Topic: The Liverpool Thread (Parçy 7 Dalglish 3) FT - Post match hilarity from p. 393

[MKSC]

Not that we appear to have much in the way of resources

Makes a change.

Surely if things get too bad they can just send the acadamy lads out on the rob.

[tabloidpressregionalstereotype/]

[wacko]

Hodgson is a decent manager but no more than that really.

I'm quite happy with the appointment. Looks from the outside to be a safe pair of hands that will tow the line politically and try to keep things ticking along on the pitch now that they have no money for once. Hardly ambitious.

toe 

[Tooj]

With Man City's statement of intent by signing Silva - I can see them struggling to break the top four for quite some time. Shame.

[Village Idiot]

I don't know, Liverpool are obviously broke and in threat of losing their few stalwart players, but this is probably Hodgson's last chance to manage a big English club and I fancy him to make the most of it, not just plugging along.

[OCK]

Disappointed. Love Hodgson, really don't like anything about the Liverpool team, aside from Torres.

Sums it up for me too - thought he would have been better off staying at Fulham, because Liverpool is going to be a graveyard and he'll be lucky to get another job when it goes pear-shaped...

Walk into any team in Scandinavia, they love him over there. Set up the Swedish League or something.

Great career move, from Liverpool to Scandinavia. I doubt any team will be able to pay even a fifth of what he'll be earning at Liverpool.
Saying that, I would my dick off if he came to AIK.

Aye, but someone saying he'll be lucky to get another job - thought I'd point out the obvious fact he's regarded as Mr. Football in Sweden or whichever backwater country he created the football league for :P Doubt a manager without a job would be too worried about his wages compared to his last job if he was desperate for work (as the assumption was from the post I quoted).

[Greg]

He is in his sixties, he probably will not want another job after this one.

[midds]

Finishing 4th is an absolute bare minimum for Liverpool this season. They're miles away from Man U, Chelsea and Arsenal - City will spend big and Spurs will be even better next year too. There is every chance they could finish behind all of that lot and scrape 6th and even then, Villa and Everton will be there or thereabouts too.

He could well turn it around if he was to be given enough time but he hasn't got a season or two to get it right, they need top 4 right now. Just too much work to do in too short a period of time imo.

[TaylorJ_01]

He'd be decent for England imo. Guy that players seem to warm to and respect (sort of like Sir Bobby).

[Kaizero]

Brede Hangeland as good as ready for being announced as his first signing minutes after Hodgson's officially announced, apparently.

[OzzieMandias]

After two years of mostly-beyond-his-control failure at Liverpool -- they'll basically, like midds says, be struggling to hold their seat at the top table -- he won't look such a good candidate for the England job and some other character will be flavour of the month.

Pity, really.

[ElDiablo]

Hangeland and Agger is a decent pairing at the back and that Jorgensen or whatever looked good for Serbia, if he spends the inevitable money from the Gerrard and Torres deals wisely they could still mount a challenge unfortunately (for fourth). Think Aquilani has got a lot more to show too.

[Gash?]

I agree, if he stays fit he seems to be not bad at all, although probably not £20m worth.

[OzzieMandias]

Turning Liverpool around from here would rival even Shankly's achievements

The assertion by former Liverpool striker John Aldridge that Roy Hodgson faces the toughest challenge of any incoming Anfield manager since Bill Shankly – who arrived in 1959 to a club in the bottom half of the old Second Division, with a crumbling stadium, poor training facilities, a sub-standard playing staff recently knocked out of the FA Cup by non-league Worcester City – sounded like hyperbole. It was actually an understatement.

The stadium is intact, though not a place Liverpool want to be as they survey a business plan with projections of millions more in match-day revenues from a new purpose built facility. Hodgson's job is to prevent Liverpool sliding down among the also-rans for as long as it takes his board to find the financial salvation of a new owner, to build the stadium and provide a serviceable transfer budget.

The big imponderable is whether he will have his three prime players – each now weighing up his options – along for the rocky ride. Steven Gerrard gave Hodgson's appointment his tacit approval when told of it last week, though that does not mean he will be staying. Gerrard is in two minds about whether finally to break his ties. If he stays, he will throw everything into the effort. If he goes – and there has been no bid from Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid just yet – then it will only be after the same soul-searching we witnessed when Mourinho's Chelsea came calling five summers back. Hodgson's most vital task is to convince Gerrard there is something to stay for.

