Forty years after Liverpool completed only the fifth Double in English football history, two players from that squad have been looking back at a season that carried weight well beyond trophies, according to Yahoo Sports.
Sammy Lee and Gary Gillespie spoke ahead of an anniversary event marking the 1985-86 campaign, the first season Kenny Dalglish led the club as player-manager following the Heysel disaster and the retirement of Joe Fagan.
For Lee, the achievement meant something specific given what the club had just been through. "It was the lift the club needed after Heysel because everyone was on a down," he told BBC Radio Merseyside's Total Sport. "Joe decided enough was enough."
The uncertainty inside the dressing room was real. "We weren't too sure what was going to happen and were all still in a state of shock. To have someone like Kenny come in and lead us and do what he did after that was nothing short of exceptional."
Lee described a group of players who felt a responsibility to respond. "We realised the club and English football was in such a sorry state so we needed to make it happen. That dressing room, alongside all the people Kenny had working with him, was going to make sure it was a success. Although we had a difficult start, it wasn't going to hinder our progress and it certainly didn't."
Gillespie offered a picture of how Dalglish managed the fine line between authority and connection. "Kenny distanced himself a little bit from the players but still had a laugh and a joke," he said. "The dressing room was excellent with senior players and great characters throughout to look after everything going on."
The Double that season placed Liverpool alongside a small group of clubs in English football history to have won the league title and FA Cup in the same year. The anniversary event gives former players and supporters a chance to mark a season that the squad remembers as much for its context as its silverware.
