Joe Fagan

Joseph Francis Fagan (12 March 1921 – 30 June 2001) was an English footballer and manager.

He was a coach and manager at Liverpool for twenty seven years under Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley.

As a manager he was the first English manager to win three major trophies in a single season and is one of only four English managers to win the European cup.

He played for Manchester City in the Football League First Division as a wing half.

Joe Fagan was born in Walton Hospital in Walton, Liverpool, on 12 March 1921 and lived in the Litherland and Scotland Road areas of the city during his childhood and youth.

His parents Patrick and Mary were of Irish descent.

His father has been recorded as something of a dubious character who was often absent for long periods and Fagan owed a happy childhood to his mother.

The close proximity of Anfield and Goodison Park meant that football was always a significant part of his life and he developed his ability as a boy.

When he was fourteen, he captained his school, St Elizabeth Central, to the Daily Dispatch Trophy, a competition run by the Lancashire Schools Football Association.

After leaving school in 1937, Fagan signed for the St Helens-based Earlestown Bohemians club, known as the "Bohs", who played in the Liverpool County Combination.

This was a strong amateur league in which the "A" teams of both Everton and Liverpool competed.

Liverpool became interested and he was invited to Anfield for a trial.

Manager George Kay offered him a contract but Fagan, then aged seventeen, declined as he thought his first team opportunities at Liverpool would be limited.

On 8 October 1938, he signed for Manchester City.

Throughout Fagan's playing career, he was a right half, though he could also play at centre half.

In the 1938–39 season, Fagan made good progress at City playing for the club's "A" and "B" teams and then getting into the reserves.

He was challenging for a first-team place when the Second World War began just as the 1939–40 season was getting under way and the Football League was suspended for the duration of the conflict.

Fagan and his City teammate Billy Walsh made their debuts for Hyde on 13 October 1939, taking part in a 2–1 victory over Stalybridge Celtic.

Fagan played a total of 26 games for Hyde and earned good reviews in the local press.

Hyde had a successful season and won the Cheshire League's East Section but lost the two-legged championship playoff against West Section winners Runcorn.

As Fagan, then aged eighteen, was not immediately eligible to join the armed forces, City gave him permission to play for Hyde United in the Cheshire County League which was not subject to the same wartime restrictions as the Football League, although it continued for only one season and was suspended in 1940.

Fagan returned to City for the 1940–41 season in which regionalised leagues were tentatively launched.

He made his debut for City in the opening North Regional League match, which was a goalless draw at home to Everton and played five matches in all before he became due for military service.

He opted to volunteer rather than wait to be called up as this gave him a choice of services and so he was able to join the Royal Navy.

He had never been to sea previously and immediately discovered that he was prone to seasickness.

He was sent to Egypt where he worked as a telegraphist with a minesweeping flotilla and remained there until 1946.

Many of the men he trained with were posted to the ill-fated HMS Hood (51) and Fagan always counted himself lucky to have missed that posting.

He was very interested in boxing and was a useful practitioner during his naval career until he had his nose broken.

He played football for various service teams in Alexandria, one of his teams winning a competition called the Chrystall Cup in January 1946, only a few days before he returned to Britain to be demobilised.

During periods of leave in England, Fagan had managed to represent City in six regional league matches, including a local derby against Manchester United; and he had also played for Portsmouth.

When league football resumed after the war, Fagan hoped to establish himself as a regular member of the Manchester City side.

As his playing career came to an end, he decided to become a coach and worked at clubs in lower leagues before getting the chance to join Liverpool in 1958.

From December 1959, he worked with Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley and was highly successful in his coaching of the club's reserve team, being mainly responsible for the development of future star players like Roger Hunt, Ian Callaghan and Tommy Smith.

After Shankly retired in 1974, Fagan became assistant manager to Paisley and finally manager himself when Paisley retired in 1983.

In his first season, Fagan achieved an unprecedented "treble" as Liverpool won the European Cup, the League Championship and the League Cup.

He had decided to retire at the end of his second season but his final match in charge was the 1985 European Cup Final which was the scene of the Heysel Stadium disaster, an event that caused him great distress.

Fagan was an uncomplicated man who believed in the simplicity of football, a devoted family man who preferred to just get on with his job and shun the limelight.

He was one of the most respected figures in the game.

He and his family lived in the same house not far from Anfield throughout his Liverpool career and afterwards.

He died of cancer in 2001, aged eighty.