Bruce Grobbelaar spent nearly fourteen years at Liverppol, and will probably be remembered for his eccentricities for the pitch not to mention his great goalkeeping skills, the reality is that he won six League titles, three FA Cups, three League Cups and famously one European Cup twenty six years ago.Born in 1957 in Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Grobberlaar was signed from Europe side Vancouver Whitecaps for 250,000 in March 1981 at that time manager Bob Paisley. Within months of signing he secured a common first team place after Liverpool goalkeeping legend Ray Clemence signed for Tottenham Hotspur.An excellent 310 consecutive appearances for Liverpool over five seasons then followed, whilst it wasn't all plain sailing. Some erratic performances and errors, which is why Grobberlaar took the culprit, saw Liverpool languishing inside the mid-table for the first division and seemingly out of the title race, however a dramatic resurgence at the turn of the year saw Liverpool win the league title during his first season at the club, in addition to beating Tottenham within the League Cup final.The Liverpool fans soon warmed to Grobbelaar, he showed superb reflexes as a goalkeeper together with great natural ability, always vocal, he displayed a superb command of his penalty area and would regularly be seen berating his defenders, often named flamboyant he was also renowned for his eccentric moments, punching the ball when it will probably easily have been completely caught, or catching the ball with just one hand as opposed to two. He was renowned for his long throws and dribbling the ball on the pitch or even just accumulating the pitch to contest a header in the center circle. Heart stopping 1 minute, and making breath taking saves our next, although remember to keep the crowd on their toes, and in many cases entertained the fans by doing handstands over the pitch with regards to ball is at play.One of Bruce Grobbelaar's most famous moments was within 1984 European Cup final penalty shoot-out he wobbled his legs in 'mock terror' leading to a penalty kicks were taken, many believe this made two of the Milan players totally miss their penalty kicks, as Liverpool followed to win the trophy.When Liverpool signed David James, clearly there was greater competition in the goalkeepers jersey, and after two very competitive seasons, in 1994 Bruce Grobbelaar finally left Liverpool after making 628 appearances for the club, for whatever reason, definitely never be forgotten.
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