Peter Thompson .
Amazing.
He used to go past player after player in mazy runs.
Extract from LFCHistory.net
I went to Anfield from Preston and there were thousands of people outside," Thompson told LFChistory.net.
"I got my way through to the front door and Shankly is there.
'Why are all these here for?', I asked.
'You!', Shankly thundered.
'You? 'Me?', I gasped.
He took me all around Melwood. He showed me Anfield. Took me to the office.
The Chairman came in: 'Could you sign here?'
'Actually Mr. Shankly, I would like a signing-on fee.'
'You what? I am giving you the chance to play in the greatest city in the greatest team that is going to be in the world and you want illegal money. F**kin' get out!
'Give me the pen,' I said.
So I signed. Best thing I ever did.
Thompson was the great schoolboy star of his day and became a regular First Division player at 17 for Preston. Chairman Nat Buck raved about him. 'I’ve lost the number of clubs who want him, but how could we sell?'
I was only a young boy at Preston.. it was difficult because Tom Finney was one of the greatest wingers of all time. They said I was the new Tom Finney. I was only 17. It was a lot to live up to. That put pressure on me. They might say: 'He is okay, but he is not Tom Finney' which I wasn't. He was magnificent.
Bill Shankly had been impressed by the speed and trickery of the young winger during a marathon fifth round FA Cup tie between Liverpool and Preston in February 1962 which went to a second replay at Old Trafford. After two goalless draws the deadlock was finally broken by Thompson.
I was doubtful to play. I had trouble with my leg. It was snowing. The ball came out from the sky, I just swung a foot and it went straight in. It could have gone anywhere. One of those nights. Shankly thought he had signed a goalscorer.
Thompson was a regular for three seasons for Preston and following relegation from their only top-flight season during his spell there the 20-year-old moved to Liverpool for £37,000.
The standard was so high. I had only been there four weeks. Shankly used to prod you... [pokes me in the chest] 'Are you a winner?
I'm talking to you!
Are you a winner?'
'Yes, Mr. Shankly.'
'I want winners.
Second is no good to me.
If you're second I'll get rid of you. Simple as that.'
It was a good place to be in Liverpool. All the groups were coming out in Liverpool. The Beatles. All the comedians. They used to come to the ground all the time.
We were winning everything.
Everything was good as well with our arch rivals. We would win the League, they would win the cup. We win the cup, they win the League. We were passing trophies across the park. The first year I was there we were champions of England, the second year we won the FA Cup for the first time in Liverpool's history. The third year we were champions of England. The fourth year he called a crisis meeting. 'You, you and you. Sell your big houses. You are no good to me.' I went home and said: 'I think he is going to sell me.' He didn't."
Thompson was the missing piece in Shankly title-winning jigsaw.
Liverpool had a very good team that got promoted. They signed me and it was said that's the last piece of the jigsaw. It's true that. Champions of England. Circumstances had changed. When I was at Preston I was a wonderboy, 17-18. When I was twenty I was a has-been, We got relegated and got beat every week. I couldn't get out of my own half. I was playing as a defender and was useless. I went to Liverpool and within 12 months I was playing for England.
Thompson made his England debut in a 4-3 friendly win in Lisbon over Eusebio's Portugal on 17 May 1964. He established himself as an international a few weeks later in the Brazil Jubilee Tournament.
I played against Brazil, Argentina and Portugal.
After the tournament I was the "White Pelé".
I was no Pelé.
You always keep your first England shirt because you might not get another one.
Then you swap them.
When the whistle went I was stood right by Pelé. He took his shirt off.
Bobby Moore took it off him. I got Vava's. They were the best team in the world. It was 1-1 with 30 minutes to go.
Jimmy Greaves had scored. There were about 120,000 people there. We got beat 5-1. They just kept on scoring. I didn't know what was happening.
After the game Alf Ramsey said: 'What happened?'
