I REMEMBER one of the first appraisals that I ever had, back in the days when business moved from, ‘Look, you’re doing well, keep doing it’ or ‘You’re a bit shit at the moment, sort it out’ to actual targeted aims, KPIs and SMART measures. When all the fun went from it basically. (Yes, yes, it was all much more complicated than that really but when have you known me to not generalise wildly in the hope of making a point?).
First appraisal under a new regime. Four hours. Four hours. I was running a stockroom. Now, admittedly some of that time involved cups of tea and perhaps a ciggie — not me, clean living lad, me — and a lot of it involved discussion of the finer points of The Style Council’s catalogue. Hey, we were in a record shop, what did you think we spent our time talking about? But still. Four hours. I’ve had meetings with lads with very little responsibility that lasted two quite easily.
Brendan’s had his review. A two or three hour meeting depending on what reports you read. Now, I’m not being funny and I’m sure that Michael Gordon (below) — now that we’ve all been made aware of who he is — is a real ‘go ahead, straight to the point, sharp, absolutely incisive’ kind of guy but…three hours? Really? You can review ALL of last season in three hours? Or two?
I was on the podcast the Monday after the Stoke horror show with Neil, Gareth and James Sutton; we did an hour on the 6-1 alone. An hour where we pulled the whole thing apart and demanded change, immediate change, necessary change. An hour and I, for one, was only just getting warmed up. Could have gone on for days. The level of fume I was reaching was almost unprecedented. Yes, we’ll come back to the podcast in a minute, we’ll talk knee jerks. I’m good at knee jerks. Knee jerks and volte faces — my specialties.
Thing is: If we can do an hour on one game — and TAW Player does way more than an hour per game, Pink, Tuesday Review (I love going on the Tuesday Review, it’s like school for football), Unwrapped, all the bits that pull apart the issues and do the whole forensic thing on them. Three hours a week, minimum. End of season review; three hours.
Which may indicate two things:
One — FSG are a lot stupider than we think, are a lot more cavalier than we think and are the Twitter crowd’s worst fear made flesh; too proud to sack their own man in case it looks as though they don’t know what they’re doing.
Or two — FSG are a damn sight more clued up than we think and have actually been reviewing Brendan’s position every week all season in a cold, hard, business version of what every fan on the planet is doing but with more access to things like actual facts.
Perhaps the fact that the review was so short was because they know exactly what went wrong and exactly what they intend to do about it. It may be that Brendan’s job has never been in any danger at all. Then again, it may be that he’s still got a job because Klopp wants a year off, Ancellotti fancies Italy, De Boer is happy where he is and Rafa was never really an option.
Maybe Brendan’s safe because FSG can’t guarantee a change would improve the club more than supporting the guy that’s already there. As risk averse strategies go, you can’t really argue too much with that can you? Not even when you’ve sat in a studio the day after the worst defeat in your lifetime (I’m 51 and it’s the worst defeat of MY lifetime so that’s pretty damning on the whole, being really old and all that) and vented.
Which brings us back to the podcast. ‘I can’t see any way that he can stay’, ‘It’s time to go, he’s looked like a dead man walking for months’, ‘he’s lost the players’, no-one knows what they’re supposed to be doing’, ‘his head’s gone’ and all other variations of the above. All said by me. With swearing. And fury.
I’d moved into the Klopp camp, moved to be very publicly anti-Brendan. And I wasn’t alone. Wasn’t alone in the room, wasn’t alone in the pub after the Palace game, wasn’t alone in the online polls that said 80 per cent of us wanted our manager out. We’ve wanted our manager out before and it’s happened. I don’t think there’s ever been a point where we’ve wanted our manager gone this much and had to watch that manager recover from it. Everton have, United have, Kendall’s house being paint bombed, the Mancs wanting Fergie gone…both sets of supporters ultimately happy to be so wrong.
This then, this is where we find out exactly what Brendan’s made of. This is where we see if he’s capable of coming back against the most ridiculous of odds. I know we’re fickle creatures but he’s going to have to give us the Suarez season all over again next year if he’s going to win us back. It’s going to take one hell of a statement of intent from day one of next season for us to start claiming that ‘Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool’ are on ‘their way to glory’, for us to compare him to Shankly again. If he can do that, then he’s a hell of a man and he deserves every bit of praise that he can be given.
Statements of intent though: a big transfer would be nice. And we’re back to podcasts and me and my big gob. ‘Yeah, I can see that having Benteke and Ings and Origi is decent but only if they’re numbers three four and five in your list of strikers with Sturridge at number two and somebody BIG, somebody that has a big reputation, that scores BIG goals, that scores LOTS of big goals is at number one. A Lacazette, let’s say. A name, a — God help me, I don’t want to say this but let’s do it — ‘marquee’ signing.’
All this on the Unwrapped show when we talked about strikers and nothing’s changed, it all still looks as though we’ll start the season with an injured Sturridge plus Benteke, Ings and Origi. We may even still have Mario. We’ll probably get to the 1st of September and find Fabio’s still hanging round. ‘Milner’, I said, ‘Milner’s okay, he’s a good player, a good pro but I can’t see him as anything more than a squad player, it’s not an ‘exciting’ signing.’
So, this is where we are; we’re going to start next season with manger that many of us didn’t want any longer, with new signings that don’t seem to be of the calibre that we demanded and with the owners still taking an approach to the business that we don’t agree with.
Unless tomorrow’s papers tell us something different and we find we’re managed by Frank De Boer and he’s bought Lacazette and Kovacic or unless Ancelotti’s has turned down a return to Milan while I’ve been writing this — what’s that? He has? Look, I’m not rewriting the whole bloody thing now. Things change quickly BUT if we are starting next season the way most of think we are, the way many of us fear that we are then what do we do?
We do the obvious. We get behind the 11 lads running round in red (or black or hopefully that nice new white shirt that leaked the other day) from the first second of the season.
We forget contract talks, forget how poor the last few months have been, forget the disappointments and start again. We don’t have any choice really, it’s what we do.
Liverpool is always Liverpool and we’re always us so we get behind them and we hope that there’s a lot of names on this list that are ready to prove to us that a lot of us haven’t got a clue what we’re talking about.
And if they do?
I’ll be more than happy if the world thinks I know bugger all.
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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda
The profits are going in the right direction. They care not one jot about the club, its sporting aspirations or you the supporter. They probably don’t give a shit about you the customer, as unlike customers of other franchises, like McDonalds, you can’t switch to Big Kahuna Burger. But you can raise banners. Put Bill board posters up. And boycott until this shower sell up.
Unfortunately Ian you are spot on. Sometimes it’s painful to have knowledge
What profits? The club is only now getting to the point where it breaks even and FSG have not taken a penny out of the club.
If FSG are focused on profit, that profit will only be achieved when they sell up. The price they get when they sell will reflect the standing of LFC at that time and the revenue of the club at the time. They have every incentive to try and bring success to Liverpool, and no incentive to settle for mid-table mediocrity.
Now, I’m not being funny and I’m sure that Michael Gordon — now that we’ve all been made aware of who he is — is a real ‘go ahead, straight to the point, sharp, absolutely incisive’ kind of guy but … three hours?
Or maybe Gordon is super stubborn and Rodgers is safe, for now, because Gordon wants to prove he’s the smartest guy in the room.
Or two — FSG are a damn sight more clued up than we think and have actually been reviewing Brendan’s position every week all season in a cold, hard, business version of what every fan on the planet is doing but with more access to things like actual facts.
Weren’t there rumors that BR was in trouble right around Christmas? Before the mid-season run? I’m not saying all their facts are worth a crap. Just that they’re paying attention to a certain extent. They’re not really absentee owners.
Maybe they didn’t need a load of time because if you listen to Brendan’s press conferences he has stated several times he is in constant contact with the owners and other people at the club. So they wont be reviewing all of the past season but probably rather going over what can be done differently next season. So i don’t know why everyone thinks everything has been saved up for this one review when they must of had constant phone meetings through out the season.
John, how dare you say something absolutely reasonable and probably 100% spot on in the face of so much fume? Few people are interested in what is abundantly likely to be the truth in what you have written. No, they’d rather hurl spitting bombs of outrageous speculation and accusations of ignorance and greed at the Owners, and of ‘arrogance’ and ‘stubbornness’ at the manager.
Brendan says a lot in a reasonable attempt to politely and calmly answer questions during pressers, but it’s astonishing how so many important things he has said have somehow managed to go unnoticed or ignored, while other things arouse heated and intensely negative emotions.
It also astonishes me how few people seem to understand how a professional management group like FSG and a business (yes, that is what it is!) like Liverpool Football Club actually operate. I guess many of our fans have no experience working for firms that have a corporate structure. I guess they don’t understand how multi-million Pound, multi-year contracts are negotiated and made legally binding; how potential conflicts of interest are resolved; how a committee operates and interacts with executive and management and coaching staff; how human resource issues are handled for squad and staff; how training and travel schedules and logistics are managed; how to read and evaluate a balance sheet; how to interface with contractors for a major stadium expansion; how hundreds of thousands of tickets are sold and accurately processed over the season; etc. etc. — in other words, how bloody incredibly complicated it is to run a top-flight football club!
Mike Gordon is the 2nd biggest FSG shareholder next to JWH. He has boots on the ground in London and Liverpool and is involved in the day-to-day operations of the club, in constant communication with the committee and the management. He is a quiet guy, has probably been at many Anfield games without being noticed. He is also purportedly HIGHLY knowledgable about football. But some fans prefer in their arrogance to think nobody could possibly know as much about the game as they do.
Where I work my manager is required to have frequent ‘coaching’ discussions regarding my performance throughout the year. Then once each year there’s a more formal evaluation. But because I am in near-daily contact with my manager throughout the year, the formal assessment is just a relatively brief annual wrap-up session to discuss goals and objectives for the coming year. This is the model followed in many mid- to large-size businesses that have a corporate structure. And it is no doubt what happened recently in the post-season review that Brendan participated in with Mike Gordon and Tom Werner, followed up afterward with a conversation with John Henry.
These are grown men, highly professional in their operational roles. It is not like getting called into the headmaster’s office and having one’s hand slapped with a ruler and told to write “I will do better next year” a few thousand times on the blackboard before being sent to bed without tea and told you can’t go to the match with your mates on Saturday until your grades improve.
But, heavens, we mustn’t let actual reality get in the way of despising the man because he’s intelligent and has a good dentist and an attractive companion. Bring on the fume! It’s much more engaging and invigorating than facts ever will be.
What does Mike Gordon or Tom Werner know about FOOTBALL???
Not the business side of things but actually football.
I think we can agree very little. So how are they qualified to conduct a review on the football side of things??
do you love him? is mike gordon your boyfriend?
How can there be a valid review of the footballing season when the most knowledgable person about football at the club is the subject of the review?????????
WE want to win the league but we are the only team that has genuine league title winning aspirations that as the same manager for 3 years, who hasnt won anything in that time or at any time in his career.
Compare that to other teams and then you see that FSG do not care about winning.
Hence keep BR, save money and wait until he either
A) completely shits himself
B) runs out of contract.
James Milner becomes the second best mid on this team. Sad but true. He’s only bettered by brilliant Phil, or in form hendo otherwise he’s the best
The Ferguson comparisons need to stop. He was basically the Mourinho of his day before he went to the Mancs coz of what he did at Aberdeen. Man Utd backed him in spite of all that with good reasons. Rodgers’ situation is completely different, but it will not stop the lazy fans with their lazy throwaway “oh but Fergie was shite” lines
Who the fucking hell is this Michael Gordon when he’s at home and why am I reading his name everywhere? If he’s yet another fella who’s seemingly not that bothered about signing someone who can get on the end of Coutinho through balls and finish 20-odd times next season, I don’t want to know him.