Ian Rush recalls the first occasion he met Ronnie Moran with a smile - though it wasn't exactly an enjoyable experience at the time.

Aged 19, the Welshman had just joined Liverpool from Chester City with a hefty pricetag around his neck and plenty to prove, and his first training session at Melwood left him in no doubt as to what was required.

That is largely because he had a certain first-team coach reminding him - very loudly - from the off of the incredibly high standards set at his new club.

Rush remembers: "I'd signed for Liverpool as a teenager, it was a world record [fee] for a teenager, and he just absolutely hammered me! 

"It wasn't the good things I did, it was the bad things I did, he'd [concentrate] on that. He kept saying, 'You've got to do this, you've got to do that'. I was very shy then, and I was going, 'I'm going to prove to you I'm better than you're saying'. 

"I was shooting and he'd say pass, I was passing and he'd say shoot. He was getting the mental toughness into you - what he wanted was the best for Liverpool Football Club. That's all Ronnie Moran wanted, nothing else. 

"If you want to play for Liverpool, you have to play five out of six good games, three out of six good games is not good enough. That was the standard he set. 

"Every person, no matter who they were, from me as a teenager to Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness, who were superstars at the time, he treated everyone exactly the same."

Rush admits to being delighted when Steve Nicol eventually joined him at Anfield, with the Scot's status as the newest signing meaning that he instead bore the brunt of Bugsy's ire on the training ground.

But Moran's softening stance perhaps owed more to his gift for handling the diverse personalities that make up a squad of talented footballers, as one particular story about a Melwood shooting session best conveys.

Rush continued: "Aldo had a shot and missed the target and [Ronnie] was going, 'Hit the target, son!' Then, Ray Houghton missed the target, 'Ray, I told you to hit the target!'. 

"I went there, I missed the target and he went: 'Don't worry, it happens in a game!' He knew how to [give you] confidence. If you were a big head, he'd hammer you, if you were shy, he'd take you to one side and tell you all the good things."

Of course, no matter how he dealt with the players on the training field, Ronnie was renowned for his humility off it. 

Rush said: "He was a gentleman, no matter how he spoke on the training pitch. Every single day you could hear Ronnie talking and shouting at everyone, but when we had a bit of lunch he was completely different. 

"He was down to earth, a normal person [with a] lovely family. Ronnie just wanted to get on with it."

In paying tribute to Moran, the club's record goalscorer also cites him as one of the three most significant figures in his incredible career.

And from a man who won 15 major honours and scored 346 Reds goals, there can be no higher compliment.

Rush explained: "For me, there are three people who [were most] influential in my life: my dad, [youth team boss] Cliff Sear when I went to Chester, and I would say Ronnie Moran for Liverpool. 

"He made me the player I was, it's as simple as that. I wouldn't have been the same player without Ronnie Moran."