"I am only a modest Geordie but get me cornered and I am a mean b*****."

Never words you would have heard uttered publicly by the quietly-spoken man, who became English football's most successful manager by winning 20 major trophies in just nine seasons in charge of Liverpool. But ones he was quite happy to utter within the confines of the Anfield dressing room he ruled with, at times, an almost imperceptible steel.

Bob Paisley, who passed away aged 77 on this day in 1996, has long had the reputation of the gentle, cardigan-and-slippers wearing grandfather-like figure who reluctantly took over at Anfield after Bill Shankly's shock resignation in 1974 and established the Liverpool dynasty after his Scottish predecessor had dragged an under-achieving club toward being the 'bastion of invincibility' he always felt it could be.

Many anecdotes about...