By Karl Coppack
Moving on.
It’s been over a week and I still haven’t come to terms with it. I’m still furious, disappointed and, as melodramatic as it seems, feel betrayed. Elsewhere the Red world happily discusses Martinez, Villas Boas, Capello, Redknapp, Twiggy etc. but for me it still seems too soon and disrespectful.
Two things stand out. Firstly, Liverpool Football Club sacked Kenny Dalglish, actually sacked him. Not a joint decision, an actual sacking. Alongside that rests the knowledge that some supporters of Liverpool Football Club booed Kenny Dalglish, albeit indirectly via the team.
Booed and sacked.
Kenny Dalglish.
I’m not ready to join in with talk of John Henry’s New Waves of Light just yet. I’m trying to work out what the hell’s happened to everything I believe in. I’m not quite ready to trust Boston nor am I ready to forgive people who can boo Liverpool off the pitch so you’ll forgive me if I don’t join in with excited talk about whoever it is this morning.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand the arguments for releasing Kenny and a lot of them are valid. Terrible form in the League, some bloody awful signings and no real sense of a plan etc. Yes, there was silverware and a linesman’s sneeze away from taking the F.A. Cup final to extra time but the club want fourth place and if Kenny can’t get close to that then the inevitable will occur.
I just didn’t think it would be yet. Still, market forces rule and failure is not an option. You see the term ‘no man is bigger than the club’ being bandied about. The catch-all defence of sacking our greatest player and third most successful manager. A legend, yes, the greatest, absolutely, but one season without Champions League football is quite enough thank you. The door’s over there.
Oh, and if you’re going to dismiss Kenny Dalglish, FSG, could you at least put both his names on your official statement rather than just his sneerily referring to him by his surname. At least give the man that.
I’ve heard this too. ‘Oh, but if it wasn’t Kenny Dalglish, if it were Roy Hodgson you’d be baying for his blood, wouldn’t you? It’s only because it’s Dalglish that he lasted this long’.
Absolute bollocks.
I didn’t like Roy Hodgson even before he took over from Rafa but had he taken the club to two finals in his debut season I would have raised an eyebrow at a dismissal. Yes, Kenny’s special to the club and our attachment is sentimental but for fuck sakes the whole game is sentimental.
That’s the fucking point of the football. The glory of the game lies in its theatre and its charged drama. On the day I’m writing this I’m getting texts and emails wishing me a ‘Happy 25th May’ because it’s a date that make the heart of every Red swell, not merely the recording of two games in our history.
Glory is the child of sentiment so to hear crass arguments about no man being bigger than the club is nonsense. If no man is bigger than the club then at least let’s agree that certain people deserve a chance to put it right and they need more than on complete season. I support LFC and I support Kenny Dalglish as one is the embodiment of the other. Sentimental? Fuck yeah. I pay my debts, that’s all.
Other arguments were as inane as they were insulting, citing his poor relationship with the press and the handling of the Suarez case. Jesus, he’s already had to apologise to Geoff Shreeves after Old Trafford. What more do you want?
Imagine having to debase yourself to that degree and still get pilloried for it. The T-shirts may have seemed ill advised but only if you want to genuinely believe that the first team were openly celebrating racially abusing Patrice Evra rather than supporting their team mate who they believe has been wrongly accused. There was no ‘Isn’t Racism Boss?’ motif that I could see yet the outrage was there. If you’re not happy with Kenny being manager then pick a better reason than ‘it upset Paul McGrath’.
Anyway, he’s gone and we must look to the future. A new broom to wipe away the detritus of last season ignominy. FSG have re-enacted the baptism scene of The Godfather (‘Do you renounce Ian Cotton?’ ‘I do renounce him.’) so if there’s a sense of ‘Day One’ about the club then we’re living it this very minute or at least once an appointment has been made.
This is the time that FSG have to stamp their own personality and beliefs on the club – something they’ve not been successful at thus far. If the answer is a young manager with an elder statesman upstairs then they have to get the right man in and give him time i.e. more than one season. That goes for the fans too.
I have no beef with the new man whoever the poor sod happens to be. Many, myself included, didn’t just see Hodgson in the dugout, they saw ‘Not Rafa’ there and blamed him for that too but I doubt that will happen this time. The Owl was put in an impossible position. An average manager working with underachieving players, a split fan base and despised owners.
The next LFC manager will be afforded every opportunity, right up until we go three home games without a win. I predict that in a moment of supreme irony the Dalglish booers will shout his name.
I still can’t join in though. I’m just not excited about a new direction wherever it may lead as I’m still reeling from last Wednesday. It may be time to put all that to one side and trust FSG but, for the time being at least, it just feels hollow. Feel free to slate this and put it down to overblown romanticism but that’s the way things are at the moment.
Suffice to say that FSG had better have a perfect replacement and strategy in place and, one week out, I’ve seen little evidence of that.
As things stand it looks like Wigan’s former manager will be taking over. I wish him luck albeit with a lazy wave of the hand and a weak smile. I suspect my interest in the early games may be more scientific than heartfelt. That’s likely to change obviously but at the moment it feels empty. I bloody hate this game sometimes.
Go Bobby!
Totally agree
great post si. sums up pretty much what i feel about kennys departure. the least he deserved was one more year and a decent summer transfer budget. i believe we would have improved next season under kenny with players like carroll, hendo, adam and downing all having settled in. i think all of those players have found it difficult to adjust to the level of expectation there is involved in playing for liverpool. add 2/3 quality new players and i think we would have challenged the top four. too late for that now though.
the rails came off last season after the home defeat to arsenal and given that we had already qualified for next seasons europa league there was a little bit of ”after the lord mayor’s show” about the league games for the last 3 months of the season.
having said all that i will still be 100% behind whoever fsg appoint as manager, even if it is dave whelan’s cast off.
pete (@falllfan)
the manager’s job is precisely to prevent teams hitting the buffers at season’s end. “After the Lord Mayor’s Show”??? It was the bloody CC cup!! It’s wonderful that all these UK-based players have to be given another year to “settle in” seeing as Dalglish was so keen on them because they’d be able to hit the ground running. He bought mediocre quality, filling a team challenging for 4th with mid-table players, sorry, fantastically overpriced mid-table players…and you’re somehow shocked we didn’t end up challenging for 4th!
sorry karl you’re not si are you. :)
Couldn’t agree more. Summed up how i feel about it perfectly.
This is an article I would have written myself, almost word for word, with the main difference being I would have written it this time 2 years ago when Rafa was sacked..Liverpool Football Club sacked Rafa, actually sacked him. Not a joint decision (as that cu*t Purslow would like us to believe), an actual sacking, a man that won us the European Cup with a gang of misfits, and almost won us the league on a relative shoestring..that was 2 years ago and now we’re going through all this shit again, with more American owners, and another much loved legend discarded, unjustly…it’s bollocks the lot of it.
And it doesn’t get easier, that disappointment that comes with realizing that we’re not such a special club anymore, we’re just like the rest, we’re a brand now, and the Champions League is the ad break during the Super Bowl, the pinnacle of advertising and exposure, that’s our goal nowadays, forget about the glory of a winner at Wembley, its all about that qualifying round with a 3rd rate team in August in the back-ends of nowhere..that gets the excitement going alright.
I worry about where I’m going as a fan in all of this. Every season that passes we seem to be moving further and further away from what we once stood for..
I’m all for moving with the times, but it shouldn’t be at any cost.
Good men like Rafa and Kenny shouldn’t have been pissed on by the club.
They deserved more, we deserve more
It’s the last chance saloon
They better get it right..
Well said.
Don’t you dare compare Rafa and Daglish as managers. One is still relevant. The other has his best work two decades behind him. How can Liverpool fans not see this? Having done great things in the dim and distant past is NOT a qualification for being the present manager. Rafa shouldn’t have been sacked, we’re in agreement with that (although I don’t think going back to him now is a realistic option). Dalglish is a whole nother story….
Ha!
With this article 100%, I feel cheated the way Rafa left and even more so that Kenny was sacked, (partly i feel for being Kenny Dalglish and having more knowledge than the board) I don`t buy into the new wave of hope, but glad for those that can.
Knowledge and experience are still important commodities and by not having people in place last year then i do not feel FSG got the most from Kenny and by not talking to Rafa then that is a whole other bunch of knowledge not been used.
FSG are so lucky to have people with the knowledge of football and love of Liverpool that Kenny and Rafa have, (how many other clubs have this?) and yet, instead of trying to harness this and move with it, it seems they want to pretend it does not exist.
Good piece again Karl,and sums up my feelings!
I went to my first game nearly 50 years ago.In my day you were a Liverpudlian or an Evertonian.We used to wind each other up but when we could afford it we we went to Everton games and they came to our games.Just now and again, and mainly because we loved the football in the City and we could keep an eye on what was going on for our banter.
I just felt numb about Dalglish going.If the Team played in my back garden tomorrow I’m not sure if I would open the curtains!
I just feel that something has gone here.I was frustrated about last season like everybody else.But I could see that we were getting closer and closer to what we were always about.
And now we have become a hedge fund managers investment.
I think David Moores has a lot to answer for.That poor little rich kid who let the family silverware slip through his fingers!
While I basically agree that Kenny going was the right thing to do, the fact it took ONE DAY for all the talk to be about new managers is disrespectful and sad.
Seriously, one day, and it’s as if he didn’t exist. All anyone cared about was who was going to replace him.
I think it was Gibbo on the podcast that said no matter what happens to the club from this point on, we will never quite be the same.
Spot on. i feel the same. It felt like I’d had a death in the family when they dismissed Kenny. Felt genuine sadness and a sense of injustice about it! I’ve been away from Twitter since, as all the rumours and talk of replacements etc was just annoying and depressing. I’m hoping to get excited about the new season sometime soon. Not sure when that’ll be yet but hopefully soon…….. YNWA
Like you I was shocked and saddend at Kennys sacking, more for Kenny than anything else. As a fan you know how he must have felt, or at least begin to.
But life goes on, and we have to make the most of whatever happens and whoever comes in. I just hope he gets off to a good start though as Anfield needs to be a more positive atmosphere if we are to achieve anything.
spot on Karl and LordN
Kenny was my last hero, grow up loving the man still feel strange to thing he won`t be at Anfield come the start of the season.
The club now goes in a different direction, I will support the next manager and hope he gets off to a good start as I`m really worried what will happen if we start with some poor results.
Totally agree Karl. Whilst opinion is split on whether Dalglish should have gone or not, it was the manner of his departure which leaves a bitter taste. The fact he was actually sacked, and FSG are so publicly open about this, is what riles me.
Everyone is so caught up in the hysteria of, “who will be the next manager?” that they’ve ignored what actually went on.
Your statement pretty much sums up sections of our support (Unfortunately its becoming a large section) – “The next LFC manager will be afforded every opportunity, right up until we go three home games without a win. I predict that in a moment of supreme irony the Dalglish booers will shout his name.”
To quote the author:
“Glory is the child of sentiment so to hear crass arguments about no man being bigger than the club is nonsense.”
A quote I feel is particularly relevant
“The most important thing is the club.
More important and bigger than any individual, no matter who has been through it previously and who will in the future. The club is the club.
I will never forget that and anyone who does is being a wee bit stupid and irresponsible.” – Kenny Dalglish
So either what the King says is crass and nonsensical, or the author is a wee bit stupid and irresponsible… I know who I am backing.
He’s hardly going to say ‘Fuck those wankers’ when his club’s invovled, is he? He wants everyone to get behind the new manager and is respectfully bowing out. Doesn’t mean I have to like his going.
For me – 50 years a fan – the saddest thing about Kenny’s sacking was the realization that the nagging growing ache that has plagued me during the American ownership years – this lot and the previous clowns – was now undeniable . We are no longer special – we are just another money making machine.
That makes the lie of “no one is bigger than the club”. Bigger than the club as it was – no. Bigger than John Henry’s club – damn right.
Call me a wee bit stupid but Kenny is bigger than John Henry’s version of the club.
Everybody is entitled to their opinion, and it’s always worthwhile to get others perspective.
However for me, the club has been there long before any of us, including Kenny, Rafa and John Henry. It’s also going to be there long after all of us are gone. The club is the club.
I don’t buy this “we are not special we are now just a business” nonsense. Leaving aside the fact that LFC has ALWAYS been a business, it used to be said that it’s the support that makes us special no?
I’m relieved that it seems to be a minority who’s “support” seems to be so easily shaken.
What a joke!
U Scousers are idiots with your Kenny worshipping.
Pathetic fans. We want succes now and Kenny failed. who cares about the past. We need to wizen up.
Get a real manager like Mouninho or Kloop. Even that Beyelsa guy.
Mostly my sentiments. Setting a goal of CL was unrealistic from Week 1. We were never going from 7 to 4. Two finals was what we regular attenders go for, albeit winning the league would be great, that’s in the past, and as there is no Abram, Abu or DIC money here then to fund that height anymore. Get real FSG. KD I still love U..,
You are an embarrassment. Dalglish’s job title was “manager of liverpool”, not “legend of liverpool who gets paid for all the great things he did TWO DECADES ago”.
It is precisely because of maudling looking in the past from the likes of yourself that we are in such a mess. This club has been woefully “managed” for nigh on twenty years now. Mediocre managers allowed to stay years over their sell by date (souness, houllier’s last two years, dalglish should never have got anything beyond his caretaker role, he’d already shown at newcastle that he is simply not up to speed with 3rd millennium football, unfortunately, let’s not start talking about his purchases!), even more mediocre players rolling fast off our transfer window production line.
There are many fundamental reasons why dalglish absolutely had to go and why it was clearly the right decision, albeit a year too late. His judgment of players has to be brought seriously into question, not only contributing to the purchase of very ordinary players for extraordinary fees, but then his stubborn sticking to underperfoming players like Downing because of their price tags and even, bizarrely, stating that Downing was “better than I expected”…this of a player who had the ultimate “invincible” season of 0 goals and 0 assists. Dalglish’s behaviour during the suarez incident bordered on criminally juvenile and the club took way too long to finally give him the dressing down he had coming for weeks and weeks. He dragged this club’s name through the mud – think long and hard on that next time you want to go and pray at your Dalglish shrine.
I saw the whole of the first dalglish reign at anfield, being the wrong side of 40. It matters not a jot. That was then, this is now. The only relevant thing is we’ve just had our most abject league performance since the mid-1950s and Dalglish has to take the majority of the blame for that. That’s it! Nothing else is relevant. What he did before at this club certainly gets him masses of respect, but it doesn’t get him a free ride.
Whilst I agree with most of this, it’s worth noting that the fact that he was “sacked” is probably (in reality) not a great deal different to any other situation where a manager leaves by “mutual consent”. The chances are that he went over to Boston where by hook or by crook they decided they wanted rid. At this point he is offered a “mutual consent” departure and (being the stubborn man we know he is) decides to tell them to politely fuck off. FSG have no choice. Sacked. There is every chance that is how it played out.
I’m really in no man’s land with this whole affair. I’ve felt for a while that our failure to fully embrace the brave/horrible new world of big business football and our sentimentality was holding us back. However, now it seems as though we are going in that direction, it doesn’t feel quite right.
Well said.
Of course it is sad to see a legend suffer the indignity of being sacked, but the simple facts are we were woeful in the league and wasted a huge transfer kitty in hindsight. I am fully behind the prospects of Carroll and Henderson, think Enrique is quality and could about handle a few more average performances from Downing & Adam – but that’s without looking at the total spend.
Looking at other managers around league, such as Pardew and Moyes – the way they’ve operated in the transfer market is painfully obvious. Would those against Dalglish’s sacking have overlooked that kind of expenditure had it been Hodgson signing them? He is derided for Konchesky & Poulsen; yet they cost around £8m in total.
It’s simple – if a manager doesn’t perform to the required standards (at least the same quality as those in the top 4) on all fronts including results, transfers and – he has to go. It is sad and everyone loves a bit of nostalgia, but we should be excited our owners are prepared to radically shake things up – including radically increasing revenue, smashing our transfer records and consistently funding player transfers.
Yes it’s sad KD has gone and in the manner he went – but lets look forward to a new dawn with some modern thinking and astuteness. These next managerial appointments are critical and of course I’m worried – but look at their track record and how much they’ve generated for the club so far. They’re no mugs.
Having read the article and all the comments, I am as disjointed now as I was before. I am desperately sad that Kenny was sacked, but I also feel betrayed that he failed. Kenny was perfect in my memory, from the day Liverpool signed him to the final day of last season. That it all started to go wrong after that is, as much as I hate to say it out loud, Kenny’s fault. He was incapable of any wrongdoing before this season. To me, the biggest casualty of all is my own memory. Debating FSG’s actions is just a way of ignoring the real issue. Kenny is human after all.
Sorry but KD has acted like a complete fool this past season. his siege mentality and press dealings alone are worthy of the sack. Lest we not forget his mid 90’s hoofball style signings, the single biggest waste of LFC transfer cash EVER. Had Rafa spent that money, we would be in a much stronger position than we are now.
Kenny is so disconnected from reality, too much golf and sky sports, he didnt realise that things have moved on since the blackburn days. He also told the board that he’d move on when the proper long term, younger manager was found.
There was no clear tactical plan, while under performing players were allowed a starting birth regardless of awful form, PLUS charlie adam-who does not belong in any top side in any league.
KD should never have been given a 3 year contract, he should have been on a rolling year to year contract and had nothing to do with selecting players to purchase.
DC has since admitted that while he was pushing for mata to be bought instead of downing, KD overruled.
i found many of kenny’s press dealings highly offensive, he acted like a deranged old codger and i for one am glad to see the back of him, at least in the managers office.