He may have to give up on Javier Mascherano, who seems to want out, and there are good grounds to say he should not flog himself coaxing Fernando Torres, either. Torres has been in a stew about Liverpool for so long that you wonder whether, if he stays, he can apply himself to the task ahead like Gerrard. Any club meeting a £50m valuation would be paying more than the value Torres has offered in the past injury-plagued season, compounded by a poor World Cup. Manchester City may be the only one willing to make that investment. David Silva's eye-catching move to City might persuade Torres that he should join him. Torres to City looks far more of a prospect than it did when Roberto Mancini publicly declared his appreciation of him, two months ago.

The payout would give Hodgson the chance to invest on the wide players and left-back that Liverpool need, though if Torres stays Hodgson may have even less to spend than the £20m he was assigned by Jack Walker to invest at Blackburn Rovers 12 years ago. Either way, he will need the eye for a bargain which saw him sign Brede Hangeland relatively cheaply and turn him into a commanding Premier League defender; the ability to revive new life out of players who seem to be heading over the hill, to which Danny Murphy, once of Liverpool, Damien Duff, Zoltan Gera and Bobby Zamora stand testament.

He will also need the temperament to handle the ownership of owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, whose £500m demands for a club worth nearer £300m is crippling it; and the nerve to deal with Liverpool fans' eternally huge expectations at a time when the club is being financially eclipsed. Hodgson's appointment today will coincide with Manchester City announcing signings to take their summer outlay to over £60m. This is Anfield. A place far more forbidding today than the one Shankly ever found.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/turning-liverpool-around-from-here-would-rival-even-shanklys-achievements-2014988.html

[Raconteur]

Disappointed. Love Hodgson, really don't like anything about the Liverpool team, aside from Torres.

Sums it up for me too - thought he would have been better off staying at Fulham, because Liverpool is going to be a graveyard and he'll be lucky to get another job when it goes pear-shaped...

Walk into any team in Scandinavia, they love him over there. Set up the Swedish League or something.

Great career move, from Liverpool to Scandinavia. I doubt any team will be able to pay even a fifth of what he'll be earning at Liverpool.
Saying that, I would my dick off if he came to AIK.

Aye, but someone saying he'll be lucky to get another job - thought I'd point out the obvious fact he's regarded as Mr. Football in Sweden or whichever backwater country he created the football league for :P Doubt a manager without a job would be too worried about his wages compared to his last job if he was desperate for work (as the assumption was from the post I quoted).

The logic of my saying he'll be lucky to get another job is that it took ridiculously long for his reputation to 'recover' after Blackburn, combined with what Greg said about his age.

He'll be lucky to last 18 months before being driven out by mad Scousers - at which time he'll be mid-60's, will need some time to recover from the emotional torture the Reds put him through and after that who is going to hire a nearly 70 year old coach who, in England, has had one success and two "failures"? (Not that I think he's responsible for Blackburn's misery, or Liverpool's forthcoming failure)

Obviously he could get a job somewhere, but I just feel when it comes to the top level (in England) he would have been better staying at Fulham...

[Village Idiot]

I never understood why Hodgson got this terrible rep, after what amounted to just a bad half season with Blackburn. Compared to the ease managers like, say, Dowie are given chance after chance...

[neesy111]

Confirmed

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/8721942.stm

[mrmojorisin75]

"This is the biggest job in club football"

see he's got a sense of humour then

[Northerngimp]

"This is the biggest job in club football"

see he's got a sense of humour then

 

[Parky]

"This is the biggest job in club football"

see he's got a sense of humour then

Tempted to give meself a goal for that.

[Toon's Taylor]

I used to like him. not sure if I'll end up hating him or liking Liverpool more, I hope its not the latter.

[Interpolic]

"This is the biggest job in club football"

see he's got a sense of humour then

Tempted to give meself a goal for that.

[Raconteur]

"This is the biggest job in club football"

see he's got a sense of humour then

Tempted to give meself a goal for that.

Was just reading the BBC rumours page:

Liverpool-bound Roy Hodgson wants to spend the £15m transfer budget he will be handed when he checks in as boss at Anfield on midfielder Gilberto Silva, defender Brede Hangeland, forward Rafael van der Vaart and midfielder Danny Murphy.

If he really thinks he can get all of those for £15m then I'd score it Parky 2 Hodgson 0...

[Village Idiot]

"forward Rafael Van der Vaart"

aye, looks like a researched article.

[Raconteur]

"forward Rafael Van der Vaart"

aye, looks like a researched article.

It was from the highly respected and very reliable Daily Mirror...

[wacko]

Hangeland and Agger is a decent pairing at the back and that Jorgensen or whatever looked good for Serbia, if he spends the inevitable money from the Gerrard and Torres deals wisely they could still mount a challenge unfortunately (for fourth). Think Aquilani has got a lot more to show too.

If Gerrard and/or Torres get sold, there's not a cat in hell's change that Hodgson will see much, if any, of the money.