Kenny Dalglish

Kenneth "Kenny" Mathieson Dalglish MBE (born 4 March 1951, Dalmarnock, Glasgow) is a former Scottish international football player. He was famous for his successes with Celtic in the 1970s and with the English club Liverpool in the 1970s and 1980s. A prolific goalscorer, he was the first to score 100 league goals in both the English and Scottish leagues. He is regarded as the greatest Liverpool player of all time, and was recently crowned the 'Player Who Shook The Kop' the most in its history.[1]

More recently, Dalglish has also enjoyed success as a club manager: he is one of only three people to have won the English League Championship as a manager with two different clubs. He was also the first man to win 100 caps for Scotland and won a total of 102 caps. With 30 goals, he holds the scoring record for his country jointly with Denis Law.

Playing career

Dalglish grew up supporting Rangers. Though born in Dalmarnock in the East End of Glasgow, he was brought up in the docklands of Govan, just a stone's throw from Ibrox.

He wanted to join his idols at Rangers, but the call never came. He had trials at Liverpool and West Ham, but they came to nothing. And so it was that Dalglish, the Protestant son of an engineer, found himself playing for Celtic, age-old fierce Old Firm rivals of Rangers.

His signing, on a provisional contract in July 1967, was not without amusement. Jock Stein, the legendary Celtic manager, had sent his assistant Sean Fallon to see Dalglish and his parents at their home. Hearing that Fallon was at the door, Dalglish raced to his bedroom and frantically tore down the posters of his boyhood Rangers idols. Dalglish was farmed out to a Celtic nursery side, Cumbernauld United, and he also worked as an apprentice joiner. By the following year he had turned professional and was a regular member of a Celtic reserve team so good it was known as the Quality Street Gang.

It took Dalglish three years to establish himself in the first team. At that time Celtic were not only the best team in Scotland, they had become the first British team to win the European Cup after beating Inter Milan. Stein took a great interest in Dalglish, recognising his potentially outstanding talent. Eventually he gave him his chance in a benefit match. The result was Celtic 7 Kilmarnock 2. Dalglish scored six of the Celtic goals.

By 1972-73 Dalglish was Celtic's leading marksman with a seasonal tally of 41 goals in all competitions. And that Dalglish trademark of shielding the ball with his back to the goal had emerged. Dalglish was made Celtic captain in 1975-76, but it was a miserable year. Stein was badly hurt in a car crash and missed most of the season. Celtic failed to win a trophy for the first time in 12 years.

He had been a full Scotland international for six years, making his debut as a substitute in the 1-0 victory over Belgium in November 1971. He went to the 1974 FIFA World Cup in West Germany, but did not play well. Scotland were eliminated at the group stage, even though they were undefeated.

He moved to Liverpool in 1977, for a then-record £440,000 transfer fee, to replace Kevin Keegan, who left to play for Hamburg in Germany. That spring of 1977 he had scored, putting the ball between, soon to be teammate, Ray Clemence's legs, in Scotland's 2-1 victory over England at Wembley.

In his first season, Dalglish scored the winning goal in the European Cup final, against the Belgian side Club Brugge. He went on to become arguably the most influential member of the most successful club team in English football history, winning further League Championships and European Cups in a period stretching to the mid-1980s. To this day most Liverpool fans regard Dalglish as the best player ever to wear the Red shirt, giving him the nickname 'King Kenny'.

He went on to play in both the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina, scoring against the Netherlands, and the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain, scoring against New Zealand. In total he played 102 times for Scotland (a national record) and scored 30 goals (also a national record, shared with Denis Law).

Dalglish would have played in the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, at the ripe old age of 35, but injured himself in the 1986 FA Cup final against Everton, so his place in the squad was taken by Steve Archibald of Barcelona F.C.

Managerial career

Personal information
Full name	Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish
Date of birth	4 March 1951
Place of birth	Glasgow, Scotland
Height	173 cm
Nickname	King Kenny
Position	Striker
Club information
Current club	N/A
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1969-1977 1977-1990	Celtic FC Liverpool FC	324 (167) 511 (172)
National team
1971-1986	Scotland	102 (30)
Teams managed
1985-1991 1991-1996 1997-1998 2000	Liverpool FC Blackburn Rovers Newcastle United Celtic FC
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

After the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985, in the wake of the resignation of manager Joe Fagan, Dalglish became player-manager of Liverpool. He coached them to their first-ever "double" — winning the League Championship (Dalglish actually scored the winner in a 1-0 victory over Chelsea to secure the title on the final day of the season) and FA Cup in the same season — in his first season, 1985-86.

The following season was trophyless as Liverpool surrendered their league title to Everton, lost to Arsenal in the League Cup final and were knocked out of the F.A Cup by underdogs Luton Town.

Liverpool topped the league virtually all season long in 1987-88, although Dalglish's appearances were becoming increasingly rare after he signed Peter Beardsley. They were crowned champions with just two defeats from 40 games, but were denied a unique second double by a shock defeat at the hands of Wimbledon in the F.A Cup final.

Dalglish guided Liverpool to victory over Everton in the 1989 F.A Cup final, but they squandered the chance of a second double in the last minute of the final game of the season. A last-minute goal gave Arsenal a 2-0 victory at Anfield and the league title went to the north Londoners on goal difference.

1989-90 saw Liverpool win their third league title in their first five seasons under Dalglish's management. After a late surge by Aston Villa knocked them off the top of the table in April, a strong run during the final weeks of the season saw Dalglish's men win the title by nine points. That season saw the 38-year-old Dalglish play the final game of his career.

Dalglish was also in charge of the club at the time of the Hillsborough disaster, in the 1989 FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest. He won many admirers for his exemplary dignity during this tragedy, and is still well-regarded by Liverpool supporters for this reason as much as for his on-field successes; ultimately, though, the trauma took its toll on his health, and he resigned as manager of Liverpool in February 1991, his last act being a confidence vote in future home-grown talents like Steve McManaman and his last signing, youngster Jamie Redknapp. Dalglish departed with his side still ranked as Champions, and as the dominating force of the English game for the past two decades- time Dalglish was very much at the fore of all that the club was achieving right. Dalglish's parting gift to the club was the legacy he had left behind.

Dalglish returned to management in October 1991, with Blackburn Rovers, whom he led into the English Premiership in his first season. After winning the Premiership in 1995, Dalglish "moved upstairs" to become Director of Football at Blackburn; this was a largely-symbolic role that freed up his time for golf and TV punditry. He parted company with the club at the end of the following season.

In January 1997 he took control at a third top-flight English club, once again replacing the departing Kevin Keegan, this time as manager of Newcastle United. Despite an initially strong performance, Dalglish's dismantling of one of the most exciting footballing sides in the Premiership lost him the support of the fans, and he was sacked by Newcastle early in August 1998.

In June 1999 he was appointed as Director of Football at Celtic, with his former Liverpool player John Barnes appointed as Head Coach. The 'dream team' of Dalglish and Barnes turned into a nightmare. Barnes was sacked in February 2000 and Dalglish was appointed caretaker manager until the end of the season. Since leaving Celtic, he has been linked with a number of managerial vacancies, including those at Preston North End (March 2002), Liverpool (May 2004) and the Scottish national team (November 2004), but has yet to make a return to management.

2004 Rooney court case

In 2004 Dalglish was mentioned in court during a blackmail trial arising from a dispute between two groups over who had the right to act as agent for Wayne Rooney. Peter McIntosh was Rooney's original agent, but Rooney was poached (while still under contract with McIntosh) in 2002 by Paul Stretford's Proactive company, in which Dalglish is a major shareholder.

The court case followed a complaint from Stretford to the police that John Hyland, an associate of McIntosh, attempted to blackmail him into splitting any profits that arose from Rooney 50-50. During the trial the court heard that Dalglish invited notorious London gangster Tommy Adams to a meeting that was intended to resolve the dispute between Paul Stretford and Peter McIntosh. Dalglish refused to give the police a statement about the meeting [2] and declined to comment to the media.

The case was thrown out of court after it became clear that Stretford gave false evidence over the date on which he had poached Rooney. Subsequently The Football Association charged him with misconduct over the acquisition of Rooney.

No charges were brought against Dalglish by either the police or the The Football Association.

Playing record

• 1969-1977 Celtic 324 games, 167 goals
• 1977-1990 Liverpool 511 games, 172 goals (player-manager from 1985-1990)

Playing Honours

Celtic

• Scottish Football League (4): 1971–72, 1972–73, 1973–74, 1976–77
• Scottish Cup (4): 1971–72, 1973–74, 1974–75, 1976–77
• Scottish League Cup: 1974–75

Liverpool (as a player)

• Football League (5): 1978–79, 1979–80, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84
• League Cup (4): 1980–81, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84
• European Cup (3): 1977–78, 1980–81, 1983–84
• European Super Cup:1977

Liverpool (as player-manager)

• Football League (2): 1985–86, 1987–88
• FA Cup: 1985–86

Awards

PFA Players' Player of the Year 1983

Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year 1979, 1983

Inaugural Inductee to the English Football Hall of Fame, 2002

• Scotland: 30 goals in 102 international caps (both national records)

Member of the Scotland Football Hall of Fame

Member of the FIFA 100

Freedom of the City of Glasgow 1986.

Managerial record

Managerial Honours

Liverpool

• Football League (3): 1985–86, 1987–88, 1989–90
• FA Cup (2): 1985–86, 1988–89

Blackburn

• First Division Play-off: 1991–92
• FA Premier League: 1994–95

Celtic

• Scottish League Cup: 1999–2000