2010 has been a horrible year for Liverpool FC.
A disappointing league campaign ended with the reds being knocked out in the Europa League semi-final before narrowly missing out on the top 4th, being forced to make do with 7th and European qualification.
The former hated owners, and Football Manager playing Managing Director, removed the Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez a year after he had managed to finish 2nd with a record points haul. The asset stripping of the previous 3 seasons had clearly had a knock on effect on the team, with key injuries to Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard not helping to our league performances.
Then in the summer, Roy Hodgson was picked for the job. His CV may have impressed the rest of the Hodgson household but it never impressed us, and it never impressed the Kop as a whole.
The season started poorly. The fans campaign against the owners and their £450M debts increased. Protests were held outside the ground, and this website and others even went as far as campaigning for fans to refuse to attend cup games and boycott official merchandise. (As Ian Ayre pointed out recently – this was having an effect on the club).
After court cases in London and in Texas, eventually control was wrested away from the former hated owners, and the club now stands on a debt-free footing. It’s immediate future secure. That should be a great source of pride for Liverpool fans who campaigned so vigorously to effectively ‘save our club’.
Martin Broughton and Christian Purslow left as the new American owners, NESV, took over and began their footballing education.
But Roy Hodgson continued to spread the decline on the pitch.
Many fans will have thought last season was bad enough – but the results this season have made it look like a fairly decent season in comparison. Liverpool currently lie 3 points above the relegation zone, still in negative goal difference, a way off last years performances and now the manager has turned on the fans, suggesting that we lack the ability to ‘support’ the club.
We appreciate that the new owners may not be footballing geniuses, but surely somebody at Anfield must have some football brains or even management brains. The relationship between manager and fans, and probably manager and players has broken down beyond all repair.
It was not an easy decision for us at Anfield Online as Liverpool fans to suggest 6 weeks ago that NESV had to act to remove the current manager. At that time, a decision could have ensured we at least fought for the top four. Now that chance has gone, the very best we can hope for now is probably a top half finish.
The longer NESV sit on their hands, the greater the risk to Liverpool FC, the pride of it’s fans and possibly our Premier League status.
Liverpool can’t afford amateurs in the managers dug-out or the boardroom for much longer.
gregsta- great post, but people at the club and those deadbeats that sit and talk all downcast, keep talking like they have a bad mentality! for me, this season if we play are cards right could turn for us.
a europa cup win or final, a 4th spot is still ” just ” about on the cards, i say just, it depends on the nesv and board if they want to pay out for better players, if they do not invest now the season will be what alot of people now think it will be- a write off! invest now or wait and lose
I’m not hoping for nothing this season anymore…
We ALL should pray that the mancs don’t get the 19th league!
Fistly;
Roy should never ever have even seen the interview chair at still this great club.
Secondly;
Transfers of Poulsen and Konchesky should never ever have taken place.
Now we require;
new management team( not just manager).
Sammy lee, roy and that fat coach mike keely have to go, out now.
then my choice if they can work together would be a on a part time untill june.
Kenny and phill thomo.
then in the summer add a new young hungry manager with kenny and thomo staying & porto’s man.
kenny with paco as his assistant. no thankyou 2 thommo
so getting rid of Roy will turn this team into a winning one overnight? These players are world-class professionals, they should be winning some of these matches regardless of how incompetent Roy is. This is more complicated than a manager. FSV has said to have faith in the longterm so either support them them 100% or don’t, but don’t judge them yet. Do you want to buy a team that can look good for a couple years NOW or develop a team that can compete for a decade in a couple years? BELIEVE
and today he also said he would’ve been happy with a 1-1 scoreline
Historically we’ve always been overly patient and reluctant to sack people until the very end.No other TOP club would tolerate this from their manager but we continue to make excuses for a man who is clearly not up to the job.
I was willing to give him a chance but he’s been found out as a mid table manager who doesn’t understand the expectations of our fans.His few signings like Mereiles and Poulson have been poor yet we’ll be giving him more £££ to waste!.Much prefer King Kenny returning!
My first post so please be gentle
I agree RH has to go, his team selection does not make sense,
1) why would you play Raul M on the right when he is a central mid
2) why play Kuyt on the left when he has been paying on the right for 3 season
3) why play karyagos instead of agger and whats happened to Kelly or Danny Wilson
4) and why not play cole or babel or jovanovic, or give Pacheco or jinni a chance
And maybe rijkaard for manager, world class and available straight away
well even if u sack the manager you have players who are disinterested in putting in 100% effort.. rafa is not the answer as he couldnt work with new owners. we need a major shake up. no time for sitting on hands. the transfer window gives uo a good chance to some wheeling and dealing. sell some of the passengers who produce nothing but demand high salaries.we need a major midfielder and a pacey winger who can feed fernando. but sack hodgson as he has lost the dressing room.
Rafa can work with anyone as long as you don’t lie to him. He’s the best candidate out there apart from Kenny. If it’s not going to be given to Kenny, NESV would be mad not to look towards Rafa.
Great article…still very unsure about Rafa…6 months after taking the helm at Inter and he’s sacked. 2 things for me!
1) Roy is not the man for us – its his tactics, his job to motivate, his job to alter during games (not sit on the bench looking forlorn).
2) Players need to buck their ideas up – when you hear news like (Lucas had a good game – you know we were shocking!) – atitudes make a HUGE difference.
Harry at Spurs always states what a great team they have – the squad have responded
SACK ROY
1. roy has to go, enough is enough, the players are sadly like every other footballers, all over paid and are not putting in the max effort for roy.
2. No caretaker manager needed, just show us that the nesv have the power to go and GET and be PROACTIVE in going to poach manager who already has a contract, if you want to succeed badly enough, why not and target and headhunt another manager you want?
3. Players of high quality should already be on the list of comolli, not matter what. asap
bring back rafa now,and all you stupid fans who enabled the sacking of rafa are a disgrace, what he did for the club was amazing the fact is we punched above our weight with rafa and were ranked number 1 in europe aswell as twice finishing on highest points since prem began also finishing above chelsea and another time on the same points as united and both of there teams cost loads more than ours they both have loads of players that cost 20-30 million each, bring back the pride bring back rafa
Hallelujah! Rafa is and always was the answer!
NESV, you are eroding ALL the Goodwill your buyout bought you. Act like REAL OWNERS and replace Hodgson with Dalglish today!
…or are you Hicks & Gillette in disguise, and don’t want to part with the couple Million it’ll take to pay him off??? You’ll eventually have to, because he does’nt have the CLASS, DIGNITY or SELF-RESPECT to resign!
After assembling a group of competent, skilled players, the manager’s prime task is to create a whole [the team], greater than the sum of the parts. It is about having high expectations, and having the players share those expectations. It is about having something to play for until the [ideally] last game of the season. It is about taking responsibility. It is about defending your players and keeping your tongue away from the rear of old bacon face.
It is not about Roy Hodgson.
with a million global REDS who belong to worldwide Supporters & fans groups =estimated around 20 million that “follow Lfc”…we have power to boycott games & the shops..we cant let this “virtual rape”
of our Club go on & all that we love about being a Liverpool RED (Shanks’ “Liverpool way” was the basis) be destroyed ..from Parry, through tHIcks, Purslow, Broughton to imposter Hodgson..this must stop now & WE must raise our voices, to assume NESV (FSG) are our saviours is naive! WE are the club!
What I find disappointing are the constant excuses from Hodgson when we can see that it is not just the results that are poor-it is the way the team are playing. Presumably the style of play is determined by him? Benitez would not have led us to this! As for Hodgson’s signings- a journeyman player from Fulham is never going to add quality. There can be no way back for Rodge now. He doesn’t understand the club and the players don’t seem to have confidence in him.
I think its fair to say win lose or draw against Bolton tomorrow and Hodgson is gone. He will hopefully bow out with grace and 3 points under his belt. I hope the players take some responsibility, they have got the man sacked with below par performances. Yes its Hodgsons job to motivate and get the best out of them, but once they cross the white line, its then down to them. Hodgsons tactics simply dont work at a top four club.
This once great club is a disgrace. The decisions that have been made on and off the pitch for the last 2 years have been baffling. Sacking a great manager to bring in Roy Hodgson is a joke. Liverpool don’t deserve to be successful with those kind of people running the club. Fergie invested heavily at united between 1986 and 1989 and struggled to finish in the top half of the table. Rafa has one bad season, finishing 7th and reaching the semi’s of the uefa and gets bombed. The club disgust me.
i agree with you …i honestly think the only good decision to come from upper management since 1990 was the appointment of rafa and i too am disgusted at the lack of support rafa received from management , players (Gerrard and CARRA) and fans who dont go to the matches …we had a perfect scenario of doing what the Man utd board did in almost identical situations….THEY BACKED HIM and the rest is history…LFC ? we throw 5 great years away and sack him …now we have to start all over again
You summed up the beginning and the middle so well.
Like any story, it’s the ending that counts and let’s be frank, we’re terrified.
