Joe Fagan

Who was Joe Fagan?

Joseph "Joe" Fagan was an English footballer and manager. He played for Manchester City in the Football League First Division as a wing half and came close to gaining international honours. As his playing career came to an end, he decided to become a coach and worked at clubs in lower leagues before getting the chance to join Liverpool in 1958.

From December 1959, he worked with Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley and was highly successful in his coaching of the club's reserve team, being mainly responsible for the development of future star players like Roger Hunt, Ian Callaghan and Tommy Smith. After Shankly retired in 1974, Fagan became assistant manager to Paisley and finally manager himself when Paisley retired in 1983. In his first season, Fagan achieved an unprecedented "treble" as Liverpool won the European Cup, the League Championship and the League Cup. He had decided to retire at the end of his second season but his final match in charge was the 1985 European Cup Final which was the scene of the Heysel Stadium disaster, an event that caused him great distress.