Kenny Dalglish’s 1977 move from Celtic to Liverpool was a momentous deal, as the Reds broke the British transfer record by spending £440,000 on the Scotsman as their replacement for Hamburg-bound Kevin Keegan.
During his time with the Bhoys, Dalglish had won four Scottish titles and four Scottish Cups, as he netted 173 goals for club during his nine years at Celtic Park.
Despite this success on the home front, Celtic had not been able to repeat the success of their 1971 Lisbon Lions, with Dalglish’s side twice reaching the final four of the European Cup. When Dalglish arrived at Liverpool, he was joining the European champions, and further continental glory was very much part of the plan at Anfield.
Dalglish on Liverpool’s 1978 European Cup win
While Dalglish’s maiden season in English football saw the Reds draw a domestic blank, as Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest pipped them to the First Division title, it was a different story in Europe.
As defending champions, Liverpool were handed a bye in the first round of the European Cup and would go on to sweep aside Dynamo Dresden, Benfica and Borussia Monchengladbach on their way to the final at Wembley Stadium.
Belgian side Club Brugge, who had seen off Atletico Madrid and Juventus in the quarters and semis, awaited in the final, and Dalglish had done his homework.
He knew that opposition goalkeeper Birger Jensen had a habit of going to ground early to smother shots. “I knew what I had to do,” he recalls to FourFourTwo. “No point hitting it along the floor. I’d need to chip it.”
His chance came in the 64th minute, when Graeme Souness chested down a ball on the edge of a crowded Brugge box and slipped a pass through to Dalglish, who gently dinked a finish over Jensen into the far corner from a tight angle.
There was no reply from their rivals. At the age of 27, he’d finally emulated the Lisbon Lions.
“Every time you win a trophy, it’s a great achievement,” he reflects now. “But to win European trophies is even more special. Celtic had done it back in 1967, but I’d never achieved it.
“Going to Liverpool had given me the best possible chance of doing that.”
That would be just the first of three European titles he would win at Anfield, with further European Cups arriving in 1981 and 1984, while he would also add six First Division titles, an FA Cup and four League Cups as a player.
The trophies kept coming when he moved into the dugout, initially as a player-manager, as three more league titles and another pair of FA Cups followed before he called time on his 14-year spell with the club in 1991.
Asif Kapadia’s documentary film Kenny Dalglish is now on Amazon Prime
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