I REALLY do not want to be writing this piece. Let me say that first, to get it out of the way.
If I had my way — if we all had our way — Liverpool would be cruising at the top of the league and we would all be huddled together talking about the majesty of Brendan Rodgers and his merry band of men. However, where we find ourselves just five games into the new season is a position quite similar to the one we were in at the end of last season. That is, huddled together whispering quietly (and some of us not so quietly) about how, and if, Rodgers will hang on to his job. And so here I am, writing this piece I do not wish to be writing, adding my voice to the every growing din of whispers around Anfield.
The footballing reasons for sacking or keeping Brendan Rodgers will no doubt be poured over by John Henry, Mike Gordon and the men earning the big bucks in FSG but they would do well, in making the decision, to look slightly beyond just the results on the pitch and trophies in the cabinet. Because a manager, no matter how well his CV reads, is not a Liverpool manager if you cannot imagine his face on a flag in the Kop.
League position, transfer records and commercial potential all matter, but for managers of Liverpool, it’s all about the cult of personality. They have to get ‘it’. And we have to get them.
It all started with Bill Shankly. Everything seems to start with him. Enough has been written about the great man for it to be fairly clear that there was, and still is, the ultimate cult of personality built up around Bill Shankly by Liverpool fans. His hard working, socialist life values and his press-pleasing way with words means that even today, Shankly is a near mythological figure in football, not just at Liverpool. He married his quotability and working class attitude with a happy knack of stock piling trophies for the Reds. The fans didn’t stand a chance. They were swept up in the great man’s wake, drawn in by his alluring charm and captivated by his every move. Such was his impact on the culture of the club that we all today are still in thrall to the cult of Shankly.
Ever since then, Liverpool, more than any club in England, has looked to build a cult of personality around their managers. We look for something in each man, something that can tie them back to Shankly, to where it all began for the Red Empire he built. And if you look closely enough, this is often the intangible that marks a manager out for success or failure with Liverpool.
Following Shankly was, of course, Paisley. While not as outgoing publically as his predecessor, Paisley carried himself with great dignity and had an innate likeability, while at the same time possessing a razor-sharp wit that the Liverpool fans adored. His was a cult awash with even more success than that of Shankly.
A sparkling sense of humour and an air of devilment was not always necessary for fans to turn their Liverpool managers into Messiahs. Kenny Dalglish was adored as manager for the art he created on the pitch more than for anything he said while in the dugout. In the wake of Hillsborough and the toll it took on him, another layer was added to the Dalglish legend; this time as a man of compassion, one as much a part of the club as anyone ever had been.
Rafa Benitez was another not blessed with the silver tongue of Shankly or the homely charm of Paisley. Nor was the football played under his watch particularly exhilarating. The fans idolise Benitez for 15 minutes of magic in Istanbul. Exactly what was said in the bowels of the Attaturk Stadium may never be divulged to us, but enough is known that Rafa will remain one of the most beloved managers in the club’s history. He won a lifetime of devotion the night we won it five times.
In much the same way that the more successful Liverpool managers have been the ones around whom fans can gather to worship and build cults around, those men who have struggled in the job have been similarly difficult to raise onto a plinth for adoration.
The clearest example of this is Roy Hodgson. Appointed at one of the most turbulent times in the club’s history, Hodgson nevertheless failed to carry himself in any manner like a Liverpool manager.
From day one he talked the club down, attempting to lower expectations and goals. While Liverpool has often been a club which got easily carried away and held unrealistic expectations in recent years, Hodgson went completely in the other direction. The wrong direction. He underestimated the importance of projecting confidence as Liverpool manager.
Liverpool FC might not be the biggest club in the world for money, or for likes on Facebook. But they are the biggest club in the world to its fans. And any manager who misjudges that as badly as Hodgson did is doomed to fail, his smallness of ambition rejected by fans who want to live in hope.
And so we finally circle back around to Rodgers. Appointed when he was just 39, Rodgers looked like he had the ideal profile for fans to adore. His cult of personality was easy to construct. He was ambitious, came from (relatively) modest footballing beginnings and he talked a big game, speaking like he knew the job was an important one.
In 2013-14 (forever known as The Year We Nearly Won the League), his budding legend reached fever pitch. The brand of football being played all year was as exhilarating as Anfield had seen since at least Roy Evans’ time, if not before with some citing the game played by the magical 1987-88 side.
The long unbeaten run and a sense of destiny swept all of us along with it and the banners and flags began appearing. “Make us Dream,” read the banner in the Kop, and Rodgers’ side certainly did that.
As the long-awaited title was dangled tantalisingly closer, the cult of Rodgers grew ever more. The memes appeared all over social media. You remember the ones. A picture of Shankly in the background, Rodgers in the foreground and an imagined conversation between them playing out in text form. Bit mad. But we all believed. We all dreamed.
We know what happened next, but it did not greatly diminish the cult of personality around Rodgers, by and large. He still talked his big game and the Kop still dreamed.
Fast forward to the end of last season and Rodgers found himself in a delicate position. A mixed (at best) season saw the positive mask slip and the proclamations Rodgers is so fond of suddenly looked slightly foolish at different intervals.
The final-day 6-1 humiliation at Stoke seemed to leave the writing on the wall for the Northern Irishman. There was a sense Rodgers was on the brink with Jurgen Klopp lurking in the shadows and in the end only a re-jigging (ok, an entire reconstruction) of his back-room team kept the Bostonian wolves from the door.
A summer of rebuilding for the second year in a row has failed to yield immediate results and the same questions asked of Rodgers at the end of the previous campaign are being asked again, this time with added worries over an apparent ebbing away of the identity the manager had tried to cultivate during his three years in charge.
It is not just the on-field identity that has seemed uncertain in recent times. The swagger and confidence of Rodgers, much derided in some circles, seems to appear and disappear week by week. He deals in only the extremes.
When the team are winning, the players (and, indeed, he himself) are world beaters, the best on the planet. When things go wrong, Rodgers engages in fatalism of the highest degree, talking of fearing for his job and appearing as if the weight of the world is on his shoulders.
The only constant, of course, is “character”. It is hard for fans to build an empire on such uncertain foundations, such mood swings and mixed messages do not make for banners and flags with which to adorn the Kop.
As I have said already, FSG will look at far more than fan opinion in making their decision on Rodgers’ future. But behind any decision, be it retaining him or replacing him, the size of personality is a key (albeit possibly intangible and slightly hidden) factor.
FSG may decide to keep faith with Rodgers and they may point to his vision for the future or his relationship with players as the reason.
They may decide to remove him and seek to appoint somebody who more closely matches their philosophy or may be able to attract a different class of player.
Behind all of this though, if you take a moment to look, the success of Rodgers or whoever may follow him could be predicted by how the fans take to him — by how many flags bear his face in the Kop.
Managing Liverpool is, and always has been, a cult of personality.
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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda-Photo
Another great piece of writing, the standard of the TAW shows and the writing has been outstanding recently, every contributor has raised the already high bar, fair play brilliant work.
That’s all very well and romantic but the overarching problem is that the football is bloody awful to watch. Embarrassing even. Records are falling! Conceding six to Barcelona would be shameful but Stoke? Minnows now come to Anfield expecting to win due to Rodger’s predictable, easy to beat, naïve tactics. The only time we look good is when we are behind, desperate, with nothing to lose and the players take matters into their own hands and start playing properly.
Can’t stand the Owl myself, but you’ve got to acknowledge the “lowering of expectations” comment now. He was right. People are shitting themselves over Norwich for fuck sake. That didn’t happen overnight. Expectations well and truly lowered.
When rival fans are desperate for you to keep the incumbent, and the media gives him an easy ride, you know your club has a Moyes in situ.
Bob was a true gent. No bullshit, or salesmanshit that we saw. I wonder what he was like with players that couldn’t be bothered like a number of our current lot.
We often get derided for being “deluded”. Fuck me I hate that word and how it’s become the go to buzz word when one club fan insults another. “Brenda plays the history card and the scousers lap it up” (what kind of self respecting human thinks calling Brendan Brenda is funny!)
So what if we do, we love our history and for me anyway I want our manager to acknowledge it, to understand what it means to be a manager of Liverpool Football Club.
Yeah we may get grief over it but sure we get grief over everything, for a club who is constantly told we’re washed up has beens we seem to occupy a large portion of rival fans brains. Clubs up and down the country singing about Stevie slipping is testament to this.
A cult of personality?? Too fucking right, wouldn’t have it any other way.
Don’t forget Roy Evans and Joe Fagan in that list.The thing they all had in common was humility and decency.It was never about them;always about the team.
It’s probably a Scouse thing but we’ve never been into people “bigging” themselves up.Sadly for Brendan and Hodgson their personalities seem to be over burdened with that particular trait.
And remember they all had bad runs in their time but somehow managed to convey the right responses to the fans.Bob Paisley called the team “Playboys and fly by nights” after a bad run once.Managing to convey to supporters that he wasn’t going to put up with it.
Contrast that with Brendan’s responses to recent results and performances when he talks about players will get used to his philosophy in time and everything will be alright.
He’s quoted this morning as saying similar things again.
Trouble is he’s beginning to sound like a man trying sell conservatories for touring caravans.
so you want a top class manager who doesn’t big himself up? Kinda narrowing the options there…
Thanks for that Alex.I’ll try to make it clearer next time.
Although ultimately all roads lead to a rejuvenated successful team and a vibrant passionate and pulsating Anfield which this manager HAS shown to be well within his capabilities to achieve, I can’t help thinking that Rogers lacks the strength of his own convictions which causes the pressure therefore he then loses his own beliefs and identity which transmits to his players. And this will ultimately result in his down fall.
The transfer committee saga has caused him most problems and he only has himself to blame here because he initially rejected the clubs 1st approach on the principle of maintaining control of transfers and yet he eventually accepted the job with a more restrictive position in terms of controlling transfers.
This has been Brendan’s biggest X to bear and sadly it appears he has, as with so many other past failing managers before him, got himself entrenched with in house political struggles which they were never to win no matter what, unless they began dealing with the Big Cheeses, as they meant to carry on. The reasoning I say this is because when you think of Thursday’s Bordeaux game, To not have players such as Llori, Markovic and even Wisdom at his disposal for this and other tournaments through his own making, I’m afraid to say is gross negligence and incompetence and as such decision making clearly make little or no sense in terms of keeping the best young players for the club’s cause during a demanding season, especially for the money that has been spent. Critically it also creates a malaise and discontentment with the players who maybe like the vast majority of supporters are confused and can’t see the reasoning in such decisions, and with this you begin to lose the belief and trust of your playing staff which ultimately leads to the end game. Unfortunately.
He’s not at the end game yet but even Brendan must realise it’s not looking good. Rogers is probably going to join Benitez Houlier in terms of egotistical non playing managers who achieved because of that mental strength, who however let that strength become their weakness and emerge as pig headed stubbornness and an inflexible rigid stance, and would not allow them to admit to themselves they were wrong, when the clamour of public opinion especially amongst the fans was indeed a friendly warning to be heeded. If they would have listened and looked in the mirror and adjusted their stance then just maybe they would have lived to manage another day.
Brendan needs to take aong hard look at himself and the clubs followers and decide what the clubs priorities are. which he has full control of in his hands, and make the right call before it’s too late.
As a great man once said “football is over complicated by idiots” Simples. YNWA. Keep Calm And Focused
I think you’ll find that Rafa is doing just fine with his pig headedness at one of the biggest clubs in the world. But dont let his 2 spanish titles, FA cup, Champions League and Super cups stop you from comparing him with a manager who “won” a lower division playoff. By the way Houllier won a Europa Cup, FA Cup, Carling cup too but again dont let that stop you from placing him in the same managerial class as Rodgers.
All managers are stubborn with massive egos, some know how to win and some dont from the records of the three managers you mentioned I think you can tell which camp Rodgers falls into.
Very few of Liverpool managers have been bullshit back page fodder. Paisley was a very humble man who never bragged or boasted about what he had done or would do. Rodgers is Ron Atkinson minus the occasional pot that Fatko somehow contrived to win
Bill Shankly. He truly had us at “Hello”
Haha that picture of Hodgson has tickled me for some reason.