Peer back even further into Liverpool's storied history and you'll come across another of the toughest players to ever play for the time, sourced from across the British Isles. The Aberdeen-born Ron Yeats was the captain of the first great Liverpool team of the sixties, bought by manager Bill Shankly in from Dundee United for a fee of around £20,000 and swiftly put in charge of an Anfield squad who'd just been promoted from from the Second Division. Shankly himself was so impressed he told waiting journalists at the announcement of his signing that "the man is a mountain, go into the dressing room and walk around him". Further to that, Yeats earned the nickname "The Colossus" thanks to his 6'2" frame and the strong defensive line he was the centre of with his arrival, along with that of striker Ian St John, described as the "turning point" for the era's squad. The pair's presence on the pitch was the main reason the squad managed to swing the League title in both 1964 and again in 1966, with St John putting away the goals almost as quickly as Yeats was systematically and decisively making sure the Kop kept clean sheets.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