I’ve 39 years of my life’s emotions invested in the moments of magic and despair that is Liverpool FC,
This endurance test they call the premier league is 20 years old now, it’s not been kind.
Roy has failed, it’s that simple. So far………
Please lets wake up . . .we sign 6/7 players then thats ‘wholesale’ changes that takes a years to get functioning. I agree we should be making ‘wholesale’ changes because we have no option . . torres will be gone, so will reina, and carra needs replacing . . it’s gonna be a long long process all. think 3/4 or 5 years.
I think it’s now fair to say this English/British experiment has now imploded in the biggest possible way. Sadly it is us the fan and LFC that has been the victim to this experiment.
The media’s desire to prove everything English/British is best has failed as spectacularly as the English football team at the World Cup. The LMA’s best manager in England has well and truly failed, as a lot of us thought he would.
Rafa is ready and waiting for the call.
NESV need to act now.
yeah when are we going to have a real and honest conversation about the our discredited style of football …and the lack of technical/skillful players…its embarrassing we still have managers who LOVE this long ball game Fat sam, woy, tony pullis etc and they are still in demand playing anti football
John. W. Henry & Tom Warner,
Listen to the fans and do it do it NOW!! Replace Roy With a world class top quality manager and the players will respond. Livepool have some excellent players and you need to buy another five or maybe six world class top quality players and Liverpool will be challenging for the premiership next season and season after that back into champions league. My advise to you is do not lose you top star players the very foundation of the team, otherwise you will not attract other top world class players and it will show you do not have the same ambitions and passion of the Liverpool fans. So John and Tom do it do it today do not wait for the Bolton game to put Roy out of his misery.
this may be hard to take but we no longer have the money nor the pulling power to draw top players to the club.when david moores and his partner in crime parry decided to sell our club that was the begging of the end.parry set about loading our money into his pockets and moores helped him by signing his name on a get out clause that netted him a fortune.fans may say it is disloyal to protest at anfield but if we don’t there will be no anfield. in 2005 we won world footballs top prize,how sad.
Excellent Article.. FSG need to wake up now not tmrw, not next week.. NOW !!!
The longer they allow Hodgson to remain in the job the more respect they will lose from the fans !!
Hodgson is a fraud but the Fans always knew he weren’t upto it even though Cecil and Broughton thought so..
I have no feckin clue why they can’t put Kenny in charge, there is noone at the club with more loyalty and affinity for LFC than the King..
Sort it Out Before the Fans turn on you guys !!!
Act now remove the manager while you have some support, I for ONE believe the club is still in the wrong hands…. IN RAFA WE TRUST.
Hoorah! At last sensible journalism! Rafa should never have gone and Messrs Henry and Werner need to drive over to Caldy, knock on his door and quite literally ask him to save our season. I love King Kenny to bits but could never see him working with Comioli? The academy etc seems to be reaping the seeds that Rafa sewed!?!
hold on a second..do you think for one moment rafa would work with comolli? rafa is adamant that he controls everything to do with the team. It’s the ‘arsenal model’ that the fenway boys are gonna follow. Rafa is not the right way forward, I beg you all to stop gonng on about it, he needs to take responsibility for a portion of this mess. as for”The academy etc seems to be reaping the seeds that Rafa sewed”.you haven’t got a clue!Rafa never gave the academy a chance!learn about LFC then post
A very ill informed reply there; thanks for enlightening nothing!
rking YOU have your facts and analysis wrong regarding the politics of the academy and the fact is the academy has not produced a real quality players for over a decade at least …anyway its not my place to educate you …the knowledge is out there go seek!!
stop bashing Rafa
I am Grateful for JW Henry for saving us from a potential disaster with the previous owners.Since they have arrived they have done all the right things.They are smart and it does not take a genius to realize that with the current manager we are going nowhere fast.I hated the appointment of Woy but i supported him because he is the Liverpool Manager.He has not earned my respect.I am sure that with all things,J W Henry are working behind the scenes to remedy the situation.Keeping there cards close to their chest.I hope they play their hand soon though “IN JOHN HENRY I TRUST”
i like the term used for christian purslow “Football Manager playing Managing Director”…………………..
Well said. Come back Rafa all is forgiven. I hope Hodgson’s recent comments about the fans is a sack me or back me plea. A new manager may give us a lift to face Man. U next week and make himself an instant Hero. If not, more misery is certain.
My God, how Iagree with the above article. We have been declining long enough, at least the dreaded H & G are gone, can’t let Utd get the 19 th title, we MUST finish 4th.
A top four finish is impossible. The odd improved performance will be countered by inconsistancy.