I kind of suspected this was coming, given Tommy being so absent from LFC things this past few years. It makes it no less sad for me and for others who grew up as Reds watching Tommy from the very start of his Anfield career.
I was going to write something as my own personal epitaph to the great man and then I remembered I had done a piece some time ago on another website in response to another piece about Tommy. So I'll just reproduce it here with a few amendments to tailor it for this thread.
I would say, newer fans should now read every word of it not least because the claims I make regarding the majesty of the man as an outstanding footballer - not simply the classifying of him as a legendary hardman - really do need to be digested and reflected upon.
Tommy Smith was a player so immense for LFC that words cannot begin to accord him justice.
Tommy’s arrival in ’64 as twin centre back [number 10 shirt] alongside Big Rowdy Yeats in a hitherto little known back four line-up came about 5 years after I’d begun watching the Reds from the Boys Pen as Shanks mounted his escape plan from Division Two.
I’ve never been totally sure whether the deployment of Smithy in that role was a true tactical masterstroke by Shanks or whether he was merely mimicking a tactical innovation of other sharp footballing minds elsewhere. I’d love it to have been Shanks’s own flash of tactical inspiration and it was certainly not deployed by every team back then. However, whatever the case, for LFC it not only ensured the securing of those ensuing historical mid ’60’s league and FA cup triumphs but also provided our formation blueprint for many years to come.
I’ve often said it to friends and family but I’ll repeat it here now as a most appropriate place to reiterate it. The Tommy Smith who bestrode domestic and European arenas back in those mid ’60’s adventures was the finest centre back I’ve ever witnessed bar Franz Beckenbauer.
Yes, read that again and and try to digest it.
Better than ANY others.
For me, despite the inevitable blue-eyed blond incarnation of the undoubtedly majestic Bobby Moore courtesy of the prevailing southern media and - in the eyes of our very own rewritten history - our own two subsequent greats in that position – Hansen and Lawrenson, it was only the performances I saw of Beckenbauer in that centre back role which have ever transcended those of Tommy Smith in the same role.
Most Reds fans today seem to reference Tommy’s cameos in the ’74 FA cup final and the ’77 European cup final as the testaments to his greatness. And I fully understand why people do so as they certainly do provide worthy substantiation of his abilities at that time. However, by that time Tommy good as he was was nothing like the Sixties superman that older fans knew him to be. Indeed, in order for those who weren't around back then to gain insight into the version of Tommy Smith which myself and other older Reds put on the pedestal of true world class greatness as a lean mean machine of outstanding strength, power, game reading and, paradoxically, bewitching ball skills and creative ability, I would refer folks to the entire videos of the ’65 final and the ensuing incredible triumph over the reigning world champions Inter Milan.
Both of these have rare cameos of the Tommy Smith we used to witness week in week out back in those halcyon days.
Sure, they show Tommy making those trademark tackles and headed clearances which, allied with a game-reading ability comparable in my opinion with that of Bobby Moore, rendered Tommy a defensive obstacle par excellence. Every Liverpudlian I’m sure knows of those. However, more revealingly they show tantalising glimpses of the immensely skilled and creative attacking footballer never content merely to destroy who would never waste an opportunity to slalom forward past trailing opponents of whatever pedigree to prise openings for his teammates.
For let there be no mistake, around that period Tommy Smith encountered, tamed and often outclassed the very finest attacking players the British and European game could muster and left many in his surging wake. The dearth of internet writers hailing from that time have ensured Tommy is remembered for his achievements more as the beefy right back in those superb ’74 and ’77 cameos against Newcastle and Gladbach. But let me assure everyone. They do not begin to convey one slivver of the full immensity of the real Tommy Smith, a player who ranks comfortably alongside Elisha Scott, Billy Liddell, Cally, Hunt, St John, Keegan, Emlyn, Dalglish, Souness, Hansen, Rush, Barnes, Suarez and Gerrard in the LFC pantheon of true greats.
Indeed, for many reasons the incomparable Tommy can possibly be said to eclipse them all.
I know from reading his own depictions of himself down the years as merely the ‘Anfield Iron’ how unassuming and self effacing he was in regard to what he brought to the Anfield table. Thankfully, there are still some of us who know the reality of his true greatness which goes infinitely beyond that hackneyed hardman summation of a true great. Suffice to say to bring this little epitaph up to date, the mid ‘60’s Tommy Smith as an anchor to our current sparkling attacking set up would guarantee any honour we’d care to name - irrespective of the presence of any highfalutin Man City's, Barcelonas or Real Madrids you care to name.
