Liverpool mosaic: Kop honours legend Ron Yeats before Nottingham Forest game

The Kop will honour the legacy of Ron Yeats with a mosaic ahead of the game with Nottingham Forest.

If there has ever been a man more deserving of memorial than Ron Yeats, we are yet to find one. On September 6th, the Liverpool legend unfortunately passed away due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease.

How he turned the tide

Believe it or not, Liverpool Football Club were not always the behemoth that they are today. The early days of football were kind to the team, but by 1961 the team were languishing in the Second Division (now Championship).

1953-54 had seen the team finish bottom of the First Division (now Premier League), and the seasons that followed were filled with frustration as they finished 3rd or 4th and failed to get in a top-two promotion place six times in a row. 

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In December 1959, the now-iconic Bill Shankly was appointed. He knew he had to do anything and everything to change the fortunes of the team.

In 1961, he decided Ron Yeats was going to be part of the solution. The first time the two spoke, Shankly asked Yeats where Liverpool was. Yeats told him on a map, but Shankly said: "We’re in the First Division of the English League."

"Oh, I thought you were in the Second Division, Mr Shankly?" replied Yeats, who was simply met with, “Yeah, but we’ll play in the First Division after we sign you, son."

Unsurprisingly, Shankly was right. With Ron Yeats immediately appointed captain and commanding the team from defence, Liverpool won the Second Division in 1961-62. Known for being a fierce tackler, teams became terrified of turning up to Anfield to face Yeats.

The First Division title followed soon after in 1963-64, with an FA Cup hoisted in 1964-65. To put it mildly, Yeats had changed the fortunes of the entire club overnight.

In those days, the FA Cup was handed to the captain of the winning team by Her Majesty The Queen. Before the game, Yeats received a phone call from Buckingham Palace explaining that he should not address the Queen unless she talked to him, and to only say ‘Yes Ma’am’ and ‘No Ma’am’. When it was his time to hoist the trophy, the Queen said "you must be exhausted."

His reply? "I’m absolutely knackered."

Yeats was Liverpool captain for 417 games over the course of nine years, a feat only bettered by Steven Gerrard. He dedicated himself to Liverpool Football Club is a way few others ever have. Despite leaving the club as a player in 1970 through Shankly’s famous team exodus, he returned in 1986 as Chief Scout and spent 20 years in the role. His proudest achievement was signing a captain and leader not dissimilar to himself - Sami Hyypia.

The Colossus

"Take a walk around my centre-half, gentlemen, he’s a colossus," Shankly said at the introductory press conference for Yeats in 1961.

The manager couldn’t have been more accurate if he had tried. Not only in his physical stature and intimidation of opposing strikers, but in the dressing room and as a personality Yeats truly was a mountain. He was made an ‘Honorary Scouser’ by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool in 2009 and was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the club in 2015.

Everton fans still sing of him to this day, chanting ‘We hate Bill Shankly and we hate St. John, but most of all we hate Big Ron…’.

It’s a testament to the mark that The Colossus made not just on Merseyside, not just on the English game, but the sport as a whole.

As Bill Shankly’s captain, there is no arguing that Liverpool Football Club would not be what it is today without Ron Yeats. There is no Jamie Carragher, no Alan Hansen, no Virgil van Dijk without Ron Yeats. His commemoration by the Kop should be a beautiful tribute to his memory.