The appointment of Roy Hodgson as Liverpool’s new manager, after weeks of leaks from those senior sources that it’s about to happen, will come as a massive disappointment to a large number of the club’s supporters.
It was 50 years ago last December that Bill Shankly arrived at the club to begin what became a golden age for the club, and although not every manager since then has left the post with as much respect as they had when they started, every single one of them has been supported from day one.
Shanks was succeeded by Paisley, who made way for Joe Fagan, who handed the keys to the bootroom onto Kenny Dalglish. All of those men ended their time in charge with even more respect from supporters than they had when they arrived.
But even when that tradition of promoting from within came to an end, the supporters always greeted the next manager with respect and support. Whatever feelings fans had about them when they ended their time at the helm, Souness, Evans, Houllier and Benítez all started out with the backing of the Reds’ passionate support.
That support is vital for any new manager. But that is just not going to happen with Roy Hodgson.
This isn’t a threat and it isn’t a call to fans to join together in not supporting the new manager. We all make our own choices on that one, and we all need to respect each other’s choices. As fans we have to stop fighting – it’s fine to disagree with each other, but not right to fall out about it. As we’re fighting they’re pillaging.
This is just a prediction. It’s not a guess, it’s a prediction based on general observation over the weeks of leaks and in particular views aired in the last 24 hours.
Some fans have made it clear he won’t have their support. Maybe they’ll calm down in a few days but only a naive out-of-touch banker with years of leveraged buyout experience and none at all in football would take that for granted. And calming down doesn’t guarantee they’ll give their support, it just means they may scale down their opposition.
Then there are the fans who have made it clear that ending the reign of the current regime and their management team will come before any support for a manager who proves just how much the club has let its standards slip in the three years since Tom Hicks invented “Man Ham” and George Gillett first lied to Liverpool supporters. Where did “Snoogy Doogy” go? Is it true he was sent to buy shovels and never came back?
Another large group of fans are those who have said that even though they didn’t want him, they feel it’s their duty to get behind him, or that they’ve no alternative, or that even though they aren’t keen on the idea they are willing to give him a chance. In other words, their support is forced, based on guilt or a sense of duty. That kind of support usually starts to falter at the first conceded goal, let alone the first dropped points. By the time games are being lost the support has all but evaporated and the patience has run out. And of course that leads to more pressure, more dropped points, more despair.
The only genuine, unconditional, unforced support for the new boss seems to come from those most active in calling for the head of the last manager. The same people who wanted that manager sacked for only coming second in 2009 and used that as a starting point for judging him the following season know deep down that their pressure has brought this new manager onto the club. So deep down they told themselves he’d be a great replacement, told themselves to ignore his lack of major trophies and to ignore the fact he was sacked by Blackburn after taking them to the bottom of the Premier League. They wanted the last manager gone, and they really didn’t care about what might happen next. They never cried out for a better manager, they weren’t thinking that far ahead – they just wanted shut of the one they didn’t like.
Obviously there are a lot of generalisations in those observations but they are genuine observations. Some of those who wanted the last manager out are even more devastated at the ultimate replacement than many of those who wanted the last manager to stay! But whether it’s mild disappointment or seething anger at the appointment there’s no getting away from the fact that it was a decision made against the wishes of the vast majority of the supporters. A recent Times poll gave Hodgson less than 7% of the votes for who the next boss should be, and that seems to be very indicative of opinion.
How people feel now and how they’ll feel in a few months is obviously subject to change. But unless results are positive and performances exciting from day one there’s a risk that fans will move rapidly towards vociferous opposition to the manager.
There will always be days when it doesn’t go to plan despite the best efforts of all, days where players fail to follow simple instructions or had a crisis of confidence. All the planning in the world can’t overcome bad luck and every manager makes signings he wishes he hadn’t. If the fans respect a manager from the start, if they see that whatever the outcome that at least the required effort was put in, there’ll be some leeway, some allowances. The hype from the Sky Sports pre-game scriptwriters will be ignored.
But to get that respect the manager has to be wanted in the first place and the majority of the supporters have to be more than just “willing to give him a try”, or feeling as if they’ve been forced into showing their support; they have to be full of hope that this is the man with the experience to make it good again.
That hasn’t happened on this occasion, instead of hope there’s a sense of hopelessness, from countless supporters. Those supporters are trying to come to terms with the contempt the board has shown them.
People are asking why Benítez was sacked if the replacement the club had lined up was Roy Hodgson. People are asking why Hodgson is here when Kenny Dalglish felt he would be far better at the job than Hodgson.
People are asking why the club was willing to spend close to £9m on swapping Benítez for Hodgson. One comment seen yesterday compared swapping Benítez for Hodgson to swapping Torres for Heskey.
