Graeme Souness has highlighted the key influence Liverpool great Ronnie Moran had at the club.
Moran passed away on Wednesday at the age of 83 and tributes have poured in since for a figure who played an important role at Anfield during their successful eras.
Moran played for hometown Liverpool from 1952 to 1968. He then joined the club's coaching staff as a key influence, working with Bill Shankly, Joe Fagan, Bob Paisley and Kenny Dalglish, before taking on a caretaker role in the early 1990s.
In that sense, he maintained a life long association with Liverpool FC and one of those brief caretaker manager roles came when he stepped in for club legend Souness when the latter had to undergo heart surgery.
Souness joined Off The Ball to pay his respects to Moran and outline the key role he played at Liverpool as a person who instilled high standards.
"He saw one of his jobs as making sure that everyone was bang at it and kept their feet on the ground and it didn't matter if you were a young guy just joining the club or what he used to call us 'the big heads,'" said Souness of how Moran made sure there would be no resting of laurels, reflected in the success the club enjoyed on the field.
"He went after us at every opportunity and every football club should have someone like him.
"Maybe in death he'll be given greatness but he should have been given it while he was alive. For all the success, Liverpool had starting with the '60s, into the '70s and '80s and '90s, he was instrumental. He was as instrumental as anyone.
"You talk about Shankly and Paisley but Joe Fagan, Ronnie Moran, Peter Robinson who was the chief executive, these were all the truly key men at the football club and they had as big a part to play in the successes as anyone you want to name, including Shankly and Paisley. Ronnie should be up there in the same breathe because he was the one we worked with every day."
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