Rarely, if ever, has a player loomed so large in the respective histories of two major clubs like Arsenal and Liverpool.
One such footballer though is Ray Kennedy; a teenage Double winner with Bertie Mee’s Gunners in 1971, and a serial First Division title and European Cup winner with Bob Paisley’s Liverpool by the end of the decade.
It’s remarkable to think that, as the 1970/71 campaign loomed, Kennedy had only made two first-team appearances. However, it was his cameo performance as a substitute in the first leg of the Fairs Cup final away at Anderlecht which suggested that the young Geordie - once described by Port Vale manager Stanley Matthews as being ‘too slow’ to make it as a footballer - was poised to burst onto the scene.
As we trailed 3-0 in Brussels, Kennedy’s late header gave us hope in the return leg at Highbury. Although he played no part in the legendary match in N5, a sensational performance saw us win 3-0 on the night (and 4-3 on aggregate), thereby lifting a first trophy in 17 years.
Kennedy was thrust into the starting line-up at the start of 1970/71 after the young Charlie George broke his ankle in the opening game of the season at Goodison Park in a 2-2 draw. Playing alongside John Radford, the burly forward never looked back, and scored 19 goals in 42 league matches.
Many came with his head, but in a 2-0 win over Chelsea in the spring on a muddy pitch, he showed that he was equally adept at shooting powerfully and precisely with his left foot. His brace of goals against the Blues both came from some George trickery – the first a dummy, the second an unerringly accurate pass.
“Some thought that Charlie and I couldn’t play together,” Kennedy told me in our interview, “but he was superb in the more withdrawn role behind Raddy \[Radford\] and me.”
We won no fewer than 10 of our league matches 1-0 in the neck-and-neck title race with Leeds United, and it was Ray’s famous towering header past Pat Jennings in the 1-0 victory at White Hart Lane on May 3 for which he’s most fondly remembered, as it brought the title back to Highbury, our first since 1953.
When we completed the Double the following Saturday at Wembley with a 2-1 victory over Liverpool in the FA Cup final, Kennedy was elated. “I think that Charlie and I reckoned that every season would be like this at Arsenal. We were young and a bit naive.’
Kennedy’s form slowly dropped off, and injuries scuppered his progress. In July 1974, Bill Shankly signed Kennedy for £180,000 in his last act as Liverpool manager, before his shock resignation saw Paisley take over the reins.
Initially, Kennedy struggled as a striker at Anfield, but a chance meeting between his then-manager and former football coach in the north-east changed his fortunes. Paisley learned that Kennedy had once played as a midfielder as a schoolboy, and converted him.
In his new, creative midfield role, Kennedy flourished, enabling Liverpool to garner 10 major honours in six years and win an England place. He never lost his striking touch either, scoring 74 times in almost 400 appearances. Our loss proved to be very much Liverpool’s gain.
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