Although the vast majority of Liverpool fans don’t see Hodgson as their first choice there is an even more worrying twist. The worry is that the feeling is mutual, that Hodgson doesn’t see the Liverpool job as his first choice either. It’s the England job he really wants and he’s been on the record before to say as much, “I regard the job as the pinnacle of English football.”
The impression he wants the England job more than the Liverpool job is not just based on the old quotes, or even the signs that maybe he was waiting until the FA made an announcement on Fabio Capello’s future. Perhaps more will be revealed if the club actually schedule a press conference to unveil him, but so far the hierarchy have decided not to answer the questions put to them about the issue.
How popular Hodgson will be should those fears be realised doesn’t need much thought. Some fans won’t mind, but we all remember how Michael Owen was criticised heavily whenever it was implied he was putting his country before his club. To find out the next manager of this club was the same would rapidly and heavily cut down the numbers of fans willing to give Hodgson a try.
Some Liverpool fans do follow England but it’s very much second – or much lower – in their hearts compared to LFC. Liverpool fans hear “St George” and don’t think of the flags now discarded by the roadside in their thousands. Liverpool fans think of the place where Bill Shankly stood all those years ago to speak to his people. In fact St George’s plateau is the place where thousands of Liverpool fans will gather this Sunday for Liverpool Football Club’s very own Independence Day.
We want our club back. The owners have had long enough to sort out their mess and their damaging personal differences. They drafted Christian Purslow in last year but somehow he found a way of making the mess even worse. And now we’ve got Martin Broughton in place he seems content to leave Purslow to carry on as before, devaluing the club by the day.
Standard Chartered must be horrified at what they’re about to be associated with. They officially become the club’s main sponsor on Thursday, arriving at the time that discontent amongst supporters will be at its highest since the club was taken over. Alternative Liverpool shirts with a variation on the Standard Chartered name are already out. “Standards Corrupted” is the message. The logo looks remarkably like the Standard Chartered logo, but on closer inspection it turns out to be a pair of snakes.
The club claim record sales for the new home shirt – but Standard Chartered will soon find that the alternative version of the shirt is popping up time and time again. Many of the places they thought they would see their name displayed will instead display the alternative version, a dig at the owners but a dig by association at the sponsors. They didn’t pay all that money – whatever the amount might actually be when performance is taken into account – for negative publicity. But that’s what they’ll get, as protest after protest takes place during matches – not just at half time or afterwards.
Claims this week from two separate Liverpool FC supporters’ forums that Christian Purslow had used lawyers to threaten them with some rather strong action should they not remove certain information suggests that the man now running the club is no longer interested in engaging the fans.
Those sites are run by people who would have responded just as quickly to a quiet word; in fact one of them had removed the information in any case, before the legal threats were received. The information is easily accessible to anyone with access to Google and ten minutes to spare, there’s no need to pay extra to get it either, it’s all available on free sites.
But that development and the release of the alternative shirts comes hot on the heels of the embarrassment FIFA officials and South African authorities caused themselves for their heavy-handed approach to some “ambush marketing”. Would anyone put it past the club to eject supporters wearing the new shirt?
The board were well aware of the opposition to Roy Hodgson yet persisted in their chase for him.
The owners have left the running of the club to Christian Purslow. Leaving someone in charge who refuses, point blank, to even listen to any advice (let alone take it) will always lead to problems.
Liverpool fans want that next league title and some trophies. That is why some fans were calling for the last manager’s head so early last season. That he eventually only finished seventh isn’t why they wanted him gone. They wanted the league, thought they could have it after he’d finished second, then saw it go wrong.
But blaming Benítez for the club falling short of its main target is blaming the wrong person. If it’s not, can we expect the league this season? Will we also win one of the other trophies? Nobody seriously expects that to happen, yet that was one of the main reasons Benítez was under pressure for the whole of that last season. If it was mainly the fault of Benítez last season, surely the same would apply to Hodgson?
Like it should have been last year, the finger of blame should be pointed first and foremost at the owners and also, very importantly, at the managing director. Purslow is paid very handsomely to run this club but the only football experience he had before was as Chairman of the youth section of his local amateur side Corinthian Casuals. That’s the youth section, not the whole club. As far as I know Corinthian Casuals of Surrey have nothing to do with the Corinthians side Tom Hicks was involved with some years before arriving at Anfield.
To win the league again and to keep being in contention for it this club needs to be run far better than it is now. That means it should be owned by an entity that has the means to see their investment through, obviously, but those owners also need to recognise the difference between say running a French property company or a chain of gyms and running one of the biggest and most popular football clubs in the world with almost 120 years of history and heritage behind it. Those owners need to see that football might be a business these days, but that it’s still unlike any other business and so will not work well when run by, for example, a power-hungry and egotistical banker.
It doesn’t matter who the current regime install as manager, although the appointment of Hodgson suggests they’ll settle for mediocrity. What matters is that we fight for a new regime so that we can get a manager who is capable, and empowered, to start winning things for this club of ours.
With all due respect that manager isn’t Roy Hodgson, and although we will wish him luck it will be impossible to look at him standing on the Anfield touchline without thinking about what his appointment really represents.
Another fine article, thanks.
And another fine mess to contemplate.
It’s hard to imagine that our club could be dragged any further into the mire, but no doubt the current regime will prove me wrong.
Roy Hodgson………………Jesus wept.
Oh get a life! Let’s get behind the manager and the club.
An absolutely fantastic report. I deem my self an anti Roy Hodgens supporter and it will take sometime before I am persuaded otherwise. If he was our first choice then we are in serious serious trouble.
However in saying all that I will continue to support the club through the bad times as well as the good but
I just cant wait until we have the revenue and structure in place to allow us to progress and ultimately have Hodgens replaced with someone who will bring us back the success we all so dearly crave.
what liverpool needs, as much as they need new owners, is for destructive “supporters” such as yourself and SOS, to stop bombarding media outlets with pessimism.
Negativity breeds negativity, give the man a chance and look up the definition of “supporter”. Who exactly, are “supporters” like you referring to when you say You’ll Never Walk Alone. Clearly not the club, not the owners and not the manager.
Get it together.
I bet you don’t even support Liverpool. stirring it up before he’s even started. Fair play to Hodgson for taking the post (if its true). He could have quite easily taken the England post but no he’s opted for Liverpool who are in turmoil without money to spend. Don’t give us the rubbish about Liverpool being second choice. He gets my full backing and support as do ALL of my friends who support Liverpool, not a minority which you are suggesting.
Please shut the f-word up and get behind the new manager. Stop this garbage.
Roy is a talented manager.
Jim, let me ask you something:
How many trophies had Shanks won as a manager we he took over at Liverpool?
(http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRESTONshankley.htm)
He was the beginning of the dynasty you listed – Paisley, Fagan, Kenny. But we was a wild card choice for Anfield.
Now we need a new dynasty. I’ll agree – its unlikely to start under Tom and George. But I’m glad the club is devalued because Tom’s valuation would have kept him there for years. Now there is a chance of serious investment.
I’m giving Hodgson a chance. We were lucky to get someone with European savvy and Premiership experience given the state we’re in. Did you really want the guy from Madrid who blew all that money or the arrogant Deschamps?
I’m with you on the ownership, but I’ll bet if Hodgson manages to hold on the Steve + Torres and gets a few wins under his belt, we’ll get the whiff of trophies again. And the lowered expectations can’t hurt, either.
Negative article. Sometimes LFC fans thinks that they have a god given right to put everyone down because we are the greatest club in the world. Yes, we are great, but right now face the reality. At this moment performed well and our club is a mess.
Shanks was not coming from within, was he, so I don’t buy the argument.
Give Hodgson a chance to show what he can do. If he does not succeed then you are entitled to criticize.
I elieve that Hodgson has a pair of sae hands that will also attract investors more easily as he does not seem to air he problems in public.
Great article ; disappointed by the ambivalence and the blinkered reponse from some of the posters though. Anyone who thinks that you (or anyone else with their eyes open) is being negative for the sake of being negative only has their own ego at heart and doesn’t give a jot about the club.
Above all else, even above the first-team results, Liverpool fans should be concerned with the future and well being of the club.
You haven’t even given him a chance! People like you are as big a joke as the Americans. Go and support NUFC Boardman as your mentality would be better suited there.
Welcome to LFC Roy. YNWA.
I foresee Pool being a slightly above average club at most. I dun see Hodgson being the man to guide pool back to glory.
The Board would miss a big chance of writing years of mistakes by not putting Dalglish back at the helm. (do they even know Dalglish has achieved as a player and a manager? It is alot better than wat Hodgson even achieved.)
Think I will stop being a Pool fan til Dalglish is back at the top. Cant bear to see the club in such a state.
In fact, I wont be surprise if pool just turns out to be an average team like Fulham this season. Dun really expect them to challenge the top 4.
