Wednesday 22 March 2017 18:24, UK
Phil Thompson and Jamie Carragher have paid tribute to Liverpool great Ronnie Moran, following his death at age of 83.
Moran played 379 games for the club and spent more than 30 years on the coaching staff at Anfield, including a couple of spells in caretaker charge of the first team, and left having won 44 trophies.
"He was truly wonderful," said Thompson. "Inspirational, our guide. Throughout all those glory days you needed somebody to keep the feet on the ground of all these super stars and this guy was the man.
"Every day he was a driving force, no matter whether we'd won 4-0, 5-0 at the weekend, you'd come in Monday morning and he'd be bellowing out instructions, 'you got nothing for last Saturday', and we had this for year upon year.
"Sometimes as a young man you used to think, 'nothing satisfies this man', but without him we wouldn't have won half the trophies and I do say this, and it's not just a flippant comment, Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley, great, but Ronnie Moran is up there with those two greats."
Thompson helped to launch a book on Moran titled 'Mr Liverpool' recently, having played under the Crosby-born left-back throughout his entire Liverpool career.
"I was so pleased to be asked to do the foreword because he was my mentor," Thompson added. "Shanks was my hero but Ronnie was so important.
"He brought me through the B team, A team, reserve team to the first team, so it was great. I had the opportunity of going in the old boot room and seeing how Ronnie Moran worked and he did everything. Everything was meticulous.
"He went in the morning and planned the coaching, he did who was getting the physio, who was getting what and he'd write it all down, no iPad or anything like that, it was all hand written. What the weather was like, what time we trained, who was in late, everything was so meticulous but it was wonderful.
"The banter was great, they sorted out the tactics, people coming and going, it was just a revelation and Ronnie was the driving force behind it.
"To see him work was an absolute wonder. It's what made our football club tick, the humility of it. He could do everything. Administration, physio, he took care of rooming lists and it wasn't a problem for him, he got on with it, it's what you did in those days. Now they have a platoon of people to help them out.
"Ronnie Moran's importance to the football club, his contribution, should never be understated. He was an absolute icon in every fans eyes.
"There might be some Liverpool football people out there asking 'Ronnie Moran?' Believe me this man was massive in our history."
Carragher came through at Liverpool towards the end of Moran's coaching career, going on to make 737 appearances for the club in all competitions.
Like Thompson, Carragher explained the importance of Moran to Liverpool's success.
"There's a lot of legendary figures involved at Liverpool over the history of the club and Ronnie Moran will be very close to being right up there at number one," Carragher told Sky Sports News HQ.
"The great managers which started with Bill Shankly; Ronnie Moran was a major part of that success with all those managers.
"Different managers come and go, Shankly then Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, Kenny Dalglish but Ronnie was constant throughout all of that great success of Liverpool at home and abroad.
"There was one constant and that was Ronnie Moran.
"I was with Ronnie Moran for the last couple of years of his reign as a coach and he was the one who basically stopped anyone getting carried away with themselves, coming down hard on the players.
"He's famous for in the past giving out championship medals in a cardboard box at the end of the season, no fanfare, as if that's what we expect and I'll see you for the start of pre-season next year.
"He was a very down-to-earth man and probably the major figure in that boot room. He was a father figure, to even the manager Roy Evans when I got into the first team, even though Ronnie wasn't the manger, he was the real authority on the coaching staff because of what he'd seen and the experience he'd had."
