Journalists invited to ‘walk round’ the giant Ron Yeats – Liverpool’s colossus

Sign up to Miguel Delaney’s Reading the Game newsletter sent straight to your inbox for free Sign up to Miguel’s Delaney’s free weekly newsletter Sign up to Miguel’s Delaney’s free weekly newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Bill Shankly famously invited journalists to take a walk around the “colossus” Ron Yeats such was his physical presence. Yeats, who has died at the age of 86, lifted the Reds’ first FA Cup in 1965, ignoring etiquette by telling the Queen he was “knackered” after an energy-sapping Wembley final win over Leeds. It was the best 10 years of my career and my life.” On his arrival at Anfield, Shankly told the waiting press: “Take a walk around my centre-half, gentlemen, he’s a colossus!’ Yeats, known as Rowdy by the Kop, helped steer the Reds out of Division Two in his first season and to the Division One title inside two years before that historic FA Cup win, forming a formidable partnership with Tommy Smith. I wouldn’t come second to nobody.” Yeats played with Smith for seven seasons, adding: “We let the ball go past us, but never the ball and the man.” Incredibly he won just two Scotland caps and after 454 Liverpool appearances he left to be Tranmere’s player-manager for three years, followed by a brief spell in America in his late 30s before returning to Anfield in 1986 as chief scout, a role he held for two decades.