The Fans View

Hodgson’s CV is unrivalled

This article is a guest post submitted to Anfield Online.

Liverpool FC have appointed Roy Hodgson as the new manager of Englands most successful football club. Roy Hodgson has been snapped up from Fulham after Liverpool had their most disappointing season in 11 years, and Fulham had their best season in their recent history culminating in a Europa League Final.

I really feel Rafa Benitez and not the owners is to blame for last season’s poor performance mainly because of the signing of Albert Aquilani and Glen Johnson, Both players may turn out to be useful additions for the club in the future, but last season Liverpool needed to buy a back up striker for Fernando Torres which they failed to do and also a left winger when 17 million would have been enough to sign Juan Mata from valencia, who Torres recommended to the Club.These failures led to the downfall of not only the club last season but led to Rafa’s depature as well.

With Roy Hodgson now offically anounced as the next manager, Liverpool are back under Englsh Management and more importantly a vastly experienced manager. Who perfomed wonders at Fulham last season and quite rightly won the LMA Manager of the Year Award. Roy’s ability to work on a shoe string budget and use his man management skills to get the best out of his players will be needed in what I believe to be a season which Liverpool need to rebuild. The problem for the club would be the new sponsorship deal with Standard Chartered kicks in from this next season, and am sure they wouldn’t want their name be associated with failure in their first season in English Football.

Roy Hodgson has proved his knowledge of the transfer market while at Fulham, which I’m sorry to say for all the money spent was one of Rafa Benitez’s main faults, I’m sure Liverpool fans would say, what about Torres, Alonso, Reina or Mascherano but apart from these players which other of Rafa’s signings have made the grade, some fans might count Skrtel, Agger, Kuyt, as other good signings but I still think they need to do a lot to be classed as the World Class players Liverpool Football Club require. The list of flops vastly outweigh the successes, these include, Morientes, Robbie Keane, Dossena, Aquilani, Babel, Riera, Krygiakos, Ngog, Lucas, and even free transfer signings like Degen and Voronin have been termed flops

Many English football fans will not be too familiar with the Croydon born manager before he came to Fulham. Roy spent most of his managerial career abroad. Roy Hodgson’s first job was in Sweden, at Halmstads FC where he won 2 Swedish titles with a very poor team, a huge surprise considering the team was fighting relegation the pervious season. In 1985, he took over Malmo FF, another Swedish side with whom he won 5 consecutive league titles. He was also the Manager of Switzerland for the 1994 World Cup.

In 1995, Hodgson was appointed Inter Milan manager, he helped turn a failing team back to league and European contenders and from here he went on to his first English Premier League job, with Blackburn. However, apart from qualifying for Europe in his first season, the next was followed with poor transfer dealings and a failed season- perhaps the lowest point of his managerial career. Defying the critics who said he could not adapt to English football management, Roy Hodgson took over Fulham in 2007 and proved them wrong; avoiding near-certain relegation in his first season there, he turned it around completely the next, finishing in 7th, Fulham’s highest ever Premier League finish, and also guaranteeing UEFA Cup qualification for the next year. And what a year that proved out to be for the Englishman. After inspiring victories over teams like Juventus and Hamburg, Fulham battled it out to their first major European Cup Final in their 130 year history, only narrowly losing to a very talented Atletico Madrid.

No one can fault Hodgson’s CV, it is one of the most interesting and decorated in the game and is proof that Hodgson has the ability to revive a team like Liverpool; he will inherit a squad with at least 4 world class players in Torres, Gerrard and Reina and Mascherano and through selling fringe players, he should definitely be able to raise enough capital to ensure the arrival of some exciting new talent. As with all managers, only time will tell, but when it comes to knowledge and experience of the game, Hodgson is rivalled by few and despite the difficulty of the task ahead of him, will strive to bring success to a club that needs it desperately more than at any other time in their long history.

25 comments on
Hodgson’s CV is unrivalled

  1. There’s a reason why roys had so many clubs compare him to top managers like alex ferguson just proves long c.vs don’t make better managers. We should have just brought in a new young manager who could stay with the club for 25 years and win us something along the way instead of a manager who will definatly win us nout. Joe cole was a decent signing but why chase carlton cole after the 18 million from mascheranos fee I think hodgson has got to realise he could bring in higher quality strikers he’s got to step out of his fulham shoes.Bring in andy caroll 😉 or even try for a player like Santa cruz both of which would get us goals

  2. A new manager naturally brings new idea’s and hope so let’s be positive because we’re still in the premiership!.I am gonna give Roy a few seasons before deciding but have a good feeling about him.Some shrewd signings together with playing our top boys in favoured positions could make us into contenders again.Must keep Torres and Gerrard but don’t mind if Masch leaves.

  3. had he stayed fit is frightening. We put 4 past each of Utd, Chelsea and Real Madrid that season too. Inflicted Madrid’s heavisest european defeat ever and Utd’s worst home defeat since ’92. It makes no sense to replace a man wnated by Madrid, Inter and Juve with Roy Hodgson. His two most expensive signings in the prem have been Kevin Davies (flop) and Andy Johnson (flop). Does this fill us all with a sense of anticipation? Not me I’m afraid. He’s our new boss though and I’ll back him.

  4. This article is awful. People really do have short memories don’t they. Rafa Benitez revived Liverpool. Check the facts. The players he signed posted at least 3 points totals that would have won the title pre Abramovich. We came within a whisker of winning the league in 2008-09 losing the fewest number of games and not winning the league and outscoring a Utd team that contained Tevez, Rooney and Ronaldo, this despite missing our number 9 for large parts of the season. What we may have achieved

  5. Terrible article, one of the worst I have ever read. The yanks are to blame for the destruction of our great club, but beyond that you also manage to talk complete nonsense throughout. Good Job.

