Liverpool Football Club Dysfunctional Family.

Kenny Dalglish the father and head of the Liverpool family, has ceremoniously been chucked onto the Anfield Road – with belongings in tow, a glint of silver was seen half hanging out of his suitcase, alongside a sign which said “THIS WAS ONCE ANFIELD”.

One wonders what Mr Cameron would make of all this. All those children now left fatherless, wandering around the streets and the internet, feral like without the slightest direction. God himself only knows how these poor unfortunates will end up – well other than seated on a stage being questioned by the less questionable Jeremy Kyle.

In a season that has seen such ferocity between our supporters with opinions of sack Dalglish raising their sorry heads from as far back as December, only to be counter charged with lessons in history and manners. Interestingly those same “Supporters” who called for Daddies head are now claiming tears of sadness – on reading tweets from the man himself.

Personally I would like to see one huge Jeremy Kyle show, where all this alleged supporters not only take a lie detector test, to remind them of deadly deeds and disrespectful tones over many months – you can see it now “The test is wrong” yeah!!!

More importantly I would insist on a DNA test for these sorry specimens – adolescent youth who seem to perpetuate themselves with every idiotic sentence which leaves their heads. I want proof that indeed they are part of the same family, the same institute that I and many others have been part of since birth. I am imagining Mr Kyle coming back with a few hundred thousand DNA results card – I am sorry you are not a son or daughter of LIVERPOOL – It’s confirmed with a 99.9% surety that neither Bill, Bob, Joe nor Kenny could be your father – as they scuttle off the stage crying “how could my mother do this to me” – I myself shout and scream at the T.V – Get in you bastard.

So I am being a tad extreme, mainly in annoyance at these poor deluded sorts. We become more and more like Chelsea & United with each passing year, well off the field anyway. Mr Henry and Mr Werner in the guise of FSG seem intent on making us much more like those whom we detest with venom – maybe they just don’t get what it means to us, we have always ridiculed America in terms of footballing ability, and in the way that they cannot separate our beautiful game from the word SOCCER. This however is deeper than a disinclination of Americanism’s and such rhetoric.

John Henry & Tom Werner

At this moment in time Liverpool Football Club is once again [we have been here before] the target of ridicule and a media frenzy toward its anguish, but who can blame them? FSG keep loading the bullets into this seemingly endless chamber – those promises, yes those same promises that a certain pair of Texas cowboys gave us, only for them to be delivered with a large pinch of sodium chloride.

Where are the plans to our new stadium, or where are the plans to our current stadium, they seem to know exactly where the exit doors are, having used them with a monotonous regularity over the last two months, to shove out many from the higher echelons of the clubs hierarchy – culminating with Kenny Dalglish.

Will any new manager be given that commodity that Dalglish did not get – time? We take a step backwards now this is for sure, no matter which way you choose to view it. This year we have been to Wembley three times, which included two cup-finals – acquiring one trophy.

“BOTHERED”

My guess would be that FSG don’t really give a hoot about silverware – the prize will be Champions League qualification, as of course that’s where the dollar is. Everybody sings this hymn about Fenway being winners – in fact ruthless winners – I beg to differ.

If we take The Boston Red Sox as an example – yes initially they would win The World Series of Baseball in 2004 and once again in 2007 – this was a team that had not won since 1918 – can we really compare our football club on that basis? Even if you believe we can, then how have FSG performed since 2007 or Boston – well they have built a very profitable franchise – but what have this franchise won in 5 years – nothing.

They did initially build and invest – but they are a business and they want a return, they have proved they will do whatever they feel necessary to achieve this financial goal.

Liverpool Football Club is a completely different prospect to The Boston Red Sox – their history was akin to maybe Newcastle United a few years ago. My concern is that the new manager will be taxed with getting a top four finish above all and forget about those little silver things – expect some very difficult nights this season with defeats at the likes of Burnley and maybe a worrying night at Anfield against Northampton – you get what you wish for.

If as I believe it is, more about dollars than anything else, we will end up with a cheaper version of what we really require – there was a time Liverpool could attract any manager worthy of the tag BEST – not now though we will have to settle for someone who is untried at the very top – FSG themselves have said they wanted someone younger to lead the project – if that is the new strategy all well and good, but for all our sakes give them time.

