Kop Kin

By AM Saturday, January 8, 2011

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Being asked to manage Liverpool Football Club was a great privilege. I have, however, found the last few months some of the most challenging of my career. I am very sad not to have been able to put my stamp on the squad – Roy Hodgson

It was against Rangers in the 1973 Scottish Cup Final that I saw Kenny Dalglish play live for the one and only time. When he joined Liverpool four years later from Celtic as a replacement for Kevin Keegan his already formidable reputation went into overdrive. Although Dalglish never learned to speak English, preferring Glaswegian mumbly bumbly, his soccer brilliance quickly saw him integrated into the side. He was something else and probably the only player of his day that could adequately step into the shoes of Keegan. He demonstrated that much the following year when his goal against Bruges retained the European Cup for Liverpool which a Keegan driven team had first won the year before in a great game against Borussia Mönchengladbach.

When I finally took my place on the Kop, as I had always longed to do throughout my imprisonment, I was aware that I was not watching the finest Liverpool team on record. Jail denied me that. By the time I had set foot in my secular heaven Dalglish and company had long since gone.

Three and a half decades on from Bruges Kenny Dalglish is still spoken of in reverential terms normally reserved for Bill Shankly. So few shockwaves were generated when it was announced today that the Merseyside minnows had parted company with their manager of a mere six months, Roy Hodgson, and that Dalglish would take charge. But can this dour Scot bring to the club what the other dour Scot did when he took over in the 1960s? I hope so but doubt it.

Roy Hodgson, who Dalglish replaces at the helm of the club until the end of the current season at least, was not the source of Liverpool’s woes. So there is no good reason for believing that getting rid of him equates with getting rid of the problems at Anfield. Hodgson inherited these difficulties in circumstances which were never favourable. For sure, since then, 7 league wins out of 20 compounded by losing at home to losers like Blackpool and Wolves hardly encouraged the fans to sign up to his programme. But the rot was there and victories against such sides would only have masked the stench of decay. Hodgson caught the club on its way down and the force of gravity took him with it. He stood no chance of improving on the performance of Rafa who was ditched by the board as the bottom caved in, leaving the trapdoor open for Hodgson who handcuffed himself to the club in its freefall. It is hard to be unsympathetic to Roy Hodgson. He was asked to carve something out of rotten wood and despite his ability to work well on limited resources the task at Anfield proved beyond him.

Nor was Rafa the cause of the problems either despite his failure to salvage his reputation at Inter Milan with whom he recently parted company. Liverpool is a club that lost its way a long time ago. During its spice boy era it maintained a prominent position in English soccer but the glory days were well behind it. Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen and Steve McManaman would have featured in any of the teams that became Liverpool greats, but their trophy cabinets were empty by comparison with those in the homes of Graeme Souness, Alan Hanson or Ian Rush.

Arguably the rot started around the time Dalglish left the club. I suspect he saw it setting in and made his exit. They have never taken a title since. Moreover, there was just something about the teams managed by Dalglish that suggested a lack of bottle at the crucial moment. Two seasons running they squandered the chance to win the league and cup double in the very last game of the season.

In managerial terms Liverpool are returning to their earlier tradition of going for one of their own. But nostalgia can rupture reason and there is nothing that would allow us to believe Dalglish can bring out in the same players what Rafa or Hodgson could not. The club are going for kin, not king. There is no throne to sit on. The kingdom of Liverpool FC is no more.