Visiting managers would be invited in for a drop of something harder. The idea, legend has it, was to loosen their tongues about players in whom Liverpool had an interest.Shankly's role in boot room history may have been overstated. However, his all-for-one, one-for-all mentality, the legacy of his childhood in a Scottish mining community, also came naturally to Paisley, who had a similar background in County Durham."There was no back-stabbing and no one ever wanted anyone else's job," Evans recalled. The popular perception is that Paisley and his own successor, Joe Fagan, were already part of a thriving think tank presided over by Shankly."The boot room wasn't so much Shanks's thing," Evans explained.

After the slow-burning fuse of Kenny Dalglish's final months and the turmoil of Graeme Souness' reign, a return to the practice of promoting from within was seen as the best way to restore stability and success.The 47-year-old Evans came to Anfield as a schoolboy left-back. In the summer of '74, when Bob Paisley was settling into the manager's chair vacated by Bill Shankly, he retired at 25 to join the coaching staff. Foremost among those are continuity, consultation and - in contrast with the more patriarchal set-up at Old Trafford - collective responsibility.The first of those ideals was what led Liverpool to offer Evans his first managerial post in January 1994. Pass, move and possession on the pitch, unity of purpose off it.The bricks and mortar have long since given way to a carpeted press lounge following the relocation of the backroom operation to Melwood, a suburban training complex near the Brookside set.