Kenny Dalglish reflects on his glory years, the tragedy of Hillsborough and the joy of still attending Anfield

When Kenny Dalglish took to the stage at London’s Picturehouse Central cinema recently, accompanied by his daughter and Match of the Day presenter Kelly Cates, the Liverpool footballing legend was in wonderfully jovial form. In front of friends and admirers, including ex-player Jamie Carragher and actor Damian Lewis, he was there to present Kenny Dalglish – the new documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Asif Kapadia.

The 74-year-old Glaswegian joked that he was the first of Kapadia’s subjects to be alive – a nod to the director’s multi award-winning docs Senna, Amy and Maradona, which took on, respectively, the tragic tales of Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna, singer Amy Winehouse and football icon Diego Maradona. The man they call ‘King Kenny’ is a very different prospect – at once a man of the people and one of the greatest footballers of his generation.

Kapadia’s film steers us through Dalglish’s early years and his time at Celtic before, in 1977, Liverpool manager Bob Paisley paid a British transfer record of £440,000 to bring the striker south of the border as a replacement for the departing Kevin Keegan. As he always does with his documentaries, Kapadia doesn’t feature talking heads, but rather mixes candid audio recordings of his interviewees and compelling archive clips.

“There wasn’t a camera, there wasn’t a crew, there wasn’t lots of people, it was quite relaxed,” says Kapadia, who did most of the recordings in Liverpool, sitting Dalglish down with a cup of tea and some Dairy Milk chocolate. Their exchanges were often humorous, Dalglish even telling Kapadia to get a haircut before one recording session. One day, Kapadia couldn’t make it to Liverpool, and Dalglish came down on the train (arriving suited and booted, “for an audio interview!” the director laughs). “Most people don't do that. You have to go to them.“

It’s just one example of how down-to-earth Dalglish is. Can you imagine David Beckham or Cristiano Ronaldo jumping on British Rail without an entourage? Here is a man, as Kapadia’s film so carefully points out, who always put the collective ahead of the individual. In 1977, Dalglish’s arrival at Liverpool coincided with the club’s most successful period, winning three European cups and six First Division leagues during his time as a player.

“I think it's nice to reminisce when you’ve been through what I’ve done. It’s brilliant isn't it?” Dalglish tells me, cheerfully, when we meet. “Obviously, there’s some other things you wouldn’t want to be repeated, which has nothing to do with a game. It’s to do with what happened at a game. So that’s emotive and touching.” He is, of course, referring to the events he witnessed at both Heysel and Hillsborough, two of the most horrifying tragedies to ever take place inside football grounds.

The first, in 1985, took place on the night that Liverpool played Juventus in the European Cup Final. 39 souls, mostly Juventus supporters, lost their lives, when a wall collapsed following an altercation with Liverpool fans. Shortly afterwards, Liverpool’s manager Joe Fagan resigned and Dalglish took over, initially as player-manager. Even then, the idea of a player-manager was a rarity. “Especially at 34 years of age,” he says. “But if they were prepared to take a chance, then what right did I have to say no?”

Dalglish’s first year in charge ended with Liverpool winning the double – shockingly, it remains the only time still the club has won the league title and the FA Cup in the same year. Needless to say, Kapadia features the iconic moment when Dalglish famously clinched the league for Liverpool on the final day of the 1985-’86 season, scoring the only goal in the game against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Again, Dalglish is not one to accept the glory all for himself. “That was only a culmination of some fantastic work a load of other guys had done for me. On and off the pitch. I mean, remember Ronnie Moran, Roy Evans, Tom Saunders, they were there beside us off the pitch and on the pitch, every single one of them was an ally. So I thought that [scoring the winner] was a nice way to say thank you!”

Kapadia’s film largely skips over Dalglish’s international career (he won 102 caps in fifteen years for Scotland and played in three World Cups), focusing on his time at Liverpool. The 1987-’88 season remains a high point in the club’s history, winning the league with a stylish team Dalglish rebuilt, bringing in John Barnes, Peter Beardsley, John Aldridge and Ray Houghton. Again Dalglish deflects praise away from himself and onto the club. “I gave them a list in players, and they brought them in,” he shrugs.