So Judas Purslow and the Two Carpetbeggars OUr Chelsea Chairman and the British Taxpayers fronted by RBS are going to appoint avery decent sort of a guy .Its Unlikely Mr Hodgson will upset anyone no matter who the club sell he will just accept this.Mr Hodgson appears to be adecent guy but lets look at his mangerial record at Fulham he wa sin charge 128 games winning 50 of those games 39% yes just 39% he lost 46 of those games a massive 36% yes lost 36% of those games with the rest drawen .Ok he kept Fulham up and yes he did get to the UFFEA Cup final but is Mr Hodson the right guy to mannage a club with winning the premership i think not,Judas Purslow has got his way becuase as a failed banker Judas has the ear of a lot of his comrades also failed bankers,Martin Broughton whos claim to fame is running a bankrupt airline couldnt care less the fees are good The Two carpetbeggars are like to drowning men who will do anything to hold on they will sell anything they get their hands on.Do we all remeber what happened BP in the states a few weeks ago ? and quite rightly so but how come two yanks can come to Britian and destroy its greatest football club and get backing from the British Taxpayer in form of the RBS? Judas Matin RBS like the two carpetbeggars you are proping up you are not welcome
The problems at Liverpool were predicted by many of us years ago and there were plently of arguments on this site where plenty of ‘fans’ defended the owners.
It must be made very clear that Roy Hodgson is walking into a mess not of his making and if he keep us in the top 5 of the table he will be doing well. We can no longer afford top managers nor would they want to come here so I say give him a chance.
What happens on the pitch is now the side show the real battle is between the streets and the boardroom.
Good article. Although Benitez clearly had to go after 19 defeats and terrible football all season long. The problem isn’t the sacking of Benitez, it’s employing a new manager who has never really competed at the highest level of the game.
I don’t rate Hodgson too highly. He has the media wolves on his side but a close look at his record shows a man who spent his career in the b or c level of world club football. He didn’t last long at the A level with Inter Milan.
Now he’s at the A level with Liverpool, a club who have been in 2 champions league finals in the last 5 years (a competition Hodgson has never competed in) and came 2nd two years ago in the league. If he starts his reign by talking about 4th spot as an “achievement” then you know he will be a negative defeatist of little use for our great club.
We have the basically the same squad who came 2nd in the league 13 months ago, so he should finish above Arsenal this season if he’s any good. Especially if they lose Fabregas,
The reality is, majority have lost confidence. Dont bang the writer. He is right in telling you the real scenario. I was just as shocked to learn that Roy is taking over instead of Kenny. Spending 9 million to replace a fame manager Rafa with a has-been or never-was manager Hodgson. How does that help? I am also one of them who wanted Rafa to go, not because he didnt win us anything last season but because of his stupid tactics at times when he replaced Torres and Gerrard at vital moment. That’s why I am sicked of Rafa. But getting Roy isnt gonna make me feel better. Same goes for the majority. Fair enough. Give him a chance. I hope I am wrong and eat up all my words today and that Roy prove me otherwise. His reputation just does not convince me enough. I dont care about his record in Fulham. The fact that we are no longer an attraction to big stars saddened me. Before this, players pray and beg to be able to play for The Red one day. Now, we kneel and hope and if needed pull their pants while kneeling to beg them to come. What’s more, winning that elusive 19th trophy seems far, far away. Mancs are getting closer and closer to the 19 each day as we can only be helpless and wonder why we can be taken over so easily as the best team in England. All the hard work of Shanks goes down to the drain.
I cannot believe the naivety of some of those who replied to this article. Particularly Oliver who incredibly suggests that the support declared in our club anthem should be extended to the owners! And Dosserboy, what do you mean that Hodgson “could quite easily have accepted the England job”? How do you know that? Has he been offered it? The last time I checked Capello still had that job. And Mark, are you seriously prepared to compare Hodgson’s situation with that of Shankly’s? Despite the fact that it was the 50’s and Liverpool had been in the second division doldrums, Shanks was a young manager with fire in his belly, with big ideas, a unique vision and little pressure. Hodgson is a journey man in his 60’s heading into a maelstrom . But besides that Shankly was a one off with a unique vision. Liverpool were exceptionally fortunate to find such a rare gem, the likes of which may not be found again.
Its very clear to me that Boardman has voiced his opinion on some fairly transparent facts. The main one being that Hodgson, according to polls, fanclubs and forums (which at this stage is the only available data) is clearly not the fans’ choice. And if you’re to believe the reports he’s not Dalglish’s either. What is true is that the board have no prior expertise in football and have settled for mediocrity as any impartial assessment of Hodgson’s career will conclude.
But Liverpool fans are fair minded and patient, traditionally, and I’m sure Hodgson will get support even if it is a tepid Hobson’s choice support in comparison to previous managers. For many fans, certainly the ones I am in contact with, it’s a case of wait and see. If Hodgson provides the type of football and win ratios that he had at Fulham, Inter and Blackburn then that support will wane rather quickly. More pressing however will be the response to what happens in the transfer window and what happens to Dalglish. If there is a fire sale of star players with generated funds paying off owners’ debt then it will be crucial if Hodgson is seen as complicit in that. Afterall he is the choice of the owners, the board and in particular Purslow.
