Liverpool Legend Tommy Smith Passes Away Aged 74

​Former Liverpool captain Tommy Smith has died at the age of 74.

Smith spent 18 years at the Anfield club in the 1960s and 1970s, when he won four league titles and one European Cup.

Smith was a goalscorer in the 1977 European Cup final, when Liverpool beat German club Borussia Monchengladbach to claim the trophy for the first time.

In a statement of their ​website, ​the club said: "Liverpool Football Club is deeply saddened by the passing of club legend Tommy Smith. Smith, who gave almost two decades of remarkable service to the club and was affectionately nicknamed the ‘Anfield Iron’ by supporters, has died at the age of 74."

In 1978, Smith left ​Liverpool having made 638 appearances for the club but retired a year later after brief spells at the Los Angeles Aztecs and Swansea City. After his retirement, from football Smith suffered with dementia and a variety of other ailments.

Smith's daughter, Janette Simpson, told the club website today: “Dad died very peacefully in his sleep shortly after 4.30pm today at Green Heyes nursing home in Park Road, Waterloo, Crosby. I was on my way to see him when he passed a couple of minutes before I arrived.

“Dad was only in here since the end of January and prior to that had been living in a care and sheltered accommodation complex for three years in Maghull. He had been growing increasingly frail and suffering from a variety of ailments over the last three months especially. We are obviously all devastated.”

Former Liverpool player and manager Kenny Dalglish called Smith a 'fantastic servant' to the club in a tribute.

Dalglish, who played alongside Smith for a season at the end of Smith's Liverpool career, ​said: “He was a great advert for Liverpool Football Club, the way he conducted himself. I think he played in the first FA Cup final that we won and scored a goal in the first European Cup final that we won."