Kenny Dalglish leaves a rudderless Liverpool
Liverpool football club are looking for a new manager after Kenny Dalglish left the club for the second time. The manager didn’t leave by mutual consent and didn’t resign, he was sacked.
In a statement, current owners FSG said:
Fenway Sports Group (FSG) and Liverpool Football Club announced that Kenny Dalglish is to leave his post today as Manager after having his contract terminated.
After a careful and deliberative review of the season, the Club came to the decision that a change was appropriate. It is not a decision that was reached lightly or hastily.
The search for a new Manager will begin immediately.
The statement continued with some hollow words of a corporate nature, before including some words from Kenny:
Dalglish said he is proud to have served such a great Club.
“It has been an honour and a privilege to have had the chance to come back to Liverpool Football Club as Manager. I greatly appreciate the work that Steve, Kevin, the players and all of the staff put in during my time and feel proud that we delivered the Club’s first trophy in six years winning the Carling Cup and came close to a second trophy in the FA Cup Final. Of course I am disappointed with results in the league, but I would not have swapped the Carling Cup win for anything as I know how much it meant to our fans and the Club to be back winning trophies.
“Whilst I am obviously disappointed to be leaving the football club, I can say that the matter has been handled by the owners and all concerned in an honourable, respectful and dignified way and reflects on the quality of the people involved and their continued desire to move the football club forward in the same way as when they arrived here.
“I would like to thank all of the staff at the Club for their effort and loyalty. I said when first approached about coming back as Manager that I would always be of help if I can at any time and that offer remains the same.
“Finally, I want to put on record my heartfelt gratitude to Liverpool’s fans, who have always given me and the Club their unwavering support. Without them neither the Club nor I would have achieved anything.”
Dalglish had been manager for 18 months since coming in to replace Roy Hodgson, whose six months in charge had seen Liverpool looking in serious threat of relegation. Dalglish won the Carling Cup in his first – and only – full season back as well as getting the Reds to Wembley for another final, his side coming runners-up in the FA Cup to Chelsea. Liverpool’s league season seemed to come to a halt soon after that Carling Cup win – with European football assured and Champions League football out of reach Liverpool struggled in the league and eventually finished eighth.
It’s less than two years since Rafael Benitez left the club (officially by ‘mutual consent’), The club, then owned by Tom Hicks and George Gillett but being run, effectively on behalf of the banks by Martin Broughton and Christian Purslow, brought in Roy Hodgson, who lasted six months before the real threat of relegation saw him moved out. Hodgson is now England manager.
Worryingly, although it may only be corporate-speak, FSG’s statement suggests they haven’t even started looking for a new manager.
The Reds are run by owners who rarely visit the UK and the club is now without a Chief Executive, a Director of Football, a Director of Communications, a Manager and the new stadium it has been waiting for since the early years of this millennium.
Sacking the manager does not cure all the ills at Anfield, even if it distracts from them, and FSG have a massive task in front of them now if they are to retain the goodwill of supporters they have benefited from so far.
I think relieving Daglish was a good move. The league position wasn’t good enough, and there has been many performances which made me a worried Liverpool fan. When a team is losing and the manager doesn’t make a change until 70+ minutes it shows they are not tactically good enough, and that is also proven by only coming back to win from a losing position once this season. Kenny should always have a role at the club, and we are very grateful for steadying the ship and putting us in a position were we can progress. For now, I don’t know who we can get as manager. I think the owners will go for a young manager like Paul Lambert or Martinez. But will we end up like Chelsea and Villas Boas? Neither of these managers have had a season were they have won over 50% of there games. Not proven managers are a worry. Personally, I’d bring Benitez back. Although there’s a split opinion amongst Liverpool fans, he did lead us to champions league glory and a record amount of premier league points in a season, and although working in a sell-buy transfer market, he still managed to lure Reina, Torres, Alonso, Garcia, Mascherano etc. Imagine what he will do when given 20mill and can let go a lot of our dead weight.
Well done Alex, you obviously weren’t watching very closely when Benitez was manager.
Obviously we all feel for Kenny but when you say:
‘The statement continued with some hollow words of a corporate nature, before including some words from Kenny:’
they actually said,
‘Kenny will always be more than a championship winning manager, more than a championship winning star player. He is in many ways the heart and soul of the club. He personifies everything that is good about Liverpool Football Club. He has always put the Club and its supporters first. Kenny will always be a part of the family at Anfield.’
and
‘Kenny came into the Club as Manager at our request at a time when Liverpool Football Club really needed him. He didn’t ask to be Manager; he was asked to assume the role. He did so because he knew the Club needed him. He did more than anyone else to stabilize Liverpool over the past year-and-a-half and to get us once again looking forward. We owe him a great debt of gratitude.’
So please try to be a bit balanced.
I think they’ve made the right decision even though as a fan for over 40 years, Kenny is an idol to me. But this season has been a disaster on and off the field. Does anyone really prefer the Carling Cup to CL football next season? How can we attract top players when we’re playing in the UEFA? Time to move on.
Thanks KK, YNWA
Nice one Mark, please have enough respect though not to finish with YNWA as you obviously don’t have a clue of the meaning of that statement or the song.
Liverpool Football Club RIP.
Mid-table franchise here me come.
What a disgrace
@joe very much agree with you that some of the fans nowadays have no idea what YNWA means. as things are, when we have a owner who has shown us that he knows nothing about the club, and what kenny means to the club, my love for the club has died.
If LFC is really in your heart, your love for the club will never die. Remember we LFC is the only club with the word “NEVER” in our motto. So “NEVER” let your Liverpool Spirit die.
Firstly, I don’t agree with the sacking of Dalglish. Liverpool have never been (but obviously now are) a club that hire and fire managers without at least attempting to create some form of continuity.
The league season – as I’ve stated previously on here – was completely unacceptable and he deserves criticism for the results.
But we won a trophy.
We were also two centimetres away from equalising with Chelsea in the FA Cup Final, with all the momentum that would have brought. Very hypothetical this, some would say pointless, but if that ball had crossed the line then Kenny could today be safe and sound planning a new season. This introduces an element of fickleness with the decision.
Just ask yourself this, would he have been even remotely close to the sack if we had won the cup? Absolutely no chance. Well we were only one game away from that happening.
The most frightening thing for me is the plethora of unproven managers being linked with the club.
Roberto Martinez – his main achievement? Keeping a very small club in the premier league. No trophies.
Roberto Di Matteo? I can’t even be bothered with that one.
Rafa? Thought it was a mistake to go backwards? That was the accusation when we appointed Kenny anyway.
Make no mistake, this is the biggest managerial appointment since Shankly in 1959. We are on the cusp of being a club that consistently finishes in the upper echelons of the league, but given the vast resources of those above us in the league, if we get this appointment wrong then we can expect eternal mediocrity.
What terrifies me is this: who is making the decision? Do the people making this decision know the game more than your average die hard LFC fan? What if the owners think along the same lines as Randy Lerner and make an appointment as stupid as his in Alex McLeish?
Now that we are in this mess, we should aim big and go for someone like Pep Guardiola. Yes he has said he wants to take a break from football but he might be interested in taking on a big challenge and restoring a MASSIVE club to former glories.
I’ll say it again: this appointment is incredibly important. I just hope the owners are well informed in their decision.
Well said Antlfc. And as Loyalty obviously will not be a key factor in the future of the Liverpool franchise, If FSG don’t achieve our goals within another 12 months, ie. progress of the Stadium front, & their appointment getting top 4 minimum, then I think that they should be shown the same level of loyalty from real fans & move on & sell to someone who can. YNWA is more than just a song Mr Henry, remember that.
Ok lads, Deep breath, breathe……. Unfortunately we live in a world where the reality of business and the emotions of football clash and this will always be the case. Clubs CANNOT be successful without the funds and the fans demand trophies, wins, CL places and the list goes on and on.
We have to be balanced here and try to look for a positive. Yes we are not doing so well, yes we are sick and yes the new owners have an uphill battle. At the end of the day they run the ‘off field’ business and the kit deal, the sponsors etc are in pretty good shape. On field it is the manager, his team and also without doubt, the players. Many of them need to take a long hard look at themselves and ask ‘did I let KK down’
We know the answer. If any of us were doing our job to the level that was achieved this season then we would be having an interesting chat with our bosses. Football is no different and sad to say probably more demanding than our jobs because success is everything. Was is Shanks who said ‘2nd is nowhere?’
KK has done us proud and put some spirit and belief back into ‘our’ ways. He has not performed (Carling Cup…really lads..it is a nice day out) so a business decision is made. Read any blog on any of the 000’s of Liverpool sites and the fans are not happy on so many fronts and have not been for a while. We have blind faith for our legend but really in this sad age it is not enough. We demand demand demand so we also bear some of the blame.
We need to understand that FSG inherited a mess and it was NEVER going to be sorted within a short period. We have to now group together and find some trust that the right thing will be done, whatever that is. FSG are no mugs, trust me on that!
i love my team, I love KK and I love the fantastic times I have had with my only club BUT we need a change and we would be screaming from the rooftops IF it carried on this way. I don’t subscribe to the ‘give it to January’ brigade. if the decision HAD to be made then it was made and I think that is the best thing. Onwards and upwards.
I believe in YNWA and KK will never have to. He is our legend and has set us up for the next of several stages to get us back to where we all belong.
🙂
Skips
You’re presuming it will be better under a new foreign manager next year. The chances of that are actually very slim.
Oh! Come on Jim,It’s time to let it go! Why should Kenny Dalglish have to be subjected to this? He is,and always will be, a Legend!
He was was getting more and more frustrated with the media;he had many problems to deal with apart from Suarezgate and the signings.
So,people don’t recognise this?So what?He walks with his dignity intact!
Circumstances contrived against him.And sentiment gets the better part of me most of the time! But I’d rather he walked away now!
And a little part of my love for Liverpool died today!
AVB !!!! Class!! Welcome to the relegation battle & the Championship!! & you thought H&G were bad. At least it was obvious what they were. Are there any Liverpool fans left out there at all or does nobody care anymore. Are you seriously going to stand by while Kenny Dalglish is replaced with this idiot. Come on!! just remember the abuse of Cecil & Roy.
It now seems that finishing in a CL place trumps winning trophies. I hope we dont think Arsenal’s ‘success’ is the blueprint for the future of our gloriously successful club.
Any manager or club even needs a couple of years of progress before mounting a title challenge or even a CL place challenge. Both Rafa and Ged took around 4 seasons to finish as runners up yet it seems we expect it to happen in one with a net spend of around £25 million.
The departure speech of King Kenny was utter class,like everything he’s ever done at Liverpool and although the word ‘legend’ is grossly overused in today’s game,Kenny Dalglish is the epitome of the word itself.
Many thanks Kenny,you will always be the king.
Ian Ayre said Kenny was sacked because we didn’t qualify for the Champions League and would have been sacked even if he had won both Cups.
I’ve always thought Kenny was brought in rebuild the team which has not been good enough to get into the Champions league for several seasons now and still isn’t.
This brings a question into my mind, was Kenny made aware when he signed his four year contract that him seeing the four years out was dependent on him qualiying for the Champions League in his first season when he was just begining to rebuild the team.
Kenny knew more than anyone he didn’t have an easy task on his hands but would he have laid himself on the line had he known what the condition was of his continuance as Liverpool manger?.
Kenny loves the club and wouldn’t say or do anything that he may think would harm it, but to my mind something stinks here. I no longer trust John Henry or FSG and if their bottom line is that qualiyfing for the Champions League every season then we’re going to go through a lot of managers and end up like Wolves.