Fagan had come up through the ranks at Liverpool and after the resignation of Shankly and the appointment of Paisley, was asked to become Paisley's assistant manager.  Whilst in the role he became known as a quiet and effective worker within the "Boot room".

On Paisleys retirement, Fagan was promoted to the post of manager.  Whilst many assumed that the years of experience and knowledge accumulated working with Shankly and Paisley would be enough to see him through, it reality Fagan would need to use his own initiative, and quickly, if Liverpool were to continue winning.  He could not simply take on Paisley's team and hope that it continued to win.

After assessing his squad at the start of the 83/84 season Fagan realised new blood was needed to replace the outgoing captain Graeme Souness, and the ever dependable Sammy Lee, who was now a shadow of his former self.  Their replacements, Kevin MacDonald and Jim Beglin, would go on to become Liverpool stalwarts, but it was Fagan's capture of young Danish playmaker Jan Molby, that would confirm Fagan's skill in the transfer market.  Molby would go on to become a Kop hero, showing a grace and quality rarely seen on a football field at the time.

Although confident in his teams abilities, Fagan surely could not have expected the impact that his team would make in his first season in charge.  By the end of the 83/84 season Fagan's Liverpool had won the League Championship, the League Cup and the European Cup.  They were also beaten finalists in the World Club Championship.  Never in the history of the game had one team so completely dominated.  In fact the feat has only been repeated twice since, once by Man Utd and again by Liverpool under Gerard Houllier (although Houllier's side won three cup competitions and not the League).

Perhaps Fagan himself said it best when asked about his team that year - "They were so efficient, it was chilling!".  And they were.  Every part of the team worked in perfect harmony, effortlessly sweeping aside all before them.

The following season Liverpool looked odds on to retain the European Cup, reaching the final where they would play Juventus.  Sadly for both Fagan, the club and football in general, fate would intervene.  The final was played at the outdated and inadequate Heysel Stadium in Brussels.  After appalling crowd trouble a section of wall collapsed, killing 39 Juventus fans.  The incident would scare both clubs forever, but for Fagan, the incident was too much to bear.

Deeply upset by the events at Heysel, Fagan immediately retired, disappearing from public life as much as possible.

Joe Fagan retained as low a profile as possible after leaving the club, and eventually died in July 2001, at the age of 80, after a long illness.

Fagan's contribution to the club can never be under-estimated.  His all conquering team of 83/84 would surely have gone on to win more trophies had the events at Heysel not played out.  As it is, we must be thankful for that one magical season, where Liverpool surely were the best in the world.