IT’S a prized discovery from deep within the ECHO’s archives.

Bill Shankly rarely gave in-depth interviews but in the summer of 1962 the founding father of the modern Liverpool Football Club was ready to speak his mind.

The iconic manager had just led the Reds to the Second Division title – ending the club’s painful eight-year absence from the top flight.

Shankly agreed to pen a series of 14 weekly columns for the Saturday ‘Football ECHO’ entitled ‘The Hard Road Back’ and for the first time in more than half a century they have been published by Trinity Mirror Sport Media in new book ‘Shankly: The Lost Diary’.

Editor of the Kop Magazine Chris McLoughlin, who provides the foreword for the book, stumbled across Shankly’s battle plan while researching an article to mark the 50th anniversary of Liverpool’s promotion.

He unearthed an enthralling insight into the great man’s vision to restore Liverpool to the pinnacle of English football. Shankly’s passion for the job and burning desire to succeed shine through.

“It was an unusually candid project for Shankly to undertake,” McLoughlin said.

“It was presented to readers in low-key fashion by the paper with a five paragraph Football ECHO article promoting the series sandwiched in between the I Zingari League table and a section of the FA Cup final match report.

“Aside from his autobiography, there isn’t a publication out there in which Shankly, speaking in the first person, gives such a detailed account of how he set about restoring the glory days at Anfield.

“What makes this all the more exciting is that every word in this book was written before those glory days returned. This isn’t Shanks reflecting on the job he did after guiding Liverpool to league championships, FA Cups and UEFA Cup. This is Shankly talking in 1962 about a job he felt he was only just starting.”

In extracts from the first instalment of Shankly’s weekly column, published in the ECHO on May 12 1962, the Reds boss set about explaining why he had accepted the offer to write for the paper.

Shankly wrote: “When I was approached by the Liverpool ECHO to write a series of articles on events at Anfield since my arrival here about two-and-a-half years ago, I finally decided to undertake the commission solely to endeavour to maintain interest in football in Liverpool and district during the close season.

“I do not always agree with football reports in this paper and in the normal course of events, have no way of replying to such articles, but as I am now contributing, I feel very strongly that I must take this opportunity of emphasising this fact.

“It is not that I resent criticism of my team – indeed I am probably its sternest critic – but I feel criticism can sometimes be too strong. A case in point is the report of the recent match against Everton where the comments make me wonder if the reporter and I were watching the same game.

“I know only too well that Merseyside harbours one of the keenest sets of supporting fans in the country, and also know that out of this wonderful crowd, there are countless thousands whose first love is football, and a passionate love at that.

“For these people, the summer months are long ones, so it is to them that I am primarily addressing these articles, although I sincerely hope that others who read them will find the same interest in reading them that I find in writing them.

“In the course of the series, I shall touch on major and minor events inside the club, the problems of team selection, the little dramas which have been played prior to matches in relation to injured players and how decisions were made regarding a player’s fitness.

“My idea in this matter is to not only enlighten supporters of Liverpool football, but also to help bring those supporters closer together – if that is possible.”

Shankly went on to address the ‘gamble’ he had taken when he quit Huddersfield Town to accept Liverpool’s offer to become manager in December 1959.

“After my playing days were over, I served my apprenticeship on the managerial side of football with struggling clubs, but although to call them that may be ungracious, it is a statement of fact and does not detract from my gratitude to them for the opportunity to learn the business,” he continued.

“Then came the chance to come to Liverpool and this is the problem with which I was confronted. Here was a club which although it had a long spell in Division II, really belonged to the First Division (in my opinion), and it seemed to me that this was my chance of reaching the top and, in doing so, helping to build Liverpool once more into one of the leading clubs in the game.

“At the same time I realised that although this was a challenge which everything within me urged me to take up, nevertheless it was a gamble as Liverpool supporters would only accept one thing – success.

“I was, at that time, leading as peaceful a life as any football manager can lead in the comparatively sheltered calm of Huddersfield. Was I to step out of this into the cauldron-like atmosphere of Anfield to undertake a task which, however much I put into it, could end in failure?

“Nobody can guarantee success and certainly not quick success, yet it seemed to me that the latter was being demanded and therefore the risk was doubled.

“With these thoughts in my mind, I visited Anfield. I talked with the board and I talked with the staff and had a look around the place. I liked what I heard in these conversations and I liked what I saw on my tour of inspection.

“From what I had heard and seen, I decided that even if the risk I was taking was great, it was nevertheless a calculated risk and one which I had to take because I am an ambitious man and I knew that the Liverpool club and its supporters were ambitious too.

“My first task was to assess the possibilities of the club and by this I mean not only the playing strength but also the staff, equipment and all the facilities.

“Part of the latter was the training ground at Melwood which I had not seen prior to accepting my new post. I want to put it on record that my first view of it really staggered me with its potential and elated me when I considered its possibilities.

“My second task was to talk to the playing and training staff and explain to them what I would demand from them.

“Thirdly, I had to see the directors after I had carried out the foregoing and explain to them the support which I would need from them.

“As far as assessing the playing strength of the club was concerned, a little consideration will show what a difficult problem faced me.

“I had to decide as quickly as possible the needs of the club (if any) before it could be classed as a promotion probability, and at the same time I had to try individuals and groups of individuals in permutations of positions in order to be certain I had not overlooked anything and was not doing an injustice to anybody.

“However, it has always been my policy to get to know my players and so from the start I have trained with them, dined with them, spoke to them daily and all-in-all done everything in my power to be in a position to weigh up accurately their strengths and weaknesses and thus make sure that my assessment of them both as players and as clubmen is correct.”

’SHANKLY: The Lost Diary’ is out now RRP £9.99. To buy it for the special price of £7.99 order online at: www.merseyshop.com or call 0845 143 0001.

DON’T miss tomorrow’s ECHO for more from ‘Shankly: The Lost Diary’, including the great man on his ‘sermons’ to the Liverpool players and handing Ian Callaghan his debut