Chris Lawler was born in Norris Green, Liverpool on the 20th of October 1943 and attended St Theresa's School where he started playing football, predominantly at centre half. Here he was noticed and went to play for Liverpool Schoolboys and was also captain of England Schoolboys. When he played at Wembley against West Germany in front of 95,000 people he was just fourteen and a half and Martin Peters was also in the team. The third youngest of fifteen children, with ten brothers, and the whole family supporting Liverpool, when Manchester United and Everton showed an interest his dad said he could go up to Everton, not to sign but on the chance he might get some free football boots as a bribe. He was right and Chris got a brand new pair of Adidas football boots.
In the end he went to Liverpool, on the ground staff. Thinking he would be training during the day, Chris found he was working all day, 'a bit like slave labour', and then two nights a week he went training with the amateurs. He was there three months before Bill Shankly came to the club and bumped into him in the corridor. Chris remembers, "He said 'You’re Chris Lawler' and he stopped me and he asked me my routine and I said 'I’m in at half past eight every morning and two nights a week we go training with the amateurs.' And he said: 'That’s no good. You're here to learn a trade. Football’s your trade. Tomorrow morning you’re going training at ten o'clock with the first team'."
Only sixteen when he joined, he had to endure a long learning curve as his way into the first team was blocked by Ron Yeats and he only played when Ron was injured so he reluctantly asked Bill Shankly for a transfer. Shankly said 'I’ve got an idea. Leave it with me.' He moved Gerry Byrne from right back to left back, replacing Ronnie Moran and Chris came into the side at left back making his debut at the age of 19 in a 2–2 league draw with West Bromwich Albion in March 1963. For two seasons his progression into first team regular was gradual, playing just six matches in each of the seasons, but by 1965 he was first choice right back and the 1964–65 season culminated in him being selected in the team which beat Leeds United to win the FA Cup for the first time in the club's history. He had scored the first of his many goals (for a right-back) during that season in a 5–1 defeat of Burnley and his timing and anticipation, enabling him to turn up in the right place at the right time to score vital goals, earned him the nickname 'The Silent Knight'. Bob Paisley in his book, 'My 50 Golden Reds' relates the tale, "Bill used to take training sessions very seriously when it got round
to the 7–a-side matches and this day we were playing without proper
goals. Bill hit a shot and claimed a goal which everyone else knew would
have gone over the bar. Anyway, to try and get some support for his
view that he had scored he turned to Chris and asked him whether it was a
goal or not. Chris said that it wasn't and would have gone over the bar
and Bill had everyone in stitches when he turned round and told anyone
who would listen: 'He doesn’t say a word for years and then when he does
he tells a lie'."
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| Chris Lawler scores against Leeds on the 4th of May 1968 |
Chris missed just three games in the next seven seasons when, during this period, Liverpool won the League Championship in 1966; the first ever appearance in a major European final being beaten 2–1 by Borussia Dortmund in the Cup Winners Cup and finished second to Leeds for the 1968–69 League championship. He survived Bill Shankly's cull of 1970 which saw many of the older 1960s stars replaced by younger talent but again tasted defeat when he played in the 1971 FA Cup final loss to Arsenal. Shankly praised his reliable right-back at the end of that campaign, saying, "Lawler has proved himself the greatest-ever match-winning full-back in the business with nearly 50 goals. A fantastic achievement when you realise he hasn‘t scored any of them from the penalty-spot, or even direct from a free-kick." He then won a League title and UEFA Cup double in 1973 and during this period won his four England caps, scoring on his debut on the 12th of May 1971.
Bill Shankly's departure from the club in the summer of 1974 marked the downturn of his Liverpool career as, in addition to an injury suffered against QPR in 1973 which required a cartilage operation, new manager Bob Paisley signed a specialist right back Phil Neal from Northampton Town at the end of that year. Chris made his final Liverpool appearance against Hibernian in a UEFA Cup tie on the 17th of September 1975. He joined Portsmouth in October 1975, managed by former Liverpool teammate Ian St John before later joining Stockport County in 1978 after a spell on loan to Miami Toros in the North American Soccer League in 1976 where he played against Pele and Eusebio. He also played for Welsh League side Bangor City and in 1980–81 played and coached second-level club Raufoss I.L. in the Norwegian league system as well as being assistant manager at Wigan for six months in between. After becoming a coach at Liverpool when his playing days were over, he was acrimoniously released from his duties in 1986, finding out from the cleaners that somebody (Phil Thompson) was taking his place.
Chris Lawler was voted in at No.51 in the 100 Players Who Shook The Kop poll on the Liverpool FC Club website.
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