Liverpool’s board of directors sat in session, the sheer cost of a potential signing raising eyebrows and leaving foreheads furrowed. It was early May 1961 and Bill Shankly had identified a young Scottish talent, Ian St John, as the player to improve the fortunes of a club who were idling in the old second division.

The price-tag of £37,500 would represent a club record and there was consternation at the prospect of such an outlay until one of the directors, Eric Sawyer, called for the purse strings to be loosened. Responding to a dissenting voice, which claimed that the transfer was just too expensive, Sawyer simply said: “We can’t afford not to sign him.”

To Shankly’s great delight the deal was done. The rest is