Remember what Dalglish said “I would not swap The Carling Cup for anything” was this from a man being told to disregard silver as FSG have no interest in it, something he was unable to accept – and told them so. Dalglish does not do weakened teams for he was always a winner – like Shankly before him, every game meant something.

What Kenny also knew about, was the family, those supporters who craved a trophy – any bloody trophy, he would give them a trophy in a season where Manchester United won nothing – That will do for most.

The Liverpool way has always been to keep things in-house, and to be fair to FSG I believe they have done this for the most part – Christ nobody can blame them for being unable to control that imbecile Dave “Whacky” Whelan, who it is now clear on agreeing terms for any future deal with Roberto Martinez – would be straight on the phone to Sky Sports. Very small-minded chairman, at an equally small club, whose self-promotion knows absolutely no bounds.

I have agreed with most of those dispensed with, but Dalglish is a step too far, you don’t give a manager a three-year plan then rip it up after one, but if you do – then you find your own cojones, hold them tightly and apologise for what are clearly your own mistakes – otherwise you need to join the queue for DNA alongside the many others and await the results from Jeremy.

Over to you for Mr Henry & Mr Werner

Find me on Twitter https://twitter.com/christobinsings

Kenny Dalglish Resigns 22-02-1991

The sixteenth day of May 2012 is a date which will go down in Liverpool Football Clubs illustrious history – maybe a turning point for FSG Liverpool’s owners also. For many supporters of the club, at this moment it remains far too raw and sad a moment, to really comprehend in a true context – where once again owners who are not greatly perceived as Footballing people, have chosen to dispense with the services of another Liverpool manager.

Only time and history will tell us indeed how important this day will become, where the master plan was born or if on throwing out the dirty water, the owners have inadvertently chucked away the baby.

Like many fans of a certain age, I would be completely loathing of the conclusion that FSG came to in their review of Liverpool’s lacklustre season – A complete overall of the club with the departures of not only Dalglish but previously four senior members of staff, all of whom were chosen by FSG.

The pain clear for all to see in 1991

It would remind me of a similar day, if different circumstance in February 1991 – Remembering how I had written my feelings in my diary all those years ago. I would head for the attic and dig my way through many an old suitcase in pursuit of such diary.

22-02-1991

The most unbelievable day, cannot quite put into words how I feel right now, you know when you think things will always be the way they are, those constant things in your life that truly make you happy – mainly because they never change, they never disappoint you, as reliable as to never ever let you down.

Kenny Dalglish the Liverpool manager has quit – I am gutted, shocked, stunned I actually feel like someone has died. When Sarah [my girlfriend] picked me up earlier, I was so emotional I cried she has never seen me cry, she said it scared her…wow. I actually have not seen me cry for a while either two years ago probably and Hillsborough and all that shit at Sheffield and the days after – cried out I suppose.

It’s funny , always Liverpool making me cry – It is a bastard of a club for that, always made me cry when I was younger even though we always won I couldn’t take losing – plus I was a mardy kid.

Dalglish looked like he was gonna cry at the press conference – that got me going, he looked like he did at the funerals sad and sombre, really like someone had died, maybe he just feels it like we feel it, for me somebody has bloody died.

God I fucking felt sorry for the man – I fucking love that guy. I suppose I forgot he has a family and pressures all of his own – we don’t own him at all, he does not belong to us. He said he had pushed himself to the limit – Kenny as a person had – we are proper in the shit now without The King.

Managing us lately would be enough to make anyone jump ship – woeful defending against the bluenoses again – it’s all too much.

Really pissed me off how the reporters kept trying to interrupt him while he was talking, clearly it was difficult for the man – hate them.

Hillsborough has done for him, that you can see, my Dad said he should have gone away after that, looks like it’s caught up with him now – I don’t think we will ever see him again, he will just slip away from football, I hope I am wrong.

Then another bit of me thinks good on you Kenny don’t come back go and enjoy yourself – God I am mental today, I don’t mean that.

I feel bloody emotional even writing this shit, tears in my eyes – I don’t think anyone else understands, my Dad was shocked but differently, he says Dalglish will be back in a month or so, but people are saying we will get Alan Hansen as manager or Toshack.

Anyway I don’t want to talk about this anymore – just making me down right sad – not like you understand anyway do you.

Goodnight diary.

Those were the exact words from the day Kenny left us in 1991 – twenty one years later and seven managers; we have not managed to capture the somewhat elusive Title in all those years. Kenny Dalglish leaving Liverpool in 1991 has had a huge bearing on the club – HUGE.

Those people who asked for his head, and our American owners who provided it – had better be very careful that they have not just set us back where we once again find ourselves on a windy day in February 1991 with another fruitless twenty years ahead of us.

You can find me on Twitter https://twitter.com/christobinsings

King Kenny Dalglish Dethroned

My father always told me – that I should always treat people in the same way, as I would wish to be treated myself. I would guess that I am not alone in having been given this nugget of information from a parent.

Another pearl of wisdom would be – “You have to earn respect” alas this would prove a little more difficult to achieve, especially if one hides behind a keyboard protected from the world outside by Windows defender and the might of Microsoft (allegedly).

Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish however is what my mother would call “A different kettle of fish” – No I don’t actually know what it means either, maybe it’s an Irish thing. My guess would be it means very different, and Dalglish is certainly that.

Sure it is one thing to be a legend, to be both respected and loved by those who you have also shown that same affection – where you have delivered their own dreams for them, given their hopes and aspirations a realism that they could not give themselves. The failures of average people become a little more palatable – when heroes produce those very same dreams for you, taking them to a level that even your own mind could not reasonably aspire too.

Those in the know – people graced by the playing days of Dalglish, those present at Wembley in 1989, the lucky few who saw the title won at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge in 1986 – a smile I will remember forever – half volley into the bottom corner to secure the League title on the last day of that season. Wembley once again in 1978 when he would score the winning goal and Liverpool’s 2nd European Cup.

Unfortunately this means nothing to those “not in the know” people who owe Dalglish nothing – not even an ounce of respect, for these poor folk they will never have that memory to keep their minds occupied, or their hearts warm.

Mr Werner and Mr Henry have obviously taken their decision to remove the King from his throne, without such memories also – my guess is they care more about business than they do about the club at the moment – they have a great understanding of sport franchise, and I think this is possibly the end of Liverpool Football Club being any different to any other Football club.

What made us different – we don’t sack managers yearly like so many others, the supporters are knowledgeable about their club and their capability with the players they have. The memory that fans have – a rich history that makes them different.

But how do you treat a legend, how to dump him on his sorry arse in the most disrespectful way – you leak it over the internet for 48 hours, you allow others to once again divide our club, to belittle its manager and supporters with the most deafening silence – you don’t drop legends in this way.

We cannot forget where the club found itself less than two years ago – have we improved, I believe we have on and off the field – we now find ourselves with no real direction, from owners who have treated us with contempt, they have minutely picked off the very people they entrusted our club with – just one year in on their own plan.

The sacking of Dalglish is not the main story here, it is a side distraction that hopefully won’t fool any further, the fools running around asking for sackings since week one of this season just gone. Where are our stadium plans – in fact where are any plans?

I suggested last week that indeed if Dalglish were no longer at the helm, then the plan would be in the office bin, well it seems it has also been set alight – never to be seen.

A final note on Luis Suarez – is this the perfect excuse to leave these shores, away from the constant media attention – and would you blame him?

You can find me on Twitter https://twitter.com/christobinsings

Liverpool And Dalglish – On The Verge

This week I found myself talking to a fellow football supporter, if somewhat misguided in his support of Glasgow Rangers, we would mull over the debacle in which his club find themselves, for those with a perspective on Scottish football that includes words like – Sunday league, amateur and conference, perhaps you should look at the fan base of the Glasgow giants, and quickly a realisation that indeed Rangers are rightly one of the big guns in European football – or at least they were.

