Bill Shankly’s desk stays local after auction sale triples reserve fee

Jun 25 2008 by Richard Down, Liverpool Daily Post

John Crane,auctioneer with the historic Liverpool FC desk _320

BILL SHANKLY’S desk will stay in Merseyside, although it was not picked up at yesterday’s auction by any of Liverpool’s museums, after selling for £4,200.

Liverpool FC’s legendary manager hammered out a resignation letter on the wooden rolltop in the early 1960s that could have killed off the club’s glory years before they had even begun.

Fortunately, Tom Bush, a long- serving player-turned-coach, was instrumental in persuading him to change his mind.

Shankly stayed on and won a historic power struggle with club director TV Williams. The rest is history.

Yesterday the desk went under the auctioneer’s hammer in Liverpool along with a bundle of papers from the club’s luminous history.

Four bidders battled it out eventually reaching a sale price of £4,200 – close to three times the reserve.

Ahead of the auction, John Crane, of Cato Crane, and Alan Bush, the son of the Liverpool stalwart, were looking for a museum to step in and buy the collection.

Liverpool FC were believed to be interested. But the auction saw an anonymous telephone bidder take it home.

Mr Crane said: “The collection has been kept together and in Merseyside. We’re going to ask the purchasers to lodge their details with the football club so that any research in the future will know when to find this information.”

Along with the desk is a match receipt from the fourth round FA cup tie between Liverpool FC and Everton FC which reveals that Liverpool earned £2,607, nine shillings and one penny from the gate.

There also is a “Liverpool Ladies Itinerary” for the players’ wives and girlfriends attending the Liverpool versus Arsenal FA Cup Final.

A letter from chairman George Richards to Don Welsh offering him the job as manager at LFC.

A simple three-page letter on headed notepaper in copper-plate script doubles up as Welsh’s contract for which he would receive an extra £500 for winning the FA Cup or league championship.

Mr Bush said: “I’m happy that it’s all back in Liverpool now, and hopefully the new owner will enjoy the history behind the desk.

“I’ve still got lots of bits and pieces from the club that are attached to my memories of Liverpool FC.”

richarddown