In my first year at secondary school I won an essay competition. The title was intriguing and, as it turned out, prophetic. It read: ‘Imagine you are an archaeologist in the year 3000. Describe and interpret your discoveries resulting from the excavation of Anfield Football Ground in Liverpool.’

It is at times like this when you wish your parents had kept all your school work. I do, however, dimly recall that the Anfield excavation revealed an enclosure of concrete terraces and turnstiles. The conclusion reached was that the building was an open-air prison (the turnstiles only permitting entry one way) and, to judge from the graffiti, the inmates had taken to worshipping a God named Shankly.

Fast forward 40 years to June 2010, and a meeting to explore the heritage implications of the decision to redevelop the site of Anfield when Liverpool's proposed new stadium across the road in Stanley Park is completed (Wood 2010). I am sitting in 5-star luxury in one of the executive boxes in the Centenary Stand, staring incredulously at a wall poster on which some corporate sponsor has contrived to misspell the name Shankly. A quote from another famous manager, Brian Clough, springs to mind: