Following the calamitous defeat at the hands of Wolves, Liverpool fans across the globe were all expecting for Hodgson to be relieved of his duties, an obvious conclusion to a short reign which has seen Roy scrutinized meticulously and rightly so by the red half of Merseyside and not only. Such a decision has yet to be taken by the new owners of Liverpool FC and one can only comprehend that it’s a tough call for Mr Henry and company to organise a conference call asking for Roy to be axed without first certain who is to take up the role of manager, care-taker or not, for the hectic second half of the season. It is now pretty obvious that prior to the Wolves defeat, NESV were still more or less backing Hodgson for the job. Matters took a different twist on Wednesday night as the Anfield faithful booed in numbers and chanted the name of King Kenny. NESV will now know that the relationship between fans and manager was effectively and permanently broken on Wednesday (rubber stamped by Hodgson himself after his post-match remarks about ‘fans’ and ‘supporters’) so the manager replacement machine must have certainly been put into full swing. It is now just a question of when and who will be given the mammoth task of shaping up the reds to be title contenders for years to come.
The news headlines yesterday, New Year’s Eve, highlighted how Hodgson is now expressing regret over his post match remarks where he callously speaks about the lack of support offered by Liverpool fans ever since his appointment, a factor which has irked Roy from day one. Truth be told, the ludicrous, spiteful treatment by some fans with the sole intention of attacking the man rather than his tactics is something I am not proud of as a Liverpool fanatic, but I will underline that Roy must fully accept that the constructive criticism has all been justified and rarely, if ever, addressed. There have been too many instances where Roy has left us fans scratching our heads in disbelief. Such moments fall under three categories, that is, tactics, transfer, and interviews. The intent is not to go through the many abnormal statements as this has been covered many times by colleagues on this and other sites.
Roy must come forward and admit that his tenure has been lacklustre, amateurish and laid-back. Roy must surely know that Liverpool is a club in need of a good league placing, the club’s requirement is to be in the Champions League and the requirement needs to be satisfied this season – full stop. The league is made more difficult nowadays because expectations have risen not just for the usual top four but for a number of other clubs and Liverpool FC, in the space of one year have slipped behind at a terribly fast pace. One may argue that this is not Roy’s fault but we simply have to accept that he is limited in what he can achieve in the short term. This is why Hodgson must be the first to come forward and hand in his resignation; nothing personal. The club is in a state where, yes, a magic wand needs to be waved. The point now is to unearth the right person to do this. I accept the feat is arduous but something needs to be done, someone needs to take the bull by its horns and fast. It’s all about finding the right individual. Moments such as these define those few who can turn a nightmare situation into a dream-come-true.
The person who will take over Roy (now a certainty, no longer a probability) will have to induce drive, motivation, ambition and bring back that Liverpool arrogance missing since the seemingly distant thrashings of Madrid and Man. Utd. The obvious scenario is to hand the job to Kenny Dalglish, nevermind his long absence from football management. Kenny has been in the shadows monitoring happenings at Anfield and will know what is required to take the reds to better levels, I am pretty confident. He was rejected the first time during a period of tremendous instability. He will now be even more fired up to do what’s best for the club he so much adores. NESV will know that sacking Roy carries a financial penalty but that’s a small price to pay if the three pillars of a football club – the team, the fans and the manager – are given an injection of structural stability. The season is not over yet and the team can be dragged on to go on a good run, I believe without particular new additions in January. The Bolton game will probably be Hodgson’s last or penultimate game (given the fixture pile up) and I can imagine the papers are nearly ready for the new man to scribble his signature on and get down to doing what others have failed to do, and that is to lift the reds out of obscurity.
See you next time.