The footballer Ron Yeats, who has died aged 86, was captain of Liverpool within the mid-Nineteen Sixties once they made their breakthrough again into the massive time, successful League Championships in 1964 and 1966 in addition to an FA Cup in between.
For many of the decade earlier than that, Liverpool had been nothing greater than an honest Division Two aspect. However a brand new supervisor, Invoice Shankly, joined in 1959 and started to rebuild with Yeats, a fellow Scot, as his on-the-field chief.
A stocky 6ft 2in central defender nicknamed “the Colossus”, Yeats had formidable bodily and psychological energy, which made him a super captain for Shankly. Inside two seasons he had led the aspect as much as Division One, and inside one other two had delivered the 1964 League Championship.
The next yr he lifted the FA Cup for the primary time in Liverpool’s historical past after a 2-1 extra-time win over Leeds at Wembley through which he was excellent, and in 1966 he was holding aloft one other Division One trophy. Except for his captaincy, Yeats was particularly helpful for his dedicated tackling, tremendous distribution of the ball and a strong partnership together with his fellow centre-back Tommy Smith.
Even greater issues gave the impression to be beckoning beneath Yeats’s assured management, however within the remaining years of the 60s he and his teammates have been unable to fairly ship one other home title or make a agency mark in Europe. By 1970 Shankly had selected one other rebuild, and Yeats, by then in his 30s, grew to become a sufferer of the following cull.
Regardless of the frustration of that ending, the years of success that Yeats helped to engender throughout his 10-year captaincy offered a agency platform for Shankly to create additional triumphs within the early 70s and for one more supervisor, Bob Paisley, to pile on home and European glory from the late 70s onwards. Shankly himself mentioned that the arrival of Yeats, together with the ahead Ian St John, had been “the very starting of Liverpool’s rise”.
Born in Aberdeen, the place his household dwelling was destroyed throughout a second world warfare bombing raid, Yeats performed soccer for the Aberdeen Lads Membership and represented Scotland at Underneath-15 degree earlier than leaving faculty to grow to be an apprentice mason at a agency owned by his uncle.
When the corporate went bust Yeats grew to become a slaughterman at Aberdeen cattle market, persevering with there after being signed on part-time phrases by the Scottish Division Two aspect Dundee United as a 19-year-old in 1957. United have been promoted in his first season, after which he was in a position to surrender the slaughterhouse job to focus on soccer within the prime flight, with particular dispensation to play on the membership throughout his two years of nationwide service.
Liverpool got here calling in 1961 after he had spent 4 seasons at Tannadice, the place his defensive prowess and management qualities had been noticed by Shankly. As captain from his first match at Anfield, he led his new teammates to promotion from Division Two in his debut season, after which they made a direct impression within the prime flight by ending eighth in 1962-63 and taking the title in 1963-64, 4 factors forward of Manchester United.
When Yeats accepted the FA Cup from Queen Elizabeth II the next season, there was consternation amongst some officers as he confided to Her Majesty that he was “completely knackered” – a flip of phrase considered way more salty in these days than it could be now. Nonetheless, the Queen herself appeared unperturbed at his alternative of language.
Liverpool reclaimed the Division One championship the subsequent yr by a six-point margin from Leeds, however there was no extra sustained success beneath Yeats’s captaincy thereafter, even when there was nothing worse than fifth place within the League. By the point Shankly’s axe got here in 1971, he had performed 417 matches as captain of Liverpool, an extended service document that has solely been exceeded by Steven Gerrard. Regardless of his important achievements within the home recreation he was capped solely twice by Scotland, in 1964 and 1965.
As soon as Yeats had been marked as surplus to necessities at Liverpool, he left to be Tranmere’s player-manager for 3 years, adopted by two seasons in the identical position at Barrow. In his late 30s he performed for a yr with Los Angeles Skyhawks within the American Soccer League and, after spells with non-league groups within the form of Formby and Rhyl, he retired from enjoying on the age of 40.
Returning to Liverpool in 1986 as a scout for 20 years, he was accountable in 1999 for the discount signing of Sami Hyypiä, a centre-back and chief who was a lot within the mould of Yeats himself.
He’s survived by his spouse, Ann.
