LIVERPOOL’S GREATEST CUP …YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF
“When the Kop is roaring, it really is like having a 12th man there on the pitch.” Today’s cliché was yesterday’s term of endearment for Bill Shankly, whose link to Liverpool and its fans felt almost preordained. The ninth of 10 kids born into a working-class mining family in the poverty-stricken Scottish village of Glenbuck, ‘Wullie’ – as he was known affectionately at home – toiled down the coal pits himself before signing professional terms at Carlisle United in 1932.
Liverpudlians were Shankly’s kind of people: dockers and factory workers; folk with a strong sense of community and enough humour to pull them through the darkest times. Crucially, they adored football. He formed an immediate bond with Reds fans that laid the foundation for 15 remarkable years and beyond at Anfield, long into the reigns of his grateful successors.
It was this bond, too, that would eventually lead to Liverpool lifting one of the least-known, yet most cherished cups in the club’s history – not once, but twice. A trophy which would later come to be called the Curlett Cup.
“In my opinion, it’s as valuable and important to Liverpool FC as any other trophy we have in our collection,”. “We have league titles on show here and European winners’ medals – even the real Champions League trophy from Istanbul in 2005, which isn’t a replica but the genuine article. However, for me, the Curlett Cup stands equal among them.”
