Just coincidentally, Bob Hamilton (69), of Downfield, sent in a query to me just a day before it was highlighted in our look back at the old Sporting Post Queries page.
He wanted to know the names of two English guys signed by Dundee manager Bob Shankly in the early 1960s.
I’ve given out their names over the past few weeks but I’ll now give more information on how the transfers unfolded.
“I’m sure I read that a former Dundee player recommended the players to Bob Shankly,” said Bob, a retired joiner.
“My father Robert used to know Shankly on a social basis and he often came in with Dundee’s match day line-up after chatting to Bob.
“I’m also sure Shankly’s brother Bill had a hand in the transfers.”
The two players Bob mentions, I reckon, are actually Scottish but were with English teams.
In fact, they were with the two Merseyside teams, Everton and Liverpool.
Records suggest they were signed within a day of each other in early May 1964.
First to join up at Dens Park was wing-half John Phillips (18), of Everton.
Former Dark Blue Jimmy Gabriel was his senior clubmate at Goodison Park and recommended Phillips to Shankly.
He even quipped: ‘Phillips plays so well in practice games that at times I’m worried about my first-team place’.
The cutting I located offered two other pieces of trivia.
First, the recommendation came from Gabriel, who was the first player Shankly transferred when he took up the reins at Dens.
Second, the last teenager to join Dundee from the Toffeemen was Andy Penman — and he certainly turned out to be not too bad a player!
One day after securing Phillips, Shankly headed across Stanley Park to Anfield to sign left-winger Phil Tinney.
Tinney was a Dundonian who previously attended St Stephen’s and St John’s schools in the city.
As you might expect, it was Bob’s brother Bill who alerted the Dens boss after agreeing to release him.
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