Ah you got me there. Anyway since all the focus was on who'd be boss, thought I'd do some thinking on who'd make a good no.2? Gary Mac and Babbel are two former Reds who the fans like and who have coaching experience. Didi Hamann is the other. As a player, he was a superb reader of the game, and unlike Masch, was able to anticipate play better hence why he hardly had to go lunging in.

I'm not sure he wasn't backed properly at Chelsea. Unlike Scolari, he was given the go ahead to bring in his kind  of players and he brought in Mata, Ramires and Meireles. And he also bought Cahill as a backup. And he had Torres on the bench as well. How many managers are afforded such luxury ? I think he made a mistake of not pursuing Modric and opting for Meireles instead. You simply can't start phasing out players like Lampard when his replacement is someone like Meireles lol. That's just asking for trouble.

Ah right. It was Lukaku wasn't it ? Or did he also sign the season before ? I wonder how much they all cost, those are class signings to be honest.

It's pretty naive that some of our fans who wanted Kenny out, would expect replacements with the calibre of Guadiorla or Morinho. Now that the chances of Martinez getting the Anfield managerial role are very high, I wonder the want-Kenny-out gang will be sorry fo what they wish for.

Reds consider Brendan Rodgers
May 18, 2012
By Harry Harris, Football Correspondent

ESPN understands Liverpool have made a formal approach to Swansea City over holding talks with their manager Brendan Rodgers.

Liverpool are in the process of identifying a replacement for Kenny Dalglish after they sacked the Scot on Wednesday following a poor Premier League season.

Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan confirmed on Thursday that he has granted the Reds permission to have discussions with boss Roberto Martinez, who guided the Latics to top flight survival this campaign.

Promising coach Rodgers has also been targeted, after he enjoyed an impressive debut term as Swansea's style of football received numerous plaudits.

The Reds, though, have a shortlist of as many as ten names, with Borussia Dortmund's Jurgen Klopp and Marseille's Didier Deschamp among those reported to be potential candidates.

Former England manager Fabio Capello has also been mentioned, but it is understood the Italian favours Chelsea, who are yet to appoint a permanent successor to Andre Villas-Boas - with Roberto Di Matteo currently in interim charge.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/...rodgers?cc=4716

Liverpool FC sacking Kenny Dalglish was right move to let owners realise vision for club, says Ian Ayre

IAN AYRE insists the sacking of Kenny Dalglish was necessary to enable Fenway Sports Group to realise their vision for Liverpool FC.

The Reds’ managing director has leapt to the owners’ defence in the face of criticism from supporters following the end of Dalglish’s 16-month reign on Wednesday.

Ayre revealed not even winning the FA Cup would have saved the Anfield legend as the club’s lowly eighth-placed finish in the Premier League ultimately made terminating his contract “a very simple decision” by FSG, who had targeted Champions League qualification.

He also dismissed talk of a crisis following the recent departure of so many high-profile officials which has left Liverpool with no manager, no director of football, no head of sports science, no commercial director and no head of communications.

Ayre, whose own future is secure after recently penning a new contract, says the cull is over and plans are well advanced to install a new structure at Anfield.

The search for the Reds’ fourth manager in two years is gathering pace and various other appointments will be confirmed by the end of the month.

“There are no plans to fire anyone else,” Ayre confirmed. “It was just part of a process. It is all part of wanting to get it right. The natural break point is at the end of a season. That is the time when you take stock of what people have achieved or what they haven’t achieved within a period.

“This view that there is a crisis and everyone is leaving is wrong, it’s just a time based thing. When anyone leaves you have to go through the process of finding a replacement and moving forward.

“It’s fair to say we are fairly imminent on a lot of positions that have exited. What you will see over the next two weeks is those new people arriving and a momentum of going forward.

“There will be new people arriving with new energy and new initiatives. For all the negativity that has existed in the last six to eight weeks, you will see a lot of positivity around the new appointments with their experience and what they will deliver.”

Director of football Damien Comolli, who was dismissed last month, won’t be directly replaced. FSG have come to the conclusion that his job, overseeing travel, medical care, scouting, player analysis and recruitment, was too wide-ranging. Instead those duties will be spread out and a number of new roles created.

Internal candidates are also being considered and could lead to more senior positions for highly-respected Academy duo Pep Segura and Rodolfo Borrell.

“The idea is rather than one person being responsible for all the elements Damien’s role took on, we will divide up the responsibilities,” Ayre said. “We will have a slightly different structure so there will be two or three positions within that. Running a big football club is a big challenge. It’s evident we need to focus on each area with a specialist who will deliver value in each area.”

The manager’s role will also change. FSG want Dalglish’s successor to be devoted solely to coaching, although he will still have the final say on signings. That kind of model rules out any possible return to the Anfield hot-seat for former manager Rafa Benitez.

Ayre says lessons have been learned from the damaging Luis Suarez-Patrice Evra race row which Dalglish was left to deal with publicly. The Scot was heavily criticised for his fierce defence of the striker in the wake of the FA’s guilty verdict.

“The model has always been developing and the plan has evolved,” Ayre said.

“As is always the case when you have a difficult situation, it highlights the shortcomings and issues around certain areas. Did we learn from the Suarez thing? Did we get some things wrong? Of course.

“But you move on. The important thing is you take the things that you get wrong and build to not get those things wrong again.

“I wouldn’t go as far as to say the manager’s job will only be a training ground role but absolutely the idea is to create a structure so that the manager doesn’t need to focus on too much else.

“You want the manager to be focused on getting the best out of his team. But what it absolutely isn’t about is bringing players in without the manager’s input.

“In the past a manager would be going to look at 20 or 30 different games just to find one player. Whereas with the right structure someone lines all of that up and the manager is just going to the final interview.

“We are trying to create as much resource and expertise in all the areas that serve the manager and the team rather than having one or two people trying to achieve everything. We not looking to copy any other club. It will have Liverpool’s own stamp and structure on it.”

Ayre will be handed more responsibility himself running the club on a day to day basis, while a new commercial chief, replacing Graham Bartlett who left in March, will be brought in to assist the MD.

“I’m the person here responsible for running the football club. I welcome that challenge and I’ll do the best job I can do,” Ayre said.

“What’s important is we’ve got the right structure to run the club in the right way. One of the announcements we will make in the next week or so will be about someone working with me to continue delivering the important revenue streams.

“We’ve done very well in growing our revenue in the last four or five years but it’s important to keep building on it.”

It was revenue streams which ultimately proved Dalglish’s undoing. Despite winning the Carling Cup and reaching the FA Cup final, the Reds’ failure to finish in the top four in the Premier League meant the club missed out on a potential windfall of around £40million from Champions League qualification.

“It was a very simple decision based on results and did we believe that was going to change,” Ayre said. “To be 37 points off the winner, 17 points off fourth, 14 losses…..

“Winning the FA Cup wouldn’t have made any difference – it was never about an individual result. It was always about taking a review of the season in full.

“The Carling Cup and The FA Cup don’t generate the revenue and the success that is needed to keep investing. If you want to be successful, you have got to keep investing. People don’t want to hear that football is a business. They want to see us put lots of money into the football team and win lots of trophies and games.

“But you have got to have both. You have got to have continued progress in the league. If you don’t do well in the league and you don’t get into the Champions League, you are writing cheques from your own pocket, aren’t you? That is not a sustainable way going forward.

“Kenny said publicly he thought it had been handled with dignity. Nobody was treated badly in this process.

“I agree you can’t keep changing (managers) and as long as what you expect in terms of moving forwards is achieved, of course you give that person the time and support they need. But there is a difference between that and failure. If you massively get it wrong then of course you have to make that change. You expect targets to be achieved.

“For the owners it’s been a process of bedding in, understanding and reviewing the entire structure of the business. We hope the people who come in as part of this new plan are there for the long term. What’s coming together now we believe is the way forward.”

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-f.../#ixzz1vDEh4usE

"FSG want Dalglish’s successor to be devoted solely to coaching, although he will still have the final say on signings."

That's embarrassing 

Regardless of what happens.LFC staff should steer clear of the manager stuff on the official website and twitter.

Posting rumours as headlines doesn't help at all.Try to keep news as little as possible so that the crap media don't use it on us.

Can we not taking Rafa back? I dont wanna see the back of rafa like we did to KD... Cant bare looking at how some of us calling for KD's head and to some extend, some did it in a disrespectful way (some, not all that call for kd's head)

I would rather us get Gus Poyet instead of Rafa for this very reason.

“The difference between players is not always the quality but their mentality,”

"People can talk about having a lot of money to buy players but we've just signed a player with a passion and a heart for this club that no amount of money can buy."

"But we have a saying in Spain that you never sell the house to buy a window. You don't spend more money than you have."

"It's easier if you've got the money to go into the transfer market. Imagine if you want to buy a jacket, if you have £1000 you can buy a good jacket, but if you have £10,000 you can buy the best"

“Seeing these smiling faces is the greatest pleasure. They have been magnificent all season. They have been our 12th man. I have always said our fans are the best in England. Now I know they are the best in Europe too.”

“Luis said to me that as he turned away, he was right on the line, and he said the ball was over the line. And after the game my secretary Sheila, who was sitting right in line in the main stand, said to me that the ball had crossed the line. She is a very honest person and that was good enough for me. It was a goal.”

"We are preparing a special weightlifting plan for Gerrard's shoulders because we want him to lift a lot of trophies for us in the next few years."

"Just because I've added one more trophy to that list, it doesn't mean my job is done. It's only just started."

"I know being in the top four of the Premiership is very important, but you will never see any club honours list recording an historic fourth place in the Premiership."

Mr Alex Ferguson said Liverpool play only for five minutes to win a match. But Benitez said: "If we play five minutes and beat sides, if we play for another 85 it would be terrible, no?"

"Now my relationship with Steven is good- with my wife it is better!"

Interviewer: Were you confident when you saw their team sheet
Rafa: I was confident when i saw my teamsheet

“You cannot be a genius if you do not have good players. You can have the best tactics, but if I put all you journalists on the pitch, I’m sure we will lose.“

And Benitez said: “I was pleased with Peter Crouch. He have been talking to him, before and after his nose operation, to show more confidence with his heading.
“Now it seems to have worked. Lets say that if he has a few games without scoring again, maybe we should arrange to break his nose again!”

'Mr.Benitez,' he said. 'The last time I saw you was at the 2005 Champions' League final, and your, erm, silhouette seems to have changed since then. Why is that?'
Breaking out into a grin, Benitez responded: 'It is the stress of having to answer so many questions from the press. Thank you and goodnight.'

That;s a strange article. He clearly said Chelsea doesnt interest him but nowhere it says he's interested in Liverpool.

But Liverpool now look like a  viable option for Capello, who was on the club’s long list of candidates to replace the sacked Kenny  Dalglish.
Capello is interested in the challenge of trying to bring the the glory days back to Anfield but would demand substantial transfer funds, which could be a sticking point.

if chelsea dump di matteo,, i wuld happy to have him here,,, he's tactically genius

New beginnings for Liverpool
FSG need to choose carefully when they appoint a successor to Kenny Dalglish, writes Dion Fanning

Source: http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/pre...ol-3112724.html

Kenny Dalglish was appointed Liverpool manager because he represented permanence and he was sacked last week because he couldn't change.

Dalglish waited 20 years to return to the club and when he did, he swiftly united it. Yet everything unravelled last season. Liverpool were unlucky too often and even an FA Cup final victory wouldn't have saved Dalglish.

Dalglish's persona remained unaltered over those 20 years. He retained the devotion of the supporters but as Liverpool continued to lose, he was unable to project a sense of control.

It was not about being media-friendly. Alex Ferguson, after all, is whatever the opposite of media-friendly is. Hate, Christopher Hitchens said, got him out of bed in the morning and the same could be said of Ferguson. He has dominated through this emotion, while Dalglish seemed only to be ruled by suspicion.

He may have been right to be suspicious but as Liverpool's season evolved in ways they couldn't have imagined, as the Suarez case created the false but powerful impression that this was a club soft on racism, Dalglish looked wary and powerless. If you're going to take on the world, as Alex Ferguson has always understood, you have to be sure you're going to win.

The Suarez case created the peripheral damage even as it struck at the heart, but Liverpool were undone by their league form, even if Dalglish is believed to have felt that victories in the cups would be enough this season.

Damien Comolli had already paid for the combination of the two. Comolli struck the deals for Stewart Downing and Andy Carroll but they were players Dalglish wanted. The policy of buying British may have been popular with some and ensured the players ended up in the England squad last week, but that only underlined the principle that form is temporary, crushing mediocrity is permanent.

Liverpool's owners, Fenway Sports Group, have promised that this summer it will be different. There will be no more Stewart Downings at £20m and they have embarked on an ambitious plan to transform the club, even if the plan so far has only been ridiculed.

FSG are right to make an appointment based on their own judgement, rather than be swayed by populist opinion. Any choice they make represents a gamble. FSG have worked out a structure they want to implement and it will only work if they appoint the manager they think is best suited to that role. They can't be swayed by the views of Liverpool fans, in either direction.

Once again, there are parallels with Newcastle United, who, despite being led by a man downing a pint in a replica jersey, soared like Superman while Liverpool, so proud of their ascetic sabermetrics credentials, suffered in their Bizarro world.

Mike Ashley is very different to John Henry, but things changed for him when he stopped listening to old-fashioned conventional football wisdom and worked in sport as he had in business.

Ashley, too, had brought back a messiah, albeit one who had achieved a lot less in management than Dalglish. Later, when he sacked Chris Hughton and appointed Alan Pardew, Ashley had to withstand more abuse from the supporters.

FSG spent the first 18 months doubting themselves and their own decisions. They are, informed sources suggest, more comfortable with those who advise them now than those who had influence in the past.

English football is a complex world and John Henry and Tom Werner have taken some time to discover that. They may wonder how they blew the Fernando Torres money on Downing and Carroll, but they are confident now that when it comes to player recruitment they can do what they had always wished.

The manager, too, will be appointed in consultation with the new men taking Comolli's role. Txiki Begiristain, the former Barcelona sporting director, is believed to be interested, but he hasn't been approached. Pep Segura, the technical manager at Liverpool's Academy, is also expected to be promoted. These positions will be filled before the new manager is confirmed.

Comolli's duties will be split between administrative tasks and the key job of finding players. He failed at that and the same mistakes won't be made this summer.

Comolli "interviewed well" when he got the job as director of football and this may underline the problem they face in finding a new manager. Candidates might be discounted if they reveal themselves to be arrogant in the interview process, it was suggested, but arrogance and knowing your own mind are assets in a football manager.

On Friday, they were considering talking to Rafael Benitez, having previously ruled him out. He still hadn't been approached by yesterday and there was some reluctance from club sources to suggest he was on the shortlist.

If Benitez was appointed they would fear losing control again, but they can't shirk from strong personalities. There is no point employing somebody agreeable, somebody who can fit into a management structure if they can't accommodate the creative brilliance of a man who knows what he wants.

Liverpool need to be prepared to be troubled by their manager. After all, there is no more intense and driven manager than Guardiola.

In some ways, it would be a self-destructive thankless job for Benitez. He would suffer from the high expectations from the fans who adore him and the bitter enmity from those who don't. Liverpool is not a club which observes moderation.

Benitez might be better off at another club where he can remind the world of his excellence as a coach. But he loves Liverpool and, given the nature of his departure two years ago and all that has happened since, he understandably craves a return.

He would be no more of a gamble than most of the names mentioned and the gamble comes with the baggage rather than his coaching ability. On that criteria, he is the outstanding candidate, once Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp have been dismissed as fanciful.

FSG have heard from many sources that he is a difficult man and having had to dismiss two managers in their first 18 months, they would understandably hesitate if they are influenced by those views.

Nobody would claim he is easy but there is a long list of players who want to work with him again and when even Benitez's nemesis, Christian Purslow, says he is a strong candidate, FSG are risking further alienation from supporters by refusing to talk to him.

If he is suggested by the men advising FSG, Benitez will be approached. There is, however, a reluctance to interview him if he isn't going to get the job. Politically, it is hard to understand how they could refuse to meet him.

FSG would need to be convinced he could work within the model they propose and Benitez might be happy with a one-year rolling contract which would leave both sides with an exit strategy.

Andre Villas-Boas will be approached this week. AVB's man-management skills make Benitez look like Ron Atkinson. He is no Mr Bojangles and if anything he came out of the Chelsea debacle less tarnished than he should have been.

The seductive notion of the mutinous Stamford Bridge dressing room has masked how spectacularly badly he handled the job. There were strong personalities, but beyond the usual suspects it was routine to hear in his final weeks how he had alienated most players in the squad.

More importantly, he made a mess of his remit and was fired. Survival is the starting point for a manager and he undermined himself with his sensitivity and inability to bring key players with him. He might have learned from that but it would be a risky appointment for a dressing room that needs managing.

Before the FA Cup final, Pepe Reina offered an insight into Fernando Torres' problems which countered the idea that it was only the old hands at Chelsea that struggled with AVB. "It is much easier to get over mistakes when you know you have the confidence of your manager and your team-mates. With Villas-Boas, especially, I don't think Fernando felt that," he said.

AVB is somebody who will interview well, in fact he will probably ace an interview, which underlines the risks in their strategy.

A manager like Frank de Boer, who has already been approached and expressed an interest, would offer more authority and may fit within the framework. He would also allow Liverpool to make a fresh start. Alan Pardew and Marcelo Bielsa are not in contention. Despite his statement on Friday, Brendan Rodgers has not been discounted yet, while Roberto Martinez is a gamble, but a manager who fits into their model.

Liverpool shouldn't shirk from strong personalities. A club built on everyone getting on is doomed. So is a club where nobody gets on.

The managing director Ian Ayre has signed a new contract. He found it hard to stand up to Dalglish, it is said, which led to problems in the Suarez-Evra case.

FSG expect those they appoint to do the work they were employed to do. "Do people want them to be hands-on like Abramovich, interfering in everything?" a source close to them asked last week.

Even an exceptional case like the Suarez-Evra incident was expected to be handled by Ayre, Comolli and Dalglish. None of them managed it in the most spectacular PR disaster for the club. Ayre remains at the club, rolling out his vision 'going forward'.

The new man, an FSG source insisted, wouldn't be fired if Liverpool finished fifth or sixth. "They aren't Chelsea," he added.

Dalglish is believed to have felt the demands were altered as the season progressed. He was said to be devastated last week, despite the typical public statements backing the club.

Liverpool's stature as a great football club stands most profoundly now in its ability to provide psychodrama. Dalglish left Anfield 21 years ago at the peak of his powers but worn down by Hillsborough. He watched people die supporting the club he loved and then felt it was his duty to let the tragedy consume him.

He left last week as a potent symbol of what Liverpool once stood for. He is an exiled king now, another tragic figure wandering the heath.

FSG took possession of the club last week. Exorcising the ghosts will be much more difficult.

Hmm? Di Matteo had no confidence in Torres to take a penalty?

Van Gaal has an infamous reputation of often clashing with the top level management, and with him being a manager himself its hard to not imagine him clashing with the manager's work. A power struggle will ensue where if Van Gaal emerges victorious we would then be seeing him down on the sidelines or him leaving his directors post. Inconsistency...

Capello might be a decent candidate though unlike Sven, his CV at club level is up there with Fergie and Mourinho. Given that he will be backed up by the owners, he might stay with us till he decides to retire because looking at his record most of the time when he leaves a job is when he is forced out of the club or the management undermining his position.

getting more restless by the day. first thing everyday is to log in and read the news...