The word legend is often thrown around far too easily, but in the case of Alan ‘Jocky’ Hansen, it is a highly appropriate description. On an episode of Match of the Day early last season, the host Gary Lineker asked Alan if he was sticking with Liverpool to win the league title this season. The response was sincere and as follows; “through thick and thin son.” This speaks volumes about the man and his unwavering loyalty to the club. His positive stance about the club that he captained is the opposite of his fellow pundit and another ex Red (ahem Lawrenson) who seems to get pleasure out of praising Man Utd to the heavens at every opportunity. When I heard those words come out of Alan Hansen’s mouth during that broadcast my immediate response was to shout “what a f’ing legend!”
Alan Hansen was born in Clackmannanshire, Scotland in June 1955. He was a talented sportsman growing up and represented Scotland at volleyball, squash, golf, and of course football. He was actually so good at golf when he was a teenager that he had to decide whether to pursue that as a career or become a footballer. Fortunately for Liverpool fans he chose the latter and joined his brother John at Partick Thistle just after his sixteenth birthday. This was just after they had beaten Celtic 4-1 in the 1971 Scottish Cup Final. Ironically Alan had a trial with Liverpool that summer but was rejected for not reaching the required standards at the time. Alan made it into the first team at Partick Thistle in 1973 and quickly established himself a fine reputation as a cultured central defender. He was watched by many top clubs and in May 1977 he was signed by the European Champions Liverpool.
The Anfield Iron Tommy Smith had been due to retire in the summer of 1977, but decided to play another season after playing well in 1976/77 and having a marvelous game (including scoring) in the 1977 European Cup Final. Emlyn Hughes was still the club captain and Phil Thompson was just entering into his prime, so this meant that Alan wasn’t a regular in the first team during his first season at Liverpool. He made sporadic appearances after making his debut on September 24th in a 1-0 win over Derby County at Anfield. He missed the League Cup final defeat to Nottingham Forest in early 1978 but an unfortunate accident in May 1978 was to prove lucky for Alan. Tommy Smith injured his foot in a DIY accident at home and was ruled out of the 1978 European Cup Final against Bruges. This meant that Alan got the nod to start the game alongside Phil Thompson and Emlyn Hughes. Liverpool won the trophy with a Kenny Dalglish goal and after just one season at Anfield, Alan had a European Cup winner’s medal.
The following season Tommy Smith left for Swansea City and Emlyn Hughes moved to Wolves, so Alan Hansen and Phil Thompson became the established partnership in defense. They were a revelation as Liverpool romped to the First Division title in 1978/79. Thanks to the form of Alan and Phil during this season, Ray Clemence kept twenty eight clean sheets and Liverpool conceded just four goals at home. Alan’s success was rewarded with a debut cap for Scotland in May 1979 in a 3-0 defeat to Wales. His international career was to prove extremely frustrating in subsequent years as Alan was never a regular in the Scotland team despite being regarded as one of the finest defenders in Europe in the early to mid eighties. The Aberdeen partnership of Alex McLeish and Willie Miller were the preferred partnership of Jock Stein.
Liverpool carried on where they left off the previous season by retaining the First Division title in 1979/80. Hansen and Thompson were now without doubt the finest defensive partnership in British football with both players having the ability to play football and pass rather than being the traditional hard man style centre backs so well known in English football at the time. The league title was conceded to Aston Villa in 1981 but Liverpool still had a successful season by winning two trophies in 1980/81. The first trophy was the League Cup which the Reds won for the first time against West Ham United after a replay. Alan scored the winning goal in a 2-1 victory which was the first of four successive victories in the League Cup final from 1981 to 1984. The European Cup was then won for a third time after a 1-0 victory over Real Madrid in Paris.
The 1981/82 season started off badly for Liverpool when Bill Shankly passed away in September 1981. Liverpool’s early season form was patchy and they were as low as tenth position on Christmas Day. Things came to a head after a home defeat to Man City on Boxing Day, after some dreadful errors from Thompson and the new goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar. Thompson was stripped of the captaincy and after getting injured he lost his regular place to Mark Lawrenson who had been signed the previous summer from Brighton. Liverpool went on a surge back up the table in the new-year and by May they were back on top and reclaimed the First Division title. The title was won in a 3-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur, a game in which Glenn Hoddle scored probably the most spectacular goal by an opposition player in front of The Kop. Liverpool also retained the League Cup over Tottenham, although Alan was to miss that game through injury.
