The Anfield Boot Room is one of the most storied settings in sport, not just a space where kit is stored or tactics talked, but a concept, an idea. Perhaps no football club is better than Liverpool at this self-mythologising, and it is an absolute cert that fans of the Reds will enjoy this BT Sport film The Boot Room Boys. It’s a thorough, uncomplicated appreciation of the lineage from Bill Shankly through to Jurgen Klopp, who is among an exhaustive list of Liverpool heroes contributing their experiences of this legendary coaching dynasty and the no-nonsense storage room where the plans were hatched, the tactics set and the players identified. Where the magic happened.
The film is presented by Peter Hooton, born in Everton and singer of The Farm, the Liverpool band who achieved a little corner of pop immortality with their 1991 hit All Together Now. Hooton has made writing about the people and politics of his city into his life’s work, and there could be no better guide for this. The 90-minute feature is directed by Tom Boswell, who has helmed many a strong film for BT Sport in recent years, including Rocky And Wrighty: From Brockley To The Big Time; State of Play, with Michael Calvin about the business of modern football; and Too Good To Go Down, about Manchester United’s 1974 relegation.
Boswell and Hooton tell the story of how Bill Shankly took over a club that was second division in all senses, and made it unprecedentedly successful. Sir Kenny Dalglish, Phil Thompson and the children and grandchildren of Liverpool’s Mount Rushmore men – Shankly, Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan – explain how it was done. Shankly had described Anfield as “the biggest toilet in Liverpool” before taking the job, but it was the other smallest room in the place that became its heart, and engine. The film shows the famous Boot Room as an unpretentious cubbyhole, a couple of chairs and a crate to sit on, a cabinet for the whisky. Sir Kenny says: “The furniture? You wouldnae get it sold second hand. But it’s not about the fit out, it is about the people in it. There was always a bit of liquid involved.”
The film explains how the Shankly values of hard work, loyalty and continuity became part of the club’s DNA, and there is something really special, you cannot fail to agree, about the way the machine rolled on, surviving losses like the shock retirement and premature passing of Shankly. Another winning manager just seemed ready to roll off the production line, with coaches being promoted from within to take the top job. It all seems like a different world to the elite managers of today, parachuted into this or that megaclub with their personal retinue in tow, staying for a couple of years before moving on with a chunky pay-off.
Klopp, who has such a great gift for expressing these sorts of sentiments, says: “When we moved into the new stand I needed my own boot room. It’s like a pub in the stadium that is only for the manager. I love going there after the game with my staff, my friends I would say, and their families. It is our safe place. I am an okay manager but with my boys around me I am a pretty good Premier League manager. We are very close. I was part of a team when I played football and I am part of a team now I coach players. Inside we see ourselves as The Boot Room Reloaded.”
As I say, it’s impossible to imagine Liverpool fans not lapping it all up. For the non-believer, there is a slight suggestion that the film might be better on sale in the club shop rather than on a general sports channel, and it would have been interesting to know more about how the famed togetherness and camaraderie of the Boot Room stood up during the club’s periods of failure and disappointment. But perhaps the film is right to stick to the legend: certainly no other club has had a more satisfying story to tell itself.
The Boot Room Boys (Tuesday, 10.30pm, BT Sport 3)
