Football XXV

[baxus]

Rafa Benitez.

hardly who i'd call highly-credentialled.

maybe a couple of seasons ago, but not after he's been sacked twice in the last year due to disrespecting clubs' boards and whining about more transfer money (which he spent on the likes of aquilani and such)

and he's failed to back such conduct with results on the pitch, leading liverpool to seventh place in premiership last season and having inter 10+ points behind serie a leaders at the moment of his sacking (with 2 games in hand, but still)

he DID win the clubs' world cup, but with all due respect i wouldn't call their opponents world class sides.

[Mme Erzulie]

Was Aquilani a bad buy? Or did Hodgson just send him back to Italy without giving him a chance?

And it is very strange that Rafa moved back to the Wirral.

Does he really think that highly of Scouse educational facilities?

[Fireball07]

Clive Woodward.

:lol:

[Iskaral Pust]

O'Neill isn't that highly regarded around Anfield. He's a legend in Glasgow, but the Liverpool fans tend to see him as an unreliable temperment (like Keegan) who only plays one style of football: very defensive, relying on a counter-attack by hitting the long ball to an awkward target man to knock on for a speedy striker. He has been pretty successful with Wycombe, Leicester, Celtic and Villa, but he never showed the kind of ability with tactics or identifying transfers (apart from Asley Young perhaps) that you would need to lead a team to the top.

That said, O'Neill's motivational skills might be very helpful right now.

Dalglish would satisfy the Kop, but I'm not convinced he would be able to step back into management. He's been out a long time, and his most recent jobs at Celtic and Newcastle did not go well.

Rijkaard, Deschamps, Villa Boas and Klopp get a lot of discussion on the Liverpoolfc.tv forums. Owen Coyle seems to be the only one in the PL who is highly regarded.

Moyes does not get the credit he deserves because of the club rivalry, but it's not clear that he has the ability to build a top team either. Forging a strong team spirit in an under-dog is not the same as leading a team of champions.

You'd have to think that the only way is up from here for whoever does take the job. I hope.

[mormont]

Returning to an ongoing story, Sepp Blatter's latest musings about the Qatar World Cup make alarming reading;

Fifa president Sepp Blatter expects the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to be held in January because of the country's intensely hot summers.

The tournament is traditionally held in June and July but temperatures in Qatar at that time of year can top 40C.

Speaking in the Qatari capital Doha, Blatter said: "I expect it [the 2022 World Cup] will be held in winter.

"It is 11 years away but we must decide the most adequate period, which means January or the end of the year."

Blatter, who is in Doha for the start of the Asian Cup, added: "Although we have the basic conditions of their bid for a June and July World Cup, the Fifa executive committee is entitled to change anything that was in the bid."

And he's not just referring to the timing:

Meanwhile, Blatter also revealed in December that several nations in the Middle East were interested in hosting games during the 2022 World Cup and that he had met with officials in Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait during a tour of the region.

So a solo bid for a summer World Cup can be retrospectively transformed into a joint bid for a winter one if the FIFA executive committee feel like it. And so can anything else about the winning bid, it seems. Which leads one to wonder: what was the point of including all these details in the bids in the first place, if none of them were binding? If FIFA can just pick a winner and then change anything they don't like about it, what were the criteria used to select it in the first place?

[Hereward]

If FIFA can just pick a winner and then change anything they don't like about it, what were the criteria used to select it in the first place?

I presume that's a rhetorical question. :P

[baxus]

Was Aquilani a bad buy? Or did Hodgson just send him back to Italy without giving him a chance?

And it is very strange that Rafa moved back to the Wirral.

Does he really think that highly of Scouse educational facilities?

aquilani WAS a bad buy, considering the amount of money spent and the value the club got in return.

he got injured, missed most of the season, played an insignificant role in last season campaign and then was given out on loan.

as far as rafa's moving to wirral is concerned, i dount find that very strange.

i mean, he has kids who lived there for 5 or 6 years, went to school, made friends and overall had a life there.

where would he move them from milan after he got sacked?

[Padraig]

If FIFA can just pick a winner and then change anything they don't like about it, what were the criteria used to select it in the first place?

I defended the Qatar win (somewhat) at the time but what I have read since gives me little confidence. Its hard to see how they won given the fluidity of their apparent bid. The idea seems to be that since it is 12 years away, any problems can be overcome by then (in other words, Blatter will be retired and other people can deal with the mess).

[Maltaran]

If FIFA can just pick a winner and then change anything they don't like about it, what were the criteria used to select it in the first place?

Presumably, Blatter owed bin Hammam a favour or two.

[Padraig]

Interesting that the media are now trying to build up Bin Hammam as alternative candidate in the upcoming election. I don't think it will come to anything but it would be a hilarious thank you if he does make the attempt.

[mormont]

A lesson for footballers everywhere: when making up excuses, keep it simple.

A Brazilian football player will be charged for falsely reporting he had been kidnapped as an excuse for running late for training, police say.

Somalia, a midfielder for the leading Rio de Janeiro club Botafogo, said he had been abducted at gunpoint at about 0700 on his way to the training ground.

But police say CCTV footage from his apartment building showed him leaving late for work at 0900.

That's even worse than Stephen Ireland and his dead granny. :lol:

[BigFatCoward]

Hodgson gone, Kenny to take charge for rest of season. more to follow.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/9350630.stm

edit for the link.

[Jeor]

Hodgson gone, Kenny to take charge for rest of season. more to follow.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/9350630.stm

edit for the link.

It'll be interesting to see how Dalglish goes. He's been out of the game for a while, and left it with a great reputation as a player and manager and a Liverpool fan favourite - so his reputation has nothing to gain and everything to lose. Then again, improving on Hodgson's record is probably not going to require too many miracles.

[ljkeane]

It'll be interesting to see how Dalglish goes. He's been out of the game for a while, and left it with a great reputation as a player and manager and a Liverpool fan favourite - so his reputation has nothing to gain and everything to lose. Then again, improving on Hodgson's record is probably not going to require too many miracles.

It's Kenny Dalglish, he'd probably have to get us relegated for about 3 straight seasons for him to not be a fan favourite anymore.

[BigFatCoward]

i wonder if kenny made any demands for funds in the window before agreeing. they need to spend a lot.

i don't think that hodgson has done that bad a job with the players he had, i wouldn't want more than 2 of them at newcastle and that's saying something.

[mormont]

It'll be interesting to see how Dalglish goes. He's been out of the game for a while, and left it with a great reputation as a player and manager and a Liverpool fan favourite - so his reputation has nothing to gain and everything to lose. Then again, improving on Hodgson's record is probably not going to require too many miracles.

Well, his managerial reputation when he left the game was already somewhat tarnished by the Celtic situation: which has some similarities to this one, actually. Club legend Dalgish occupying a nice cushy job upstairs, manager underperforms badly leading to fan demands for Dalglish to 'rescue' the club despite being supposedly retired from frontline management. Although in Celtic's case, he'd been away for two years, not ten. Anyway, it didn't last long in that case, and he didn't really shine. He did better than his protege John Barnes, but that wasn't difficult either.

I don't believe this will work out for Liverpool. Dalglish was a good manager, but his Celtic stint was underwhelming and brief. As was his Newcastle stint before it, for that matter. And since then, the game has moved on a lot tactically and technically. Does he have the knowledge he'll need? Can he come back in at such a high level after such a long break? I have to doubt it. Still, he ought to be able to motivate the team, and that's important in the short term.

[Jeor]

Still, he ought to be able to motivate the team, and that's important in the short term.

Just by not being Hodgson and getting the fans in full voice and behind the team again he'll have an advantage.

And on second thought (re: nothing to gain and everything to lose) with his popularity, I'm sure he'll be cut plenty of slack. If Liverpool continue their disastrous season it will all still be blamed on Hodgson. As far as I can tell Shearer's reputation and popularity didn't suffer when Newcastle were relegated, and Liverpool aren't in those sorts of dire straits either, so on reflection Dalglish probably doesn't have as much to lose as I thought.

[ljkeane]

I don't believe this will work out for Liverpool. Dalglish was a good manager, but his Celtic stint was underwhelming and brief. As was his Newcastle stint before it, for that matter. And since then, the game has moved on a lot tactically and technically. Does he have the knowledge he'll need? Can he come back in at such a high level after such a long break? I have to doubt it. Still, he ought to be able to motivate the team, and that's important in the short term.

Are there many better options available to Liverpool at the moment though? It's probably not a job with the appeal of a few years ago and I'm not sure that managers with a more recent record of success will be knocking the door down. Dalglish has the ability to be a good manager, the problem is lack of recent experience of the game but given time and the willingness to put the work in that's something he can rectify. As far as appointing someone half way through a season goes I don't think there were going to be many better options.

The problem for the owners is that if they only want him as a short term appointment but he wants the job long term he's probably pretty much unsackable. They've got a decent amount of goodwill at the moment for getting rid of Hicks and Gillete but I can't think of anything more likely to turn Liverpool fans against them than sacking Kenny Dalglish. I've got to admit that even thought I can see the rational arguments against it I'm still pretty excited as a Liverpool fan about Dalglish being manager.

[Renasko]

Does he have the knowledge he'll need? Can he come back in at such a high level after such a long break? I have to doubt it.

I completely agree. This is the wrong move. I would've kept Hodgson in charge, while they assess who would be best to take them forward in the future. Wasn't one of the silly complaints about Hodgson being put in charge that he was too old? Well, what the hell is with this, then? At least Roy stayed involved in the game. Kenny's not a football man anymore.

[Slick Mongoose]

Will be funny if he does worse. I doubt he will though, if nothing else he won't have to deal with the fans chanting another manager's name at every game.