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Liverpool legend drew Kenny Dalglish’s fury when innocent prank went badly improper

Liverpool legend Ray Houghton found himself on the end of Kenny Dalglish’s wrath when a harmless prank backfired just days into his Anfield career

Ray Houghton
Ray Houghton’s Liverpool career began by upsetting Kenny Dalglish(Image: Getty Images)

Ray Houghton found himself dealing with the consequences after a seemingly harmless prank on Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish backfired.

The former Republic of Ireland international joined Liverpool at the start of the 1987/88 season, with player-manager Dalglish bringing him to Anfield. However, the midfielder, who turned 63 yesterday, January 9, found himself stitched up by his new team-mates in a prank that threatened to sour his relationship with ‘King Kenny’ from the off.

Houghton was speaking on a recent episode of the BBC’s Sacked in the Morning podcast, where he revealed he was unknowingly convinced by the mischievous player to sit in Dalglish’s chair, before making the first of his 150 appearances for the Reds.

“When you were getting a bus for away games, you sat in the same seats. It was virtually the same teams every day in training – you couldn’t change over,” Houghton said.

“Even your meal on a Friday night, it was really basic. There’s only three meals you could have, there was fish and chips and spaghetti, but you couldn’t say ‘no, I want X, Y and Z’ – nothing like that.”

Kenny Dalglish
Kenny Dalglish was left furious with Ray Houghton(Image: Daily Mirror)

Houghton continued to explain that he wasn’t sure where to sit in his first few days at his new club. “I didn’t know where to sit – it’s my first game.” Houghton explained. “So the lads said to me ‘go sit in that chair there’.

“So I sat down and had a sixth sense something was wrong because I could see them giggling and laughing – I thought I’d spilt something down my shirt and tie.

“Then the doors opened and in walked Kenny Dalglish, straight over and went ‘you’re sitting in my chair, what are you going to do?’ And I’m thinking ‘what am I going to do?'”

Despite Dalglish and everyone else in the room expecting Houghton to move from the seat and let the manager sit down, he instead remained sat. “I said ‘I’m going to sit here’. ‘You sure?’ ‘Yeah, I’m going to sit here’. [Dalglish] went ‘okay’, and sat somewhere. I felt 10 feet tall. didn’t I?”

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However, Houghton then learned the consequences of his stance, as Dalglish bided his time to deliver a stern response. During the team meeting when Dalglish announced who had made the line-up, the Scot looked across the room pointing at those playing, before honing in on Houghton: “‘Sub, you. Don’t ever sit in my chair again. Got it?'”

Houghton was able to make his way into Dalglish’s good books and enjoyed a successful stint at Liverpool. The midfielder helped the Reds to the 1988 and 1990 First Division titles and two FA Cups in five years on Merseyside before he was sold to Aston Villa in 1992, after Dalglish had moved to the Ewood Park dugout as Blackburn Rovers boss.