years.

After winning 10 major trophies in 10 years with his boyhood club Liverpool, Lee ended his playing career before going on to have an influential coaching career.

Since retiring from the game, he has worked with legendary managers including Gerard Houllier, Rafa Benitez, Kenny Dalglish and Sven-Goran Eriksson, all of whom retain their passion for Liverpool.

We spoke about Lee’s life at Liverpool as a player, manager and supporter.

I started supporting Liverpool because…

In this town you’re either red or blue, aren’t you? It’s been that way since birth.

Do you remember your first game with Liverpool?

One of my first I would have been six. We drew Ajax 2-2 at Anfield – the great Johan Cruyff was there.

We were beaten 5-1 in the first leg and we came back here, Bill Shankly was in charge. It was a foggy night in Ajax and Shanks, the man that he was, blamed the defeat on the fog.

So Liverpool actually wore yellow shirts against the great Ajax here in 1966. It was a foggy night then because it was one of those nights where the steam came off the Kop, the body heat generated that.

I was taken to Anfield at an early age by my dad and then my cousins ​​and it was a joy, but that’s what I remember more than anything else.

Which match would you relive, either as a player, coach or supporter?

I had a lot. I’ve been very, very lucky to play with some fantastic players, work and work with fantastic coaches and managers, but the one that sticks out in a lot of people’s minds is my debut.

That was because there was only one substitute at the time and what happened then was that Liverpool players got injured very, very rarely, because if you got injured you lost your place and you struggled to come back.

I was on the submarine bench. There’s a picture of me in the dugout on my own, I don’t think for a minute that I’m going to get on the field.

But a colleague of mine got injured, it allowed me to get on the pitch and if you Google Sammy Lee, Sammy Lee and goals don’t go together.

But I came on against Leicester and actually scored a goal on my debut in front of the Kop.

So for me as a boy, growing up a Liverpool supporter, to actually play for Liverpool Football Club, to actually play in front of the Kop, to score in front of the Kop on my debut was something I’ll never forget never. .

My favorite Liverpool season was…

My whole journey has been fantastic, either as a player for and against Liverpool Football Club or as a coach for and against Liverpool Football Club.

It just gave me so much on this journey and I have a lot to thank this football club for.

What does Liverpool mean to you?

Well, Liverpool Football Club means everything to me. Everything I am today was formed by Liverpool Football Club.

My 3 dinner guests from Liverpool past or present would be…

I’m very lucky because we go out to lunch with a group of players.

It’s me, it’s Phil Thompson, Ian Callaghan who will definitely be one of my dinner guests and Aldo (John Aldridge), Bruce Grobbelaar. We go out together quite often, and John Barnes.

But one would be Cally. Certainly one would be the great Bill Shankly and it would have to be Jurgen Klopp.

So we’re talking about Shanks, Cally and Jurgen and me. I hope it’s a long, long lunch.

* Thanks again to Sammy Lee for sharing ‘Liverpool Life’ with us.

You can hear more from him in our documentary, Jurgen Klopp: 10 defining moments, Here.