My mind found itself wandering back to October 2010, this would be a defining month in the long history of Liverpool Football Club, a game changing moment when the club would itself escape administration by a few hours. The debt at Liverpool at this time would be a paltry £280 million, not a figure that is seen excessively high in today’s debt ridden age. This will go down in Liverpool history as its luckiest month, with not a post or crossbar in sight; they would go on to win this battle and avoid administration and a prospect of relegation.

I have often been disparaging about the deluded Liverpool supporters, whose merry band of men seem to be getting larger with each Cup Final that passes the club and its manager Kenny Dalglish by. Instant success the only act that these poor folk will accept, this minority that cannot see the trees for the forest. Realism is not in the vocabulary of these people, it was missing when they screamed for Rafa’s head, and it is clearly missing now as once again they shout as loud as is possible to drown out the more sensible, in a new call for Kenny Dalglish’s head.

Liverpool – Dalglish & Handshakes Again!!

Long before we address who could or should manage Liverpool to its next chapter in its footballing history, but also take a seat at what is fundamentally a business plan – we must look at some clubs that have also found themselves with such predicaments. The supporters must accept that nobody cares about your history, other than a few people in Asia who tossed a coin and Manchester United lost out, and next season they will most possibly be wearing blue, and You’ll Never Walk Alone will be replaced with Blue Moon – Business is business nothing personal.

In over twenty years now, during which time Liverpool have failed to capture the Title – many teams rebuilt, many heroes passed the This Is Anfield sign, but only two occasions when they were within touching distance of winning the trophy. The blame for the failure laid at managers, owners, and a varied array of under-performing players during this barren spell – but still no success, do you see a pattern forming?

My fear is that Liverpool and its American owners, will once again let the supporters down, and by this I mean by giving them too much input as regard the future path – Will supporters that believe they know best allow this club to modernise itself – To chase the dollar like never before, which will enable the club to move from its current home, to a new, more financially beneficial stadium. The owners are learning, fast and hard, football is a very different business to any other, and Liverpool supporters a breed of its own, after Gillett and Hicks – they will not be fooled again easily. A fancy bit of skirt on the arm of the owner is nice, but it will not detract supporters from the true beauty of seeing the Premiership Title in the cabinet.

Manchester United along with Manchester City, Chelsea, Newcastle and Spurs amongst others, have all found themselves relegated from the top division, and with that the opportunity to rebuild from its carcass, so far Liverpool have not had the indignity of finding itself in a similar pickle, a real opportunity to build foundation on which its new history can be built, Glasgow Rangers now finds itself with some very difficult choices to make, while it reflects on how it found the institution struggling on its knees.

In the same season that The Old Lady – Juventus have just won the Italian league title, after finishing 7^th and 7^th during the past two seasons, and again after spending time away from the top division in 2006-2007. The best way to build is from a position of weakness, which is how you get stronger, yes they have dismissed managers along the way – but fundamentally they stuck to a game plan.

Which way now sweetheart?

If you go with a plan, and that plan is flawed then by all means screw it up and slam dunk it toward the silver dustbin which resides in the corner of the manager’s office – Where does responsibility lie when failure raises its head? With the man who wrote the plan, or the man tasked with seeing it implemented. Liverpool already has one half of that answer, with Damien Comolli having been given his P45 or whatever the French equivalent is – Le P45.

Which leads me on to Kenny Dalglish – the man charged with implementation of the three-year plan, yes THREE years, year one has included winning a trophy and becoming runners-up in another, but the league form has overshadowed any perceived success that having a winner’s medal for the first time in 6 years may have shown.

Some less experienced in the ways of footballing business, would like to see his tenure cut short, a huge mistake if this were to happen, the players have at times been woeful this season, tactics questionable, some signings clearly not what it said on the tin when they were purchased – but footballers will dictate these days, even a man steeped in a legendary status and history as Dalglish is, will find it difficult to survive the modern game, if he can’t get these people to perform at an acceptable level.

This will be the biggest and most important summer footballing break, the signings and the players shown the exit sign will dictate where the plan is – and if Dalglish is not at the helm, which I fear he won’t be – Then bet your bottom dollar; that yet another plan has once again been consigned to history and the office bin.