The Lawrenson, Hansen tandem was a sensation and eventually became, in my opinion, the finest defensive partnership in Liverpool’s recent history. Lawrenson complemented Hansen perfectly with his insanely good tackling. Blessed with speed and superb timing, Lawrenson was one of the best tacklers in British football. Alongside him, Hansen was unbelievable at playing the ball out of defense with incredible calm and coolness. His vision was sublime and if you watch old video’s from the eighties, you’ll see many examples of Hansen carrying the ball forward and playing a perfect pass to Dalglish or Rush to score. There is no better example of this than the move that led to Rushie’s opener in the 5-0 rout of Everton in 1982.
Alan went to the 1982 World Cup in Spain with the Scotland squad. The tournament went badly for the Scots as they failed to progress beyond the group stages. Alan was involved in an embarrassing moment when he accidentally collided with Willie Miller and allowed the Russian striker Shengelia a clean run on goal and led to a 2-2 draw with the USSR.
Season 1982/83 was to be Bob Paisley’s last as manager and he went out in style as Liverpool easily won the league by eleven points ahead of new boys Watford. The League Cup was also won for a third season in a victory over Man Utd in the final. The most memorable moment of the season came after that victory when Bob Paisley led the team up the stairs and lifted the trophy.
Under new boss Joe Fagan, Liverpool retained the First Division title and League Cup in 1983/84. The League Cup (now rechristened as The Milk Cup) was won after a replay against Everton. The first game which ended in a 0-0 draw was the first Wembley final between the two Merseyside rivals. Alan was involved in a controversial incident during the game when he appeared to handle a shot on the goal-line, but no penalty was given. The Reds completed a magnificent treble in May 1984 when the European Cup was won for a fourth time. This time Liverpool had to defeat Roma in their home stadium. The game ended in a 1-1 draw and went to a penalty shoot-out. Alan went hiding when penalty takers were chosen and after Grobbelaar’s spaghetti legs routine, the trophy was won when Alan Kennedy scored the final penalty.
The following season 1984/85 was a poor season for Liverpool despite Alan maintaining his position as one of the finest defenders in the game. Liverpool lost the league title to Everton and they were defeated in the meaningless 1985 European Cup Final by Juventus after the terrible Heysel tragedy. Liverpool was then banned from European competitions for six years and Alan never played in a European game again.
Tragedy was to turn into triumph for Liverpool and for Alan personally in the following season 1985/86. Kenny Dalglish became player manager in the summer of 1985, and one of his first decisions was to make Alan the new club captain. Alan was now one of the senior players at the club and was to prove a fine choice as captain. The season could not have gone any better as Liverpool were to win their first ever league and cup double. The league title was won in exciting fashion although it didn’t start too great and it has since been famously revealed that Alan went to see Kenny Dalglish and told him that Liverpool would never win anything with that current team. After an injury to Paul Walsh, Kenny put himself back in the side after he had not played too often. Kenny picking himself for the remainder of the season has often been described as a major reason why Liverpool ended up winning the league title. With only a handful of games remaining, Everton were leading the First Division by miles. When Everton won 2–0 at Anfield the title race seemed all but over. Then Liverpool went on an amazing run of eleven wins and one draw in the last twelve games. With King Kenny back in the side Liverpool started to gain momentum as Everton started to collapse. When Everton lost away to lowly Oxford Utd destiny was in Liverpool’s own hands as they just needed to beat Chelsea away in the next game to take the title. In fairytale fashion Kenny was to score the goal that clinched Liverpool’s sixteenth league title. Alan then lifted the First Division championship trophy in front of a packed Anfield in what had to be the proudest moment of his career so far. He didn’t have to wait very long for another great moment as he completed the full set of domestic medals. This time he was to proudly lift the F.A Cup after a 3-1 victory at Wembley over Everton in what I still believe is the greatest F.A Cup Final of all time. Not a bad way to start his captaincy of the club!
Alan was then incredibly left out of the Scotland squad for the Mexico World Cup in 1986. This decision caused obvious controversy at the time, but Jock Stein (and later temporary manager Alex Ferguson) maintained that the reason Alan was dropped was because of his refusal to play in friendly matches during the warm up to the World Cup. It has since been rumoured that this decision caused a falling out between Kenny Dalglish and Alex Ferguson but this has been denied by both men and also Alan himself.
The title was conceded back to Everton in 1986/87 and the Reds also lost the 1987 League Cup Final to Arsenal. This was just the calm before the storm though as the following year was possibly the best ever, in terms of football played. John Aldridge had joined in early 1987, to replace the departing Ian Rush. He was followed that summer by John Barnes, Peter Beardsley and Ray Houghton, who joined early into the new season. Alan, despite his advancing years, was still at the very top of his game and captained easily the most exciting football team that I have ever witnessed. Mark Lawrenson had to retire this season due to a serious Achilles injury, so Gary Gillespie stepped in to partner Alan at the back and with Hansen still Mr Calm there was never any problems at the back. In fact with the way Liverpool’s attack and midfield played it’s a surprise the opponents even got near our goal. The Reds went on a twenty nine game unbeaten streak from the start of the season, until a typical scrappy goal by Wayne Clarke in the Goodison derby ended the run. The league title was a foregone conclusion that season and Liverpool also reached the F.A Cup Final in 1988 as well. Incredibly Liverpool was defeated 1-0 by Wimbledon in one of the biggest upsets of all time. A great shame as Alan deserved to win a second double after the way the team played that season.