An alternative scenario is that most of the key players stay, Hodgson can get them playing to their potential and they finish in a respectable position. This is the “safe pair of hands” and “stability” optimism i’m reading about. And correct me if I’m wrong but I thought that Jim Boardman concludes by wishing him luck in that.
Fine article. As for the people criticising, their always the same, cant come up with a thoughtful response, cant debate the issue, so just resort to insults….
Apart from the Swedish league & cup, this man has won nothing. I’ve seen a number of people suggest that he is just going to be a ‘yes’ man, and i dont think that will turn out to be wide of the mark.
A few people here have questioned whether people who wont get behind Roy, are ‘supporters’ at all.
Yes, i am a supporter. I support Liverpool FC, and that means wanting the best for my club. If that entails criticising the owners….I’ll do it, because only an idiot would say that Hicks & Gillette have been anything but a catastrophe. Being a supporter doesnt mean blindly following no matter what the circumstances.
Because if you blindly follow some people in this world, they will lead you right over a cliff.
Surely it’s time to get a reality check.
Liverpool have now found the level which we will be working at for the near future.
I’m grateful that we have someone of Roy’s talent.
“Good article. Although Benitez clearly had to go after 19 defeats and terrible football all season long. The problem isn’t the sacking of Benitez, it’s employing a new manager who has never really competed at the highest level of the game.”
Not sure how you make this out – Anyone with any bit of foresight could see that the sacking of Benitez would lead to the appointment of a sub-standard manager. No matter which way you look at it, there are only a handful of World-Class managers, of which Benitez is one. There are maybe 10 max. superior managers to him that would perhaps be available (excluding the likes of Ferguson, Wenger etc. who would never be realistic candidates) Even the availability of 10 superior managers is debatable. There was (and is) no way on earth that Liverpool, in its current situation, could possibly attract a better manager than Benitez. What self respecting manager would take a job with no money, horrible owners and a back-stabbing Chief executive? Sacking Benitez was a terrible decision and now us, the fans and the club are going to have to suffer and watch as the one man who would have stood up to the Asset-stripping of our club (which will happen) is off managing Inter to another Serie A.
Hit the nail on the head again Jim.
I feel sorry for Roy Hodgson. He is an honorable decent man and deserved to be left to continue what he started at Fulham. Why wouldnt he have his head turned when a club likes Liverpool comes calling but as much as I wish him well his appointment is like leading lambs to the slaughter.
As you say Jim this is an appointment unlike any before. The fans dont want it and they know hes not the best man for the job and hes not even better than the man who had the job before him.
Things will settle down at the club over the next couple of weeks however I genuinely believe it wont take long for the famous normally patient Anfield support to be calling for Hodgsons head.
Hes not going to get the benefit of years of transition like managers before, if results dip murmurs from disgruntled fans will begin to appear.
Why : Because hes not wanted.
Man City today were on the verge of signing David Silva with Yaya Toure soon to follow. We can no longer compete with that kind of spending so it may well be a another year of fighting for 6th. If thats the case I see people calling for his head by Christmas and I personally dont see him still being at Liverpool in 2 seasons time.
Shankly wanted to be remembered as the man “who made people happy”.
At this point in time Hodgsons appointment is the man “who made the people angry”
Good man Jim, you really surpassed yourself this time. What a bitter little man you are.
@ Joe Kellegher
Hes just stating the facts.
What I find intriguing is that half the posters on here attacking Jim for saying it as it is will be the very ones calling for Hodgsons head 6 months down the line if things aren’t going well.
Half the fickle hypocritical fans on here were undoubtedly signing Rafas praises last year only to turn on him when results start to suffer.
Read the article and it does generally reflect the views of LFC fans. He is not the ideal candidate and he probably wouldn’t have had to go for him had we had loads of money with CL football next. IMO I thought he was going to tell us to sling our hooks and we end up with Dowie or Hughes.
In all fairness the Purslow Jim if you had your address plaster over the web for all to see then I am sure you would be a bit pissed wouldn’t you so I think it’s a case of the pot calling the kettle blakc there.
I think everyone needs to get over the fact that we now have Roy as our manager and get behind him 100%. Lets not do what the barcodes done to big Sam cause he was the BEST we could get and the next manager will most definatly be an Ian Dowie if Woy (couldn’t resist) leaves us.
This is very poor.
Roy Hodgson is a decent man who has built a good track record and as such deserves our support. In fact – he deserves our support purely because he is the new manager of Liverpool.
Is he the man to turn us into the no.1 team on the planet? Probably not, but then who is with no money to spend? The reason we haven’t got a Mourinho is because the cupboard is bare. Given that, I’m happy to have a guy who understands the demands of the Premiership, has a proven ability to pick a bargain player, and who is tactically astute. He’s a solid guy who will do a solid job at a difficult time.
