Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 11/12 (End of March 2012 onwards)

5starpool wrote: »

9 months ago if someone had seriously suggested Alan Pardew or Roberto Martinez as Liverpool manager this summer they would have been carted off for treatment. Such is the changeable nature of opinion these days I guess.

5starpool wrote: »

Apparently 'media work' comes in just below 'tactics' and 'man management' in the list of important things for managers these days.

One point on this though, is that the media already have a taste for AVB's flesh, so wouldn't wait too long to get stuck in if he was at Liverpool either I'd say.

Blatter wrote: »

Well my point still stands that the team didn't play more games this season than they have done over the last several years because of no Europe. I really think the affect of the cup runs is being overstated, the squad should have been big enough to deal with them. If you were in Europe as well, you'd have a valid point, but you weren't.

Ferguson was a different kettle of fish and isn't comparable to this situation. He had just broke the Old Firm dominance in Scotland and had won a European competition with Aberdeen, beating Real Madrid in the final. He was a young and it was clear he had the talent to be a top manager, if he was persisted with.

Dalglish on the other hand is 61, was out of the game for over a decade and the last time he achieved anything of note was with Blackburn in 1995, 17 years ago. Things weren't going well and there was little indication that he was going to turn things around.

We'll have to disagree on Liverpool's only problem being the lack of a goalscorer. The defense has been shambolic since the turn of the year, the wide players are no where near good enough for a side with top 4 aspirations and the same applies to the CM with the exception of Lucas.

5starpool wrote: »

Pardew I believe has almost no input into the players coming into the club, so I'm not sure what credit he can get for any of the astute signings made over the last 18 months there. I'm fairly sure Klopp would not be interested either, and some of the names being mentioned are just fanciful. That is no reason to straightaway aim for a Martinez/Rodgers/Pardew though. If they do not show ambition off the pitch, how can they expect results on it? There will not be a huge budget this summer I'd imagine, probably 20m + money raised from sales, with no top notch wages being spent. A bigger name manager is a sign of ambition, and I can't imagine the continents finest signing for us with a lot of the mooted names in charge given our recent finishes.

Liverpool's owners are keen for the club's new manager to be in place for at least four to five years, but there is no front-runner at this stage.
Tom Werner and John W Henry have begun the search for the Reds' fourth boss in two years after sacking Kenny Dalglish and have a number of names in mind.
The new boss is likely to get a transfer budget of over £30m.
Intermediaries acting for the club have spoken with Andre Villas-Boas, but he is unlikely to get the job.
Kenny and the Kop
10 August 1977: Liverpool sign Dalglish from Celtic for British record £440,000
20 August 1977: Scores first Reds goal, against Middlesbrough, after inheriting Kevin Keegan's number seven shirt
10 May 1978: Scores winning goal in European Cup final
27 May 1981: Helps Liverpool win another European Cup
1982-83: Forms a superb strike partnership with Ian Rush, wins PFA Player of the Year
May 1985 - Appointed Liverpool player-manager. Wins the Double in his first season in charge
22 February 1991 - Announces shock resignation after leading the club in Hillsborough commemorations
4 July 2009 - Returns to Anfield in ambassadorial role after spells with Blackburn, Newcastle and Celtic
June 2010: Puts himself forward as a possible replacement for Rafael Benitez, but Roy Hodgson is preferred for manager's role
8 January 2011 - Appointed as caretaker manager in wake of Roy Hodgson's sacking
26 February 2012 - Lifts the Carling Cup with win over Cardiff
5 May 2012 - Defeated 2-1 in the FA Cup final by Chelsea on season's second Wembley final
16 May 2012 - Sacked by Liverpool
The Portuguese was sacked by Chelsea in March.
Former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez is also not thought to be in the running. The Americans are known to have been impressed by Wigan manager Roberto Martinez but no talks have taken place.
Wigan chairman Dave Whelan has often spoken of his admiration for the Anfield club and it is thought he would be willing to grant the Spaniard permission to discuss the post with Henry and Werner.
Liverpool's owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) are keen to appoint a replacement at the earliest possible opportunity.
Dalglish left for Spain on a planned family holiday on Wednesday night. His wife Marina wrote on Twitter: "Really sad day for us a family but we all remain LFC fans. All so proud of Kenny."
On Wednesday, sources close to Henry were keen to stress the American owners do have a clear vision for the future of the club and are likely to appoint three senior directors in the coming weeks.
Meetings have been held with a number of potential directors of football, including Johan Cruyff and former Barcelona sporting director Txiki Begiristain, while they have also spoken to at least one candidate to fill the chief executive's role.
Henry and Werner are also thought to be close to appointing a new director of communications to replace Ian Cotton.
While the departure of Dalglish has left something of a power vacuum at Anfield, FSG felt they had to act given Liverpool's failure to challenge for a Champions League qualifying place, a clear target at the start of the season.
Liverpool's most recent annual report revealed that the club's prolonged absence from the competition had cost the club a minimum of £30m in revenue each year.
While the owners were encouraged by the Carling Cup victory in February, the first silverware since 2006, it could not cover up the failings of a poor Premier League campaign.
Steve Clarke, Dalglish's assistant, has stepped down out of loyalty to the 61-year-old Scot.

amiable wrote: »

Simon Clancy
More: "Meetings have been held with a number of potential directors of football, including Johan Cruyff and Txiki Begiristain

monkey9 wrote: »

Some mad names being mentioned!! Pardew!! I wouldn't want him anywhere near the club. That bloke was sacked by Southampton in League 1 in his last job. Just because he's had one good season at Newcastle!! Would that not contradict sacking Kenny after one bad season

Ranieri!! No! Just no!!!!