  6. Don’t agree with the flops. Aquiliani hasn’t played enough to be called a flop yet. Unfornately Ngog (1m), Krygiakos (2m) & Lucas 5m played quite well last season. Babel is still a great prospect and was in the Netherlands squad with Kuyt (who should be our next Captain) & we had Torres and Reina (who has probably the best goalie in the world keeping him out of the 1st eleven).

    You want to start looking closer to home to see why we didn’t play well (Gerrard & JC) and lack of cover for our #9

  7. typical sly sports and talk shite fan here who will write drivvel like that its the yanks falt not rafa,s

    LIVERPOOL FOOTBALL CLUB IS IN THE WRONG HANDS

  8. Aquilani? A flop? The same El Principano that sparked mesmerising attacking play just a week after returning from injury? If there’s anything to look forward to this season, it’s Aquilani. Skrtel and Agger…are world class, simple. And can we stop the Rafa bashing already? Sure, his tactics were questionable at times, but he was under pressure to perform and had to take drastic action….. And then it comes to Hodgson’s “decorated” CV. He is an average manager, that’s it. I am behind him however, solely because he is in charge of the club we all love. This article is priceless, you can’t make this stuff up…
    NOT A PENNY MORE!

  9. I too stopped reading after this idiot started to list Rafa’s “flops”. So I then scrolled down to the comments and prayed to God I didn’t see the same thing; Thank God there are still supporters who see how criminal it was to let Rafa go. I hate how all of Rafa’s work is judged on 1 bad season. ONE!! Unbelievable. He took us to the summit of European football (nearly twice), won the FA Cup, best points haul ever then bettered that in 09 and then one bad season and he’s gone. Ridiculous.

  10. Everyone who thinks that Hodgson wont win anything u gonna eat ur words !

    In Hodgson we trust !

    Here is difficult times in Anfield but u have to back our manager, he is our only change.

  11. As with most I agree that the owners are mostly to blame for the clubs situation, but the 7th place finish last season was Rafa all the way, most fans forget playing several players out of position (and we see how well that works in the world cup with England), very negative tactics in games we should have been destroying the oposition, and when we had a 1 goal lead or we were losing towards the end of the game he capitulated. As a true Red fan I am gonna give Roy a chance, and get behind him.

  12. This is a joke, right??!! I used to believe in free speech……that was until I read this article!!!!!
    At least comments in response to the article prove that the vast majority of LFC fans are pretty clued up on the situation. Of course I hope Roy succeeds and I will give him my full backing however let’s not pretend he was our first….second or third choice to replace Rafa. In fact I don’t think many (including me) wanted to see him go in the first place. Yanks out!!!!

    • Anybody who reads the Editorials on this site knows my feelings on where our problems lie.
      But if we receive a well written article, then even if we disagree, it clearly represents some fans views and deserves publishing.
      The comments on here are a good judge of what the majority think.
      Keep the faith in free speech! 😉

  13. Its typical of the hatchet job thats been in full swing since rafa left….
    …can i ask a simple question?
    How can those of you with this view point and stronger ‘dislike’ one of only 3 managers in lfc history to win a certain cup with the big ears (even without going into the semi’s Athens final and the ownership issue)
    …it seems to me a very fickle view point.
    I know he had his failings but given the restrictions and the politics he had to work with…could ANYONE have done as much?

  14. Kuyt, Agger and Skrtel cost between £5m-£9m. How many “world-class” players do you get for that kind of fee?

    And Rafa thought he had money to buy a striker last summer, but the £20m allocated was no longer there. As for Johnson, he added another attacking dimension to our game. Aquilani for Alonso may still pay off, long-term. Ngog and Lucas are not ‘flops’, either.

    Rafa made mistakes – all managers do.

    Good luck to Roy, a likeable, capable manager. But as yet, unproven at the highest level.

  15. One of the funniest articles I have read about liverpool.

    What a gem: “No one can fault Hodgson’s CV, it is one of the most interesting and decorated in the game and is proof that Hodgson has the ability to revive a team like Liverpool”

  16. As with Paddy, I didn’t agree with the first line, but I chose to read the rest. Unfortunatly its just the same old thing, blaming Rafa for situations beyond his control and assuming that if he had done things your way it would have all gone fine, well I’m afraid life just isn’t that simply and laying the blame just on Rafa is a cop out.

    Some good points and observations made later in the piece though

  17. Unrivalled?! He won a few cups in Sweden during the 80’s and in the last 20 years has won a couple of cups in Denmark, basically, sweet fanny adams that is even worth mentioning. His CV looks like a an utter joke when compared with the manager our gobshite owners just sacked.
    Then again Hodgson isnt here to win anything, he’s here as a “safe pair of hands” or at least will try and keep the club in the top ten while the Yanks squeeze every penny out of us until were bankrupt.
    YANKS OUT

  18. “No one can fault Hodgson’s CV” ???? He’s never won anything remotely significant. He’s just a good organiser of average mainly defensive teams. What an exciting season we have in prospect, not!

  19. What a load of shit. Are you from Kop Talk? Or from the S*n. Or are you really Christian Purslow? Or the owners? Or just a stupid . . . I need a drink. But not as much as you obviously.

  20. What a mug to include lucus and soto in with rafa bad signings! that just sums up some of our clown fans at present, have you had a meal with the two con men form usa? and are you telling me that the owners have had nothing to do with the uncertain air aorund the club! are you saying that rafa is to blame with all but the food in the canteen! what a joke you are,, the owners are 99% at fault for the mess this club is in, and by the way if we spent like others, instead of free deals!

  21. I read up to here: “I really feel Rafa Benitez and not the owners is to blame for last season’s poor performance”

    I won’t read the rest.

    YANKS OUT

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