Oh – and it basically means that there is no takeover on the cards….if it was lined up with some moneybags then they’d appoint Kenny as caretaker before bringing in a Huddink / Lippi / Capello / insert name of other ‘big’ managers.
I’m a Liverpool supporter and as such will be supporting the team as chosen by Roy Hodgson next season in his role as Liverpool Football Club Manager. We don’t have limitless funds like Chelsea or Citeh but we do have fantastic fans and belief in our club. What we need to do is realise that until our Great Club is sold and we have money being invested in the team that we won’t be competing with those sides mentioned above anytime soon. So to have a manager who is both a decent fella and perhaps a talented coach capable of getting the best out of a limited squad of players is not the end of the world is it. Perhaps when we have a decent owner in 2 years time with a spare couple of hundred million splashing around that we will be able to go and recruit Rafa or some other talented coach from the cream of Europe. Give the guy a chance he is coming to us during a transistional period with no money available. YNWA
Good article. It won’t be too long before we can see the full consequences of them handing Hodgson the job. Will our best players leave? What type of football will we play? Can he bring success on the pitch? I fear that even more disappointment lies ahead in the not too distant future.
There were so many better candidates available, rather than Hodgson. You have to ask yourself what their main motivation was in appointing him. I suppose he was their ideal candidate because he was cheap, can work on a budget, has already lowered fan expectations, and will act as some sort of buffer against supporter frustrations.
Only time will tell if he will become Purslow’s puppet and fall guy for their regime, or not. One thing is certain, and that is he won’t unite the fans like Dalglish, or even Pellegrini might have done.
Divide and rule – maybe this is the new Liverpool Way.
Oi, Oi, Oi, Point of order. Mr Purslow did lead our under 10’s to win the West Surrey Youth League first division Championship in 2007/08 season!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Smaller % of fans view not autonomously supporting Roy as not holding up our traditions.
Not wanting to support Roy isn’t the same as not wanting to support the circumstances in which he was appointed and it’s actually because of traditions that I feel this way.
roy hodgson will never be accepted in the same way as other LFc managers were for a few reasons
– a rep for a drab style of play
– the fans are expecting poor results and a gradual demise into a team that fights for a europa league place every season, even before he starts .
– his career to date just doesnt say LFC manager
his record is OK nothing more.
alot of people saying LFC current situation cant attract a top coach .I say i dont want a coach who cant see past the current predicament WE ARE A STILL A GREAT PULL FOR ANY MANAGER if the man has confidence in his ability to coach this is the best job available in world football, a change of ownership can happen very quickly this would change the whole ball game, imagine hodgson in charge under those conditions with big money to spend after the sale of the club it doesnt seem like a good idea.. but then on the other hand maybe this is what hodgson recognizes about the job and thats why he is willing to take it in the hope things turn around in the not to distant future and he finds himself surviving the axe with a few steady campaigns before getting the go ahead for some big spends which is something to my knowledge he has never really be afforded. so ironically he might be just what we need but this would be my heart ruling my head and looking at it romantically, LETS BE HONEST WE FEAR HODGSON BECAUSE OF WHAT HE REPRESENTS….MEDIOCRITY AND THATS JUST NOT LFC!! the times are a changing lets hope its for the better.ynwa
Aw come on Jim give the man a chance.
The problem is not RBS, Purslow, Broughton or even Gillett (who apparently would have accepted 2 recent offers) but HICKS HICKS HICKS.
How many chances did YOU give Hicks ? Look through your own archive and find out.
Thanks for all the comments (especially from ‘Corinthian Casual’) it’s been good to read them, even the ones from people who were angry with me.
Hodgson is likely to be unveiled tomorrow afternoon, hopefully there’ll be lots of probing questions asked and we can then all see whether any of the answers change our minds.
What I’ve maybe struggled to get across, not sure, is that fans really are down about this, and on the whole are going to have to force themselves to get behind him. I’m just stating what I’ve seen and heard. Normally getting behind a new boss would come naturally, at least at the outset, but it just isn’t the case here. Fans are having to persuade themselves and each other to get some enthusiasm for Roy. That is one of many reasons why I really think this was the wrong decision.
But being unable to build up that much-needed enthusiasm for a new boss is quite different from going to the ground with “Hodgson out” banners. Sitting quietly shaking heads with arms folded is different to shouting abuse at him for every little failure. If he does start to bring the results and performances we all want the silence will turn to cheers, but if he doesn’t the patience won’t last forever, and it’ll be jeers not cheers.
But, assuming he’s not distracted by England, that man will put 100% effort in for the club. He’ll do his best, and he’ll do his best with whatever resources Purslow decides to give him. And if his best isn’t good enough with the resources he’s given the anger has to be aimed at the director’s box, or at those missing from the director’s box having found it’s too risky to even turn up at Anfield any more.
