Three Giants.

Article by Jerry.

Three Giants: Yeats, Hansen & Van Dijk – The Blood and Bone of Liverpool”

By Bill Shankly

Let me tell ye, lad — there’s men who play for Liverpool, and then there’s men who define it. When folk talk about great centre-halves, they rattle off names, aye — but there’s three that truly belong in marble outside Anfield: Ron Yeats, Alan Hansen, and Virgil van Dijk.

Yeats? Ah, Ronnie was the foundation. When I came to Liverpool in 1959, I needed a rock — a man to build a football empire on. And Ron was that man. Six-foot-two, broad as a barn door, with the calm of a priest and the stare of a sergeant major. I told the press, “Walk round him!” because you needed a map and a day off to do it.

He lifted us from the Second Division to the First, and from the First to Europe. I swear to ye, Ron Yeats didn’t just defend the goal — he protected the soul of the club.

Now, years passed, and in came Alan Hansen — another breed entirely, but my God, what a player. If Ron was the boulder, Hansen was the blade. Graceful, intelligent — he played the game like a grandmaster plays chess. Never flustered, never rushed. He’d stroll out of defence with the ball like he was walkin’ through the park on a Sunday, not in front of 50,000 mad Scousers.

You didn’t see him dive in — because he’d already taken the ball away in his head. Football IQ through the roof. And when Liverpool were winnin’ everything in sight during the ’80s, Hansen was the calm heart at the back, like a lighthouse in a storm.

And now… ye’ve got Virgil van Dijk. You look at him and you think, “They don’t make ‘em like that anymore” — only they do, just once a generation. He’s got Ron’s size, Alan’s composure, and a presence all his own. He wins everything in the air, reads the game like a script, and when he carries the ball out, it’s like the Red Sea partin’ for Moses.

Would I have signed him? Don’t be daft — I’d’ve sold the Main Stand to afford him.

Now, I’ll tell you this: Ron Yeats built the house, Hansen painted it in gold, and Virgil now guards the gates like a silent sentinel.

Three different men. Three different eras. But one heartbeat — Liverpool Football Club. These lads aren’t just defenders. They’re leaders of men, generals in red, statues in motion. And if you’re ever at Anfield wonderin’ where the spirit of the club lives — look to the back line, lad. It’s always been there.

Yeats. Hansen. Van Dijk.
Three giants. One club.
Immortal.

— Bill Shankly