Kapadia, a devoted Liverpool FC fan, remembered Dalglish from his childhood, and wanted to make a love letter to him and to a time before Sky Sports and the Premier League changed football irrevocably. “When I started this film, I thought, ‘Is it possible to make a film about Kenny and just talk about football? Can I just make a football film about him?’ But then I spoke to people and they said, ‘Well, you missed the point of the man.’”

Dalglish may not be a politician, but his time with Liverpool showed him as a resolute leader in the wake of the Hillsborough tragedy, which ultimately saw 97 fans lose their lives due to overcrowding on the terraces during the 1989 FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest. Dalglish led the club with dignity during this period, attending funerals and remaining on the side of the fans, even when they were falsely accused of vile behaviour.

There’s no doubt its a chilling moment in the film, whether you’ve seen the footage before or not. Kapadia reports of a screening they had for the survivors of Hillsborough and their families recently in Liverpool. “It was so emotional. And Kenny was there. He spoke to everyone. He knows most of them, of course, as you would. So I feel like that's another part of the story, telling his story, but him also saying, ‘We’re not going to forget what you did.’ I think that's really important.”

As the film shows, Liverpool FC was in turmoil after that, the board, players and manager uncertain whether to even continue in the FA Cup. Eventually, it was decided they would carry on – and the team beat Forest in the re-arranged semi-final to set up a date with their Merseyside neighbours Everton (a repeat of the 1986 FA Cup final, when Liverpool won the double).

This time, they won 3-2, a game that Dalglish calls the “the most meaningful success” in his time at the club. "For me, that’s the most relevant. It was unfortunate if you were an Evertonian, because the world and his dog was against them, wasn’t it? Everybody wanted us to win it. But in saying that it also put pressure on the boys that were playing." As emotional as that was, Hillsborough took its toll on Dalglish, who ultimately resigned in 1991.

“I was just fortunate enough that I could make that decision,” he reflects. “There’s a lot of people who go past the point of no return and, medically, I was glad that I was able to make that decision. I wasn’t happy with the decision I had to make, but it was necessary. In some ways you’re happy that you were able to do that. In other ways, you're disappointed it came to that level.”

While Kapadia’s film stops with Dalglish’s departure, his career continued, becoming the only manager to win the Premier League with Blackburn in 1995. He later returned for a second spell at Liverpool in 2011 after the sacking of Roy Hodgson during a particularly barren period for the club. Dalglish led the team to its first trophy in five years, a League Cup win against Cardiff in 2012, and an FA Cup Final appearance the same year.

“I was glad I went back. It was a huge honour to be able to go back, and to win a trophy during that spell, and to get to the final of the FA Cup as well in the same year…[that] was very rewarding. We were a wee bit in transition then, changing over. But as I say, enjoyed it, and I'd still make the same decision again.” With humility, he adds: “The unfortunate thing about getting back is a very, very good man lost his job – and that was Roy.”

You might say this is typical of Dalglish. “This idea of caring for people, doing the right thing…that’s how he was brought up in Glasgow,” says Kapadia. “I think that's what comes across...it’s always doing the right thing for your people, whether it’s your family, whether it’s your team, whether it’s the city.” Unsurprisingly, a willing roster of family, friends and fans speak about Dalglish in the film, including teammates Alan Hansen and Graeme Souness and Beatles star Paul McCartney.

These days Dalglish can still regularly be seen attending games at Liverpool’s ground, Anfield. “It's always important to get enjoyment of your life, isn't it?” he says. “Going to Anfield, it's never going to be a chore, is it? It’s always going to be tinged with happiness.” I jokingly ask if he’d consider a third spell as manager of the club. “That means somebody’s been unsuccessful,” he replies. When it comes to Kenny Dalglish, there really is no ‘i’ in team.

Kenny Dalglish is now streaming on Prime Video.

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