For all my criticism of Hodgson I will say something that I don’t think is in any doubt at all. Hodgson is far more able and qualified to be the Liverpool manager than Purslow is to be the Liverpool MD.
We’ve all got our own opinions, our own interpretations of what we see or hear – and at times we’ll see or hear different things to each other. But we should not be falling out with each other. Persuade each other, listen to each other, educate each other – remember that we all support the same club. Yes there’s a civil war on, but it’s between the fans and the directors, not the fans and the fans. You wouldn’t hurl spiteful abuse at your best mate if you disagreed on how good the new centre-back was. So don’t be spiteful to fellow fans. Explain your view, listen to theirs, like you would with your best mate.
We’ll still have to weed out any Manc interlopers or owner-hired comment-writers, not to mention a tiny handful of supporters who really do have their priorities all wrong. But the rest of us can help the club in the best way by showing some respect to each other.
Kenny Dalglish is understood to have made a decision to stay, despite a number reservations of his own, after being persuaded by friends that it would be the best thing he could do for the club. Personally I’d say there’s going to be a different Kenny sitting in that director’s box from now on, I can’t believe he’s not seen a different side to Purslow on the back of this past month’s events.
Like Kenny, we’ve all got to make our own minds up, we should try to grit our teeth and do what we think is right for the club, but we must not forget which members of the hierarchy should be the target of our anger.
As a Fulham fan I find this article completely shocking. Roy is a gentleman, a fantastic tactician and in general a great footballing man, the last time I checked those were the ideals of LFC. You boys and girls really don’t know what an amazing man you’ve now got at the helm considering the amount of dung you find yourself in, Roy (who took us over in dire circumstances too) took us from the depths of despair to heights we never dreamed possible on a meagre budget. Give Roy a chance, get fully behind him and you will see what an amazing manager he is.
Good piece Jim.
Roy will go down like Souness mark II. Lets us hope he doesn’t take the club down with him.
I’ll support the team but I can’t support the owners or their puppet regime.
I think that we should give Roy a chance lets not write him off before the season has even started.
I think Roy will give all the players a worthers Original after each match, and if we get beat they can have 2!
Don’t forget when we see walking around Anfield and Melwood in his slippers and cardigan, Bob Paisley used to do the same!
Jofrad, if a good offer came in for the club and Gillett wanted to accept it he’d only need the support of two other members of the five-man board.
And if it was a good offer what reason would there be for Broughton to vote against it?
That would leave Gillett needing only the support of one or other of Ayre or Purslow to see the board vote for the sale. If there was a tied vote, due to some abstentions, Broughton would get a casting vote.
Gillett tried the downtrodden victim card a couple of years back, but I doubt he had anything to do with that nonsense story you’re referring to.
There haven’t been two acceptable offers, and if there had RBS would have to be informed, and RBS can pull the finance at any time if they feel the board are not willing to stick to the agreement that saw RBS give them time to facilitate a sale.
There are all kinds of reasons why that story might have been given to that paper, and from what I can gather it didn’t come from anyone at the club.
The biggest problem the club has right now as far as a sale is concerned is that the total debt comes to £351m, and the club is barely worth £350m. Someone buying the club would have to overpay for it and they’ll only do that if they can see a way of boosting the club’s value in the timeframe they are working to. Increasing the value of the club probably requires even more investment being put in, because that new stadium won’t grow by itself.
There aren’t many people with the money, let alone the will to risk it, and that is what is holding this sale up as much as anything.
Very little, if anything, will get into the papers far in advance of a sale. For that reason you can also dismiss the claims that a new buyer is just four or five weeks away from being announced.
But remember, because this is something a lot of people seem to fall for – pointing out the lies or failings of one person isn’t automatically a pardon for the others. Gillett is a proven liar, if you don’t know this then I’ll try and dig out some examples for you. But that doesn’t make Hicks the downtrodden victim in his place. Both of them should have got out when they had a £500m offer on the table instead of trying to squeeze more money out of it. Both of them are quite happy to see the club get hit by 10% interest on the money they finally put in, and hit by interest on the money owed to RBS, because no matter how much the club suffers they’ve still not lost a penny of their own.
But even that does not make Christian Purslow the hero of the piece, not by any means.
And it’s because of those three that we now find ourselves in this position.
The fact we are not in the Champions League is not Hodgsons fault true he isnt my first choice its the last managers fault. The fact that we have no money is the owners fault. The Club have big problems but its not fair to be negative about any new manager. Ok you dont like him but it is a big fact that Chelsea, Man ure, and Arsenal are well ahead of us city have money to burn so you cant expect us to finish in the top 4 but if Hodgson gets us in the top 4 or 5 will you and anyone who is critical of Hodgson admit they were wrong. I am not 100% certain he will be a success but hope he will just keep an open mind at least and back him. I for 1 dont think the fans will turn on him after 1 or 2 defeats we are more loyal than that.
This is an article designed to incite violence and only stupid so-called supporters are never willing to give a new manager even one day on the job to prove his worth. Roy Hodgson is a good manager and will prove that to all the rafa fans next season. Happy itle-hunting, Roy!
Kenny would of given the club a lift no one else could possibly of
RH isnt a bad manager , he just isnt a great one .
LFC owed Kenny the chance , even for a season , to see if he could of turned it around.
despite some fans wanting to keep Rafa , lets be honest , watching his style of football and the decisions he made every week and the players he bought Rafa s time to go had come .
any “fan” who says differently clearly doesnt pay to go or if they do they were supporting Rafa because hes our manager , this is our club & no one
but us is allowed to say anything bad against us
Rafa s way certainly wasnt the Liverpool way .
we had one last chance of returning to the “bootroom ”
way and Purslow chose different
theres going to be an almighty back lash if this goes wrong
but another manager who knows nothing about us ?
“those who fail to learn history are deemed to repeat it ”
good luck to RH . hes going to need it
Although he was far from my first choice, Liverpool fans now need to stand behind our new manager like we have always done. Roy has to have his chance – and brooding will not help him in a difficult task.
Ah, and just in case I am giving the wrong idea, I CANNOT WAIT FOR HICKS AND GILLET TO GET OUT.
Po-faced introspection and deliberately negative skewing of realities passed off as “facts” is easy if you are semi-literate and semi-informed. It also whips up the kind of mind-numbing shitstorm of doom-mongering that plays no role in the act of SUPPORTING. To hear gimps like Nobb grudgingly claim he will be brave enough to still support LFC through this awful patch of Yank mismanagement is to realise that some people do not deserve to be blessed with oxygen…be a SUPPORTER you waste of skin
Honestly, am I the only LFC fan in the world who still thinks this is absolute rubbish? not ONE STATEMENT OR QUOTE has been made to confirm any of this. How do we know Roy will be the manager next season? I have heard no announcement as of.
Being a life long LFC fan who resides in Australia & nearing 40, it does my head in how you all live in the past, talking about Shanks, the boatroom etc. Football has evolved, money talks, let it go. It was the turning point on our history, history being the key word. Bill Shankly left a legacy that has detoriated, yes, but we must move on, support Roy who is a brilliant man with a lot of expereince & look forward to a new & prosperous chapter once the Yanks are shown the door. It’s taken the man great courage to sign for LFC with the current state our mighty club is in. We won’t win the title this season, give him time & have some faith, something Shanks would be pleading with us all to do. Support the lad’s, support Roy & let’s move on.
Oh & most you imbecile’s can’t even spell the new gaffer’s name correctly. It’s HODGSON, not Hodgens or Hobson.
If I want arrogance I’d support Man Scum or Chelski. Let it go, give the guy a chance. Look @the squad he inherited @Fulham & what state they were in when he took over.
Some tosspot through up his win/loss ratio. Again what was Shank’s in the early year’s??? Stop f*cking moaning & support your side, if not p*ss off over to Goodison.
Just think ourselves lucky we didn’t end up with an Allardyce or Moyes.
Roy is just a short term appointment while the yanks sell the club. Rafa and his backroom staff paid off, a steady manager in place and Liverpool in the top 10 of the Premiership. Exactly the same as Man City who we are currently being modelled on in preparation of a new owner coming in. H&G will walk away with lots of dollars and the new owners will then appoint a big name manager and give him lots of cash just like City. Roy is a nice guy but he knows he’s just babysitting until the club is sold, hopefully sooner rather than later.
Most of our supporters would rather Kenny got the job than Hodgson, so, really, who cares what our supporters think in this situation? They’re making Newcastle supporters look level-headed.
Anyone who doesn’t support Hodgson is a disgrace. Hodgson isn’t the enemy. He isn’t on the side of the owners. He’s coming in for footballing reasons and i would bet good money that he comes with the full backing of Kenny, despite the crap written in the gutter press.
Negative nonesense!
The Yanks relationship with the fans never had a chance because Rafa used the fans for his own ends.
Watch him now make a pig’s ear of the Inter job.Roy Hodgeson will I believe surprise many people,this Liverpool squad is a lot stronger than many people think.With a little tweeking I can see us challenging for the premiership.Enough of this negative drivel,the club’s main problem now resides in Italy,let’s move forward with a positive less devisive manager,
COME ON YOU REDS!
Jim,
I bow to your deeper knowledge on the subject of the bids. I also accept that Gillett is a proven liar but you must accept your proven support of Hicks in the past. I also can dig out plenty of examples.
Regret…. We will live to regret this catastrophe!