My head is melted with all these Liverpool related threads on the first page!!

daithijjj wrote: »

I dont know about anyone else but i very rarely click on anything other than this thread, its a safe haven from the crazies for me, although not completely full proof :pac:

Did Sky News just say AVB expected in next 24 hours?, im not near a telly.

Liverpool's American owners have made contact with Andre Villas-Boas in the past two weeks, in an attempt to establish his interest in taking over at Anfield, where Kenny Dalglish was yesterday dismissed.

The Independent understands that Villas-Boas is interested and considers Liverpool to be the kind of high-profile, marquee job which would be the appropriate next step for him, following his unhappy nine months at Chelsea, where he was dismissed in March.

The exploratory call from Liverpool's owners, Fenway Sports Group, does not rule out the possibility of the Americans having higher priority targets. Wigan Athletic's Roberto Martinez, the Borussia Dortmund coach Jürgen Klopp and Marseilles Didier Deschamps, a target before FSG acquired Liverpool, may be contenders.

Liverpool's call to Villas-Boas was lodged after an approach to him from Roma, who have dismissed manager Luis Enrique following the club's failure to reach any European competition, despite the investment of American entrepreneur Thomas DiBenedetto. Sources in Portugal suggest that Liverpool may well be the more attractive proposition for Villas-Boas – and the club he considers to be the bigger name. There was uncertainty last night about whether Villas-Boas would be free to coach another English club next season, under the terms of his severance from Stamford Bridge. Valencia also inquired as to the Portuguese's availability, though they have appointed Manuel Pelligrino. Steve Clarke, Dalglish's assistant, has also left Liverpool out of a loyalty to the outgoing manager, though it is understood he did have the option to stay

The Wigan chairman, Dave Whelan, said last night that Martinez had not been approached, although the 38-year-old does appear to meet the criteria of FSG in many ways, having introduced a footballing ethos which runs through

all levels at the club. Rafael Benitez has had no contact from FSG. Despite rumours that Martinez might work in tandem with Benitez, the former Liverpool manager is not understood to consider that a realistic working arrangement. The biggest question mark above the name of Martinez is whether Liverpool supporters would consider him a big enough name for their club. The Americans have so far been careful to take supporters' views into account before making their moves on what has been a difficult two years at Anfield.

Villas-Boas' agent Carlos Goncalves said when the manager was sacked by Roman Abramovich last March that his client had "no intention of even thinking about football until the summer," though recent attempts to secure Villas-Boas' services as a media commentator for the forthcoming European Championships are understood to have been hit by the Liverpool and Roma approaches. These have put his immediate plans into a state of some doubt, according to Portuguese sources.

Liverpool's managing director Ian Ayre will today provide a fuller explanation of the reasoning behind the dismissal of Dalglish, which was confirmed at 5pm last night, after the meeting with FSG which the Glaswegian had sought on Boston on Monday resulted in principal owner John W Henry telling him of their frustration with his poor use of club resources in the transfer market. The £110m spent on seven players did not bring the improvement FSG anticipated. A Carling Cup win came after an unconvincing display against Cardiff City in the final and after scraping an FA Cup semi final win over Everton, Henry was at Wembley to witness a poor defeat to Chelsea in the final.

The FA Cup semi-final took place several days after the Americans had dismissed director of football Damien Comolli. Liverpool's search for a replacement for Comolli – an executive who wields enough power to hold the manager to account – looks like the most significant recruitment job at Anfield, where FSG last week also dismissed director of communications Ian Cotton, another executive whose lack of authority in Dalglish's company caused the PR disaster surrounding the Luis Suarez/Patrice Evra affair. With all three positions now vacant, FSG appear to be back where they started, in their attempt to rebuild Liverpool out of the mess they inherited from Tom Hicks and George Gillett in 2010.

Chairman Tom Werner last night appeared to characterise Dalglish's role as that of a caretaker, when he paid tribute to him. "Kenny came into the club as manager at our request at a time when [we] really needed him," he said. "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 stabilise Liverpool over the past year-and-a-half and to get us once again looking forward. We owe him a great debt of gratitude. However, results in the League have been disappointing and we believe to build on the progress that has already been made, we need to make a change."

But Dalglish, who was appointed permanently on a three-year contract, will not see things that way. His friend and former team-mate Terry McDermott said last night that the 61-year-old would be "hurting deeply".

witnessrenegade wrote: »

Betting Suspended on AVB, or so Twitter says!