WRITES IAN HOLLOWAY
Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho will battle it out at Old Trafford on Tuesday, but both are striving to match Paisley's standards.
Bob Paisley is still the only manager to lift the European Cup three times.
And it probably would have been four had the great Liverpool boss not decided to retire in 1983 and leave behind a team that were to become kings of the Europe again under Joe Fagan the following year.
What an unbelievable achievement for a quietly spoken man from Durham who was worried whether he had what it took to succeed Bill Shankly.
The advent of the Champions League means that European football has changed beyond all recognition from the 1970s and 1980s.
Teams today have to overcome the grind of the group games before entering into the cut-throat business of knock-out football.
But don't forget that in Paisley's day, it was a Champions' Cup in the true sense of the world. You didn't get in it by finishing second, third or fourth in your domestic league.
It says everything about the standards that Paisley set that two of today's managerial greats are still desperately trying to match him.
Source: Daily Mirror
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