Aye, I think Bob thought it was time to split them up after that. I seem to remember it was with the hotel owner and his son because they wanted to close the bar !
A colossus of a player, deceptive pace and undoubted power and yet so light on his feet and with the deftest of touches. And as others have said, part of the greatest midfield quartet ever to play for LFC.
Thanks for the memories Ray. RIP.
Lots of stories about the two were embellished
Tony Evans writing in the Independent the “bully in chief” Tommy Smith welcomed him to Liverpool with a tackle in training and they squared up so Bob decided to put them apart on the pitch and moved him back.
Fact. Paisley didn’t switch Ray to left half until 1976
So that welcome from Smith was either two years late or Bob took his time.
And surely moving Ray from Centre forward back into midfield actually brought them closer?
The truth is he was a world class player. Perhaps his strong character was too much for Ron Greenwood who preferred the much lesser talent of Brooking. Funny how Brooking got a knighthood when he won nowt. It remains a disgrace that a non entities of a player like Gordon Taylor ended up displaying Ray’s medals under his glass topped desk like he had personally won them.
Ray was one of an elite band of players who won Big Ears three times. When I hear some of the nonsense talked by thick pundits about “legends”, there are very few who deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Ray. (And three of them played in that midfield with him.)
And I was fortunate to see him play!
