Thursday, May 17, 2012

The King is Dead...........

Kenny's spring sojourn to Boston ended abruptly in the termination of his second term as manager of his beloved Liverpool. Given their abysmal performance in the league, there can be little criticism for the decision from Fenway with only nostalgia lending any sympathy to Dalglish, Liverpool finished eighth.

With the exception of the wholly misguided handling of the Luis Suarez situation, Dalglish has always acted with dignity with regard to Liverpool and yesterday was no exception. The timing and manner of the sacking also shows an element of foresight and intelligence from the Liverpool owners that they didn't show when hiring him in the first place.

Fenway in their US ventures have a reputation for holding on to their head coaches/managers but in this instance they have seen that Liverpool - despite large investment - are going nowhere. Also cognisant of the legend that is Dalglish, they have axed him with the maximum time possible before Liverpool play another match at Anfield. The Summer will have more comings and goings and the fans will have time to digest the news and quell much of their first felt ire.

Bringing back Dalglish was a gamble given his time out of the game. Comoli was meant to be the conduit to the modern day transfer market but after his January sacking, Dalglish made it clear that the signings were his alone.

Daglish has it seems been in a time warp obsessed with 'buy British'. The problem is that Andy Carroll is not Ian Rush, Stewart Downing is not John Barnes, Jordan Henderson is not Steve McMahon and Charlie Adam simply has a large backside.

Fenway have invested heavily in Dalglish's transfer policy and the results in the league have been shocking. The Carling Cup is an irrelevance as unfortunately in many ways nowadays is the FA Cup even, a nice day out for the fans and little more.

The battle for the fourth Champions League spot this season was an abject lesson in mediocrity with Spurs eventually finishing 20 points behind the winners. Liverpool were a further 17 points back and may as well have added the words 'So what?' under the 'This is Anfield' sign such was their home form.

Liverpool have huge problems in that their revenues derived from Anfield are significantly lower than those from the Emirates or Old Trafford and they lack the benefactors of Chelsea or Citeh. Building a new stadium is also a hugely costly exercise.

Liverpool need to build from within and for that they need the right manager and not a hired gun. The likes of Paul Lambert and Brendan Rogers would be attractive options as would Roberto Martinez. Ironically the best choice could possibly be Davie Moyes but that cannot happen for obvious reasons.

Two other interesting names being tipped are Andre Villas Boas and Rafa Benitez. In the case of AVB it might be an intriguing proposition. He is clearly a man of some intellect and talent and may well be much the wiser for his brief but harsh English education at Chelsea, it would remain a risk for FSG however.

Benitez would be an even higher risk stratagem for Fenway given that their first attempt at rekindling an 'old flame' has ended so abruptly. Benitez was heavily linked with the Chelsea job also and one wonders if it mere publicity and wishful thinking on behalf of his no doubt zealous agent.

Firing Dalglish will signal the end to the honeymoon period for Liverpool's owners following their populist takeover and subsequent PR exercise. A lot of money has been spent and there is no guarantee that they have learned much so far about owning one of Europe's proudest and most famous clubs - No Nonsense.

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