Alan then injured his knee seriously during pre-season in 1988 and was out for the next nine months. He has since revealed that it was so bad that he considered retiring at the time as due to his age the knee took a long time to heal. Fortunately he did recover and he was set to make his comeback in an F.A Cup semi final on April 15th 1989. As we all know this was to be the most important date in the history of Liverpool Football Club. After the Hillsborough tragedy, Alan led by example as he helped to carry the families of the victims and survivors of the tragedy through the following weeks and months. Kenny Dalglish along with his wife Marina was a tower of strength to everybody, which eventually led to a serious decline in his health. Alan was a great support along with the rest of the players and staff at the club, as he attended funerals, visited survivors in hospital and acted as a counselor for those needing to talk.
After a period of mourning and reflection the decision was taken for Liverpool to finish the season, as that’s what the victims would have wanted. Liverpool defeated Nottingham Forest in the rescheduled semi-final, and the appropriate opponents in the final were Everton who had defeated Norwich City on the day of the Hillsborough disaster. Alan played superbly in the final which went into extra time after a last minute equaliser by Everton’s Stuart McCall. Liverpool eventually won the game 3-2 after two goals by substitute Ian Rush. Alan graciously allowed Ronnie Whelan to lift the famous trophy as Ronnie had captained the side superbly during the time that Alan had spent injured. Unfortunately for the second season in a row Liverpool was denied a league and cup double in the final game of the season. Arsenal came to Anfield needing to win by two goals to snatch the title away. Nobody gave them a chance but Liverpool seemed to have nothing left in the tank after playing so many games in a short period and the effects after Hillsborough were bound to take a toll. In one of the most dramatic endings to a league season ever, Michael Thomas scored with the final kick of the game to give Arsenal the 2-0 victory they needed to win the title.
Alan was in the side on a more regular basis in the 1989/90 season, sharing the central defense positions with Glen Hysen, Gary Gillsepie and Gary Ablett. Hansen and Hysen formed a fine partnership but with Hansen still struggling with his knee, Ablett would often be preferred to partner Hysen. Liverpool went on to win the First Division title for the eighteenth time in 1990 and Alan won his eighth league championship medal, three as captain.
Alan continued to struggle in the 1990/91 season and eventually retired due to injury in February 1991. This came just one week after Kenny Dalglish shockingly resigned as manager after the 4-4 draw with Everton. This was a terribly sad time for the club with two of its greatest heroes leaving within a week of each other. There was still time for Alan to make one final impact on the first team squad though. After Kenny’s resignation, Alan walked into the first team dressing room and announced with conviction that he had accepted an offer to become the new manager. He then began to unveil a new list of strict rules and watched the player’s faces turn into panic. After keeping the ruse going for a few minutes he then announced he was just joking to great relief all around.
In reality Alan has never had any interest in becoming a football manager. He was heavily linked with the Liverpool job when Kenny resigned and a few years later when Graeme Souness was sacked, but both times he declined having any interest in the position. Instead, Alan has enjoyed an extremely successful career in the media, mainly with the BBC. The first time I can recall him being on the TV regularly was during Liverpool’s UEFA Cup run in 1991/92 which was shown live on the BBC. From the early nineties to the present day Alan has been the main man on the couch for all the big football coverage including Match of the Day, live international’s and all the big tournaments. Despite maintaining an air of professionalism Alan’s dedication to Liverpool often comes to the surface with some fine examples being the big argument he had with Jimmy Hill at half time in the 1992 F.A Cup Final between Liverpool and Sunderland and his dancing around the studio during the 2001 UEFA Cup Final against Alaves. He also maintains a career in the written media with columns in The Daily Telegraph, the BBC Website and a weekly column in the official LFC Magazine. Alan also occasionally pulls on the red jersey again for cameo appearances in charity games, the most recent being the Hillsborough Memorial game.
A perfect example of why Alan Hansen is a true legend at Liverpool FC is that any defender since he retired that has come through with any ability on the ball (eg; Agger) is nearly always described as the new Hansen. Alan was voted in at number twelve in the 100 Players Who Shook the Kop and was the third highest placed defender behind Emlyn Hughes and Jamie Carragher. This is a fitting tribute to one of coolest and most talented players ever to play for the club.
