Ian St John 1938-2021 RIP

Just days after the passing of former player and Manager Glenn Roeder, news came through of another legend who has sadly passed away.

Former Liverpool and Scotland forward Ian St John died on Tuesday at the age of 82 after a long illness.

Kop legend St John passes away

His playing career will be most remembered for his time at Liverpool. With the Reds he made 336 appearances during his ten years at the club spanning from 1961 until 1971. During that decade with the successful Liverpool side, he helped them to two league titles and one FA Cup.

St John was born in Motherwell and played for his hometown club from 1965- 1961. With Motherwell he made 113 appearances and scored 80 goals.

St John was signed by Liverpool from Motherwell

Liverpool signed St John from the Scottish side for a club record £37,500.

After his long spell at Liverpool St John moved on to South Africa to play for Hellenic during 1971. After a short spell at the club, he came back to England where he was signed by Coventry City where he made 18 appearances.

From Coventry, St John ended his playing career at Tranmere Rovers where he made just nine appearances.

Played for Scotland over 20 times

Ian St John was selected to play for Scotland 21 times from 1959-1965. He made his debut in a 3-2 friendly victory over West Germany at Hampden Park in 1959. The first of his nine international goals came a year later against Poland.

After retiring from playing St John managed both his former club Motherwell for a year from 1973-74. He also had a stint at Portsmouth where he managed the South coast club between 1974-77.

Aside from managing, he had two spells as an assistant manager at both Sheffield Wednesday and Coventry City.

Life after football for St John

After leaving Sheffield Wednesday in 1979, St John went into the world of a football pundit. He struck up a very successful partnership with Jimmy Greaves in the excellent and popular Saint and Greavsie programme which ran for several years.

The show aired on Saturday mornings on ITV and was considered at the time to be the leader in cult football chat shows.

The duo of Greaves and St John was the perfect pairing. Greaves always making jokes that made St John smile. The humour of Greaves mixed into the serious side of St John worked a treat.

As a player, manager, pundit and TV star, St John will be sorely missed and will live long in the memory of football fans around the world.

Leave a Reply