You can find me on Twitter https://twitter.com/christobinsings

Roy Hodgson And The Three Rs – All Together Now Ahhh!!

So here we are once again with the Faux Outrage brigade stamping feet and shouting from the rooftops, with hands waving in the air with indignant annoyance, as again THAT national newspaper has chosen a headline from its gutter drenched library of a filling cabinet, where they choose to visit on what seems a weekly basis.

Now firstly I must admit   – I have not seen the headline and nor do I feel I need to view it to comment, of course I know exactly what it said and the manner in which it was delivered – That of social commentator for our nation, passing an alluring if deviously constructed piece of journalistic garbage to attract maximum exposure for itself – Job done.

The offending article, or headline, about the new England manager Roy Hodgson being unable to pronounce the letter R, similar to Jonathan Ross.

Two men that struggle with the letter “R”.

Let me state my stance regard any sort of misguided defence [which this is not] of THAT newspaper, that intolerable piece of trash, which I choose to not only ignore, but detest – rather more an attack of those nip-picking self-proclaimed custodians of social and political correctness, who given any opportunity will jump up and down with their high heels, or size 9s with their very own style of malignant outrage.

Fellow journalists – who only weeks earlier were quite happy in the use of racist rhetoric linking Fabio Capello to Italians jumping sinking ships, whilst others would link Luis Suarez to a dictator [General Pinochet]. The same who would cry foul at a witless despairing headline from one of their foes – pot and kettle springs to mind.

Social activists as I like to refer to them, have again taken football as its new cause – well they have very little to occupy their days with, having been evicted from St Paul’s with sleeping bag in one hand, whilst the other contains a metre of string with a scruffy mutt attached to the opposite end.

I have had my social conscience bombarded with varying degrees of political correctness from all angles these last few days – It has had enough, the overload has it running for cover.

Let’s get one thing straight in this otherwise skew-whiff  squabble – Roy Hodgson is not disabled, suggestion he is, or in some way should be described as – It’s bloody insulting to the man himself, and to the lady who lives across the road from my Mother, who has one of those shopping buggy things to get round, as she struggles to walk a few yards.

The guy struggles with his Rs and just because That newspaper has encouraged the whole country to debate it, does not make it any different to taking the rip out of follicly challenged [Hopefully this is the correct description for baldies] or those that take an umbrella to a football match [Wally with a brolly], or a man who has a turnip for a brain.

What exactly is a “Wally”?

Which now leads me on to those with absolute memory loss – football fans have forgetfulness like no other, amnesia akin to having constantly had the latest Nike football smashed against its hollow cranium? As it sits screaming you’re going home in a F*****g ambulance….not me son!!

The faux outrage from football supporters toward particularly the “Hodgson Headline” is without doubt example, if indeed it were needed, of the inept attempt of an apathetic group of people – to flower contempt as they endeavour to prove they are indeed perturbed in a hot and bothered way, in the regard of social acceptance, as momentarily they forget about what happens within their individual tribe each and every Saturday afternoon on terraces around this glorious island.

Guilt is not just about one’s own actions, but also association, a kinship, a type of thinking where actually it includes no thought – the closing of eyes, and ears, and a transitory silence – as any apparent disloyalty renders you and your social conscience paralysed, in an arena where only sheep need follow.

I have heard sexist, racist, homophobic, and all manner of other discriminatory language from individuals and groups, some in tune, and some out of tune – all have been acceptable in the confines of the coliseum – you pay your money take your choice.

Referees accused of blindness along with their little helpers with flags, parentage questioned – the sexuality questioned of many a professional footballer – Arsenal and Sol Campbell springs to mind, then add Adebayor his mother and his father, and we have a song; offensive and racist, yet regularly rolled out in jest , and not only by Arsenal supporters, but many others, I have even witnessed it being sung when Adebayor was not even within 100 miles of that particular stadium.

The constant chants from Old Trafford toward Liverpool in respect of Hillsborough, and in return Munich, which Manchester City supporters also like to sing. Add to this list Chelsea, West Ham, and Millwall and any side that has ever visited Brighