WHILE Brendan Rodgers would not have been my choice to replace Kenny Dalglish, I am open-minded enough to give him a chance and as the new Liverpool manager, he will have my full support.
I hope Rodgers succeeds at Liverpool, but in order for that to happen he needs what Dalglish and Roy Hodgson did not get – time.
With the exception of Ronnie Moran’s ten-game spell as caretaker manager in 1991 and the brief, ill-fated co-manager partnership of Roy Evans and Gerard Houllier from July to November 1998, Hodgson and Dalglish have the shortest and second-shortest managerial reigns in Liverpool’s history. Their combined period in charge of Liverpool stands at 685 days, which is less than Joe Fagan’s 697-day reign as manager – the third-shortest in Liverpool history.
Comparing Dalglish and Hodgson’s reigns with those of the managers that preceded them reinforces the argument that FSG are ruthless, but to be fair to John W. Henry and Tom Werner, they weren’t the ones that hired Hodgson. They appointed Dalglish, but he was not the type of manager they said they were looking for and it is unlikely he would have been given the job on a permanent basis had he not been so popular with the Liverpool fans. Henry and Werner had made it clear that they wanted a young manager to work with a director of football and in Rodgers they now have half of that model in place.
It has been reported that Liverpool’s interest in Louis van Gaal has cooled, meaning that the wait to replace Damien Comolli goes on. But replacing Dalglish was always going to be more important and now that Rodgers has been appointed, he will immediately get to work on making his mark at the club. He has brought three members of the Swansea backroom staff with him and whether he will also look to bring in any Swansea players after the 12-month agreement period, (or Gylfi Sigurdsson, perhaps who is yet to sign at the time of writing) remains to be seen.
Whether Rodgers goes for Sigurdsson or someone else, it is almost certain that he will bring in at least a couple of new players this summer and I would be very surprised if Fabio Aurelio is the only player to leave the club. Rodgers will already have a few ideas about how to improve on Liverpool’s disappointing season this year and I would imagine he has been given the same target Dalglish was given – to get the club back into the Champions League. This is a realistic target for Rodgers, but FSG must take into account that success does not happen overnight. There is no longer a “Big Four” dominance in the Premier League; Liverpool will face stiff competition from the seven teams that finished above the club this season in the race to qualify for the Champions League next year.
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If Rodgers is able to make progress with Liverpool next season, FSG must stick with him, even if he is not able to lead the club to a top four finish at the first attempt. Finishing fifth or six should be enough to earn Rodgers another season in charge, provided the point’s gap between Liverpool and the top four is less than the 17 point gap the club had this year. FSG are far more likely to achieve success at Liverpool if they are patient and reasonable in their aims – if they expect instant success and oust every manager who cannot provide it, they will have to be prepared to do a lot of hiring and firing.
Henry and Werner need to focus on Liverpool’s long-term future and bring some stability to the club. Rodgers and Swansea impressed everyone with the quality of football they played this season and if he is able to replicate that quality at Liverpool with a better group of players, it will surely be enough to bring the glory days back to Anfield.
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