After a game Shankly was effing and shouting. Alf Ramsey wasn't like that. I played against West Germany and I knew I hadn't played well. After the game he sat beside me and said: 'I'm a bit disappointed, Peter.' I was used to Shankly swearing and boots flying.
"Shankly used to swear all the time.
When I signed for Liverpool I never swore.
I was twenty.
Footballers always tried to hurt me."
"Shankly said to me:
'What are you saying to that man there who is trying to break your leg?'
I said: 'He didn't kick me. I am allergic to pain.'
'Are you f**king gay?' As gays don't swear.
He said: 'When you get on that pitch you swear at him.' I used to ignore him.
He said to me at half-time: 'If you don't swear at him I'll come on the pitch and I'll have him kick you.'
He shouted right in front of him: 'Go on, go on!' 'F**k off,' I said to the player. 'Louder!,' Shankly screamed.
So I swore to him. So I started swearing to everybody, but it didn't make any difference.
Bob Paisley quote:
"He was always a very good winger but I don't think he ever exploited his skills the way he should have done. He was probably too nice a person, too even tempered.
If he had a little bit more venom he would have got more caps for England than he did. He wasn't a gentle build, in fact he was the perfect build for racing along and using his strength but it's something he wouldn't do. We tried to get him to do it on so many occasions but we could never convert him to our way of thinking - he just couldn't do it."
I:Bob Paisley said you could have been a world-beater if you had been more aggressive and more direct.
Yeah, I was a coward... No, I wasn't. The problem was when I got the ball I got my head down and off I went. On the Friday we had a meeting. Roger [Hunt] never said anything. Shankly said: 'Meeting finished', but Roger said
'Actually, Peter beats his full-back about four or five times and we don't know where to run.
"Why don't you just beat your man and cross it?" Shankly said:
"That is a good idea."
"We played against West Brom at Anfield, I pushed it past the full-back, crossed it, Roger smashed it into the net.
Roger said: 'That's what I want.' I said: 'That's f**king boring. 'I am not doing that. Let Ian Callaghan do that."
"I tried to change from being a little boy who used to beat players. When I was at Preston the press would criticize me for being greedy. Tom Finney was still playing and asked: 'What's wrong with you?' I was in the first team at 17. 'I am being criticized. I think I have to change.'
'Don't change.
You've got one great ability. Take that away, what are you left with?', Finney advised me."
I: You were good with both feet...
"I practiced all the time.
I was right-footed on the left wing.
At Melwood I used to spend hours just pushing the ball down the wing with my right foot and crossing it with my left.
I used to fall over half the time.
I found it difficult but I got quite good at it. Ian [Callaghan] and I were completely different. I was an individualist."
"Ian was straightforward, boring, pushing it down the line, cross it, boom 1-0! How boring is that?
My full-back wouldn't tackle me.
Ian was very fast but sometimes he came up against someone faster than him"
"I said: Should we swop?"
"It worked a treat.
If the full-back would try to hurt me I could slip him easy.
There was one game at Anfield when I was struggling.
Ian was doing fabulous.
Should we swop?' 'Piss off!"
Some games you played were more memorable than others... The first European game in Reykjavik. An Icelandic reporter wrote: "It is not possible to compare these two sides. Liverpool were so much better. They could do what they wanted to. But they did not try too hard to score goals. Many of their players made good efforts to entertain the crowd.
But nobody did more in that way than the winger Thompson with his clever and various solo tricks. The Icelandic crowd and the players of K.R. watched like good students at a school."
I remember it very well. We won 5-0 and then 6-1.
I was an individualist. I tried not to be like that but I couldn't change. In Reykjavik, I got the ball in their half and I set off. I didn't know where I was going.
I kept beating player after player after player.
Eventually I passed it. Billy Stevenson said:
'It was fabulous, you beat six players.'
I went: 'Yeah, it must have been about six.'
He says: 'You beat Ron Yeats twice, you beat me twice, went through my legs... !!!"
