NewsLiverpool's Greatest - No.21: Phil Thompson
Years: 1972-1983
Appearances: 477
Goals: 13
Trophies: First Division (1972-73, 1975-76, 1976-77, 1978-79, 1979-80, 1981-82, 1982-83), UEFA Cup (1973, 1976), FA Cup (1974), European Cup (1977, 1978, 1981), UEFA Super Cup (1977), League Cup (1981, 1982)
A Scouser who won virtually everything on offer with his boyhood Liverpool, Phil Thompson never forgot his roots.
The classy defender skippered the Reds to European Cup glory in 1981 and celebrated by taking the famous trophy to The Falcon, his local pub in Kirkby.
Thompson served the club for more than a decade as a player and is rightly acclaimed as one of the best in history to do so.
“I regard Phil as one of the best possible examples of a true professional,” Bob Paisley once said. “His greatest asset as a player is his ability to read the game – he showed that gift even as a teenager.
“He is not the biggest man physically for his role in defence but his football brain is outstanding.”
Thompson caught the eye of Bill Shankly to debut for the senior team in April 1972 – away at Manchester United, no less – as an 18-year-old gangly midfielder.
He would eventually move further back and establish centre-half partnerships with Emlyn Hughes and then Alan Hansen that were the rock of an all-conquering side.
There was a star showing in the 1974 FA Cup final as the Reds lifted the trophy for only the second time by picking apart Newcastle United at Wembley to win 3-0.
‘Thommo’ missed only one fixture when the championship was clinched in 1975-76 and scored versus Barcelona in the semi-final en route to also lifting the UEFA Cup that term.
An injury ruled him out of the latter stages of the run to maiden European Cup glory in 1977 but he was back in the XI a year on to help ensure it was defended successfully.
And Thompson was then part of the record-breaking back line that shipped just 16 goals in 42 games in the league-winning campaign of 1978-79.
Along the way, he contributed to the building of an iconic Liverpool style founded on playing out from defence and dominating possession.
“We’d probe and pass,” he recalled. “We used to keep the ball for fun in those days. It was always keeping possession of the ball.
“The decision shaped the way Liverpool is. We won so many trophies. People couldn’t get the ball off us for minutes on end.”
Handed the armband in April 1979, the trophies kept on coming for Thompson – including a first League Cup for Liverpool in 1981.
When the Reds vanquished Real Madrid in the European Cup final in Paris a month later, Thompson enhanced his already strong Anfield legacy by collecting ‘Old Big Ears’.
He was the second captain, and one of just five in club history to date, to have that honour.
Thompson added two more First Division titles to his extensive collection and then closed the playing chapter of his Liverpool association by joining Sheffield United in 1984.
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