Judging our performance by league position alone is disrespectful. There’s a bigger picture. In 30 years’ time it will be remembered they won the Carling Cup – and maybe the FA Cup – in 2012. If that happens, the league position will be overlooked,” it is embarrassing to think that in the space of 20 years, Liverpool have gone from League champions to a cup team; the new Tottenham Hotspur. Liverpool cannot be a cup team; they are too big for that. But we should not live in a fantasy world, winning two cups will not kick start the Dalglish revolution; if winning the Champions League in 2005 and FA Cup in 2006 did not kick start anything, one League cup will do nothing. I do not believe for once second that the Fenway Sports Group bought Liverpool to have one day out at Wembley a year; they bought them to dominate English and European football and will not feel too infatuated with Dalglish by being told to take an intelligence check.
Liverpool’s new Director of Football appointment must happen soon and be a big name. Delegation is a part of modern football, Sir Alex Ferguson receives high praise for doing it and conversely Arsene Wenger receives criticism for not doing it, but at the end of the day recruitment must come from the management and nowhere else. Every manager can make bad signings as long as for every Bebe, Cygan and Kezman there is a Ronaldo, Henry and Drogba. What’s more, bad signings can be overlooked if the team keeps winning and unfortunately for Dalglish he has struggled and his signings have as well. Money has to be spent well in the modern era; Randy Lerner threw £110 million at Aston Villa in just 3 seasons before Martin O’Neill came asking for more and that relationship ended badly and Villa have struggled since.
After Comolli went, Dalglish received the dreaded vote of confidence from Chairman Tom Werner and the bandwagon for Dalglish’s removal is starting to gather pace. Dalglish deserves one last go at this as his position is difficult to judge at this precise moment. Dalglish had a career at the club where he won eight league titles as a player and manager and claimed the European Cup three times and won the Double in his first season as player-manager. But the ability to change in the modern era is vital; it is what makes Wenger so great and Ferguson the best.
Dalglish must not stay longer than he needs to as there are few happy endings in football, Clough won back to back European Cups and saw Nottingham Forest relegated in his last season, Sir Alf Ramset won the World Cup and yet was sacked 8 years later, Fergie is the exception not the rule. Dalglish has overspent on average players and has not kept winning; but he is living on the past reputation that he deserves.
It doesn’t seem to matter if you are the King of Rock and Roll, King of Pop or the King of Anfield, all roads seem to have a fateful end; Elvis said “There are too many people that depend on me. I’m too obligated. I’m in too far to get out,” but could easily have been said by Kenny, he deserves one last chance, but the crown is slowly slipping from his head. Only Elvis can be King forever.
By Harry Davis
On Twitter @hazzadavis.
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By just winning the Carling Cup and the FA cup (or just by participating to the final against Chelsea) it doesn’t justify that Kenny Dalglish is the manager who can turn around the fortunes of this historic club. If we analyze statements of LFC’s key players such as, “Maybe that’s because we aren’t good enough. It is a bit of everything; we are not playing well, we are not working the right way,” or, “an FA Cup victory will not make up for the club’s poor performance in the league this season,” it is obvious that even the players indirectly admit that. As John W. Henry and Thomas Werner can hit it forward they should appoint a real winner manager with a deep knowledge and understanding of modernized football for the new season and surround him with a Director of Football who is experienced and has a proven success career record in the field of Football!
Absolute Utter Rubbish from another member of the foul mouthed Davies lineage. Go away and have a go at Sir Red Nose and his Manure.
Difficult to have a go at United when they win a major trophy every year.
League form has been dissapointing but there been very few games we have been poor. I take it this is some sort of blog rather than an informed journalistic opinion and i have seen it on a LFC news page. I would say in Kennys first season and with the squad revamp last summer and teh previous window it is too early to get the knife out. The players who came in can do better and next season i am confident we will see improvements from Carrol, Downing etc. one trophy and another final is not bad at all, and i believe we will be a lot stronger in the league next year with a few squad tweeks. If we had scored more of the chances we have created we would be much better off, but we havent but it should not detract from a big improvement in our football generally and three trips to wembley. Europa league next season will give us a platform to push on and fight for a top 4 place so your article is poor and if we get our signings right in a summer we will be a force. We have beaten most of teh top teams this season but we have to find consistency but Kenny cant score for them. He will get it right.
Oh god this is bad! Badly written, poorly expressed, sentence structure and grammar are pitiful. I’d expect more from a 13 year old. Maxi a poor man’s Downing? Kuyt doesn’t score goals? Pitiful!
Kuyt has two league goals this year. Even Torres has 3. Thomas Vermaelen has 6. Kuyt only averages 1 in 4 over his career at Liverpool, my conclusion is that it is not good enough. Buy you clearly watch Liverpool more than me and disagree.
Funny, I seem to recall him scoring a hat-trick against Utd last season and a winner againat them this season, his playing time has been much reduced this season, he can only play if picked, is normally played out of position, yet scores important goals, ergo, you don’t know what you’re talking about
Why do we want to hear analysis from a Utd fan – you worry about your post-Fergie decline
Not a United fan.
Liverpool have always been a cup team, FA, League,Euro, Champions league, targets for succesful clubs. liverpool have won the lot, several times too. Trouble is they just can’t win the league anymore, they’re getting further away from it too, lets face it this is the worst liverpool team for …well…50 odd years. It’s much harder to win the league now than it’s ever been, we’ve gone from the big three,(in the 80’s) to the big four, (in the 90’s) (when cheslski got rich), and now it’s the big six, with Spurs (who have splashed cash) Man city (same) and a surprise gate crash from Newcastle. Now we’re sitting OUTSIDE at 8th! Kenny is as much to blame as Comolli for this. Over the years i’ve noticed a dilution of class in our team, specially with the loss of Alonso, masch and Torres. Now we have a mid table team without a bench to back it up.
Great point about Alonso. Seemed to be the catalyst. Such a shame, Gerrard and Alonso in the midfield were a great pair.
Dalglish said earlier this year that “People should take an intelligence check.
yep, dalglish has spent £115M in 12 months and still failed to achieve anything close to rafa in the premiership.
115m is nothing in the modern game, but because Kenny spent it then it is the biggest amount in world football. lets forget that all our youth were overseen by kenny. lets forget that carroll the much vilified player has now started to play well under kenny. Bellamy was a great short term signing Enrique has been a top signing regardless where he came from. Coates looks a good signing for the future as is Henderson. Kenny also brought in Clarke who has turned Skrtel into the player of the season.and made our defence solid Clarke was one of Kenny’s best signings imo. yes we have not done aswell as we wanted in the league but were you expecting Kenny to take the shambles h&g and roy left us and turn us into league champs in his first full season?????. Fergie took 6 yrs to turn utd round lets give Kenny time he is on for 2 trophies and the rebuild has only just started. YNWA
Yep I would agree about Steve Clarke, a brilliant acquisition by Dalglish. Something I missed, granted. Chelsea would love to have him back. As a general point, to everyone, it is not the fact that £115m has been spent, it is the fact it has not been spent wisely in my opinion, other than Enrique who would be a solid defender for any top club. The Carroll transfer is not the one that annoys me, it is the Downing and Henderson ones that just can’t be justified, especially in hindsight, it’s not like they are foreign players trying to find their feet. I thought £12m for Oxlade-Chamberlain was excessive but looks about right after 9 months. But its only opinion, it’s what makes the world go round 🙂
More like Downing is a poor man’s Maxi if anything, as for stuff you have missed, the biat, anything resembling a salient point, another brain cell to complete the pair… I could go on, but one of us at least knows when it’s time to stop. (Writing tripe in your case!)
Boat, I meant
FOOLGLISH doesnt deserve another day,let alone years ??? Wake the hell up please,Carroll downing Henderson Adam are nothing short of shambolic signings FACT…Don’t tell me there gonna be good in time ? They have all played premier league football,mostly bottom half teams ? And this fool FOOLGLISH spends treble what there worth ?? FOOLGLISH has destroyed are football club like sourness did !!!
That’s ‘triple’ and ‘they’re’. Now who’s the fool?
Not to mention ‘our’! Is english your first language? Or ‘are’ you just an idiot?
Which team spent £115M these past 12 months?
And don’t forget, this is rafa’s team that delivered 63 points in his final season…and delivered 58 points and 6th place last season.
Kenny dalglish is one of the few managers in premier league history who has successfully managed to downgrade a football team having spent a ton of money on it.
presumably when the team finish 18th next season having won both domestic trophies KD will be able to say “look we’ve got consistency in the team, we defended our trophies!”
Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.