Phil Thompson and Graeme Souness were both legendary Liverpool captains, but the handover from the former to the latter was not a harmonious change of full-back.
A boyhood Liverpool fan, Thompson was given the captaincy in April 1979 and his crowning moment as captain came in 1981, when he won the European Cup after beating Real Madrid 1-0 in Paris.
However, just six months later, Bob Paisley decided to pass on the captain’s armband to Souness, who three years later also won the European Cup.
Speaking on the Football’s Greatest With Jeff Stelling podcast, Thompson recalled his experience of being stripped of his captaincy after losing 3-1 to Man City at Anfield on Boxing Day, 1981.
“I remember a terrible day,” he began.
“We were coming back from training between that and the third round of the FA Cup, playing Swansea away at the Vetch, and Swansea were in the first division at the time.
“I remember coming back from training and Joe Fagan came down on the bus because we always got the bus to Melwood and back.
“Joe Fagan, on the way back, he came on the bus and said, ‘Thommo, boss Bob Paisley wants to see you after practice’ and I’m thinking what’s that all about?
“So I’m sitting next to Terry (McDermott), my buddy, and I’m like ‘I wonder what this is about?’
“‘I do not know’.
“And in front of him, Ray Kennedy, God bless him, turns around and says ‘I know what that is.’ And I said, ‘Oh yeah, right? What is?’
“And he said ‘I can’t tell you’.
“And I said ‘Well you can’t do that! You can’t say I can’t tell you now’, and he said, “Oh, ok, they’re taking off your captaincy”.
“I said ‘What are you?’ I said ‘Are you kidding me?’
“He said ‘No, he did that.’
Furious at this decision, Thompson got out of the tub and rushed down the hall to Bob Paisley’s office.
He continued: “Bob wasn’t very articulate in terms of the way he spoke and all that and he’s going to work his way through this.
“‘You see, the captaincy seems like a burden and responsibility, you take everything on your shoulders’.
“And I said, ‘So you’re going to strip me of the captaincy.’
“I said, ‘Well, you wouldn’t give it to that Graeme Souness by any chance, would you?’
“And he said ‘Um, well, we’ll do it for a few weeks and see what happens’.”
Unhappy with this going on behind his back, Thompson slammed the door on his way out and didn’t speak to Souness for about three or four weeks.
Reflecting on the decision, Thompson admitted that he now feels very differently about the situation.
He elaborated: “Bob Paisley made the right call. I was emotional then and I was so angry, but I took on too much responsibility.
“Bob was very, very smart and he watched and he saw me take on all this responsibility, and it’s affected my game and my performances ever since.
“We were 12th in the league, 12 points behind the leaders, we won the league with four points with three or four games to go.”
In the end, it was a stroke of genius by Paisley, but his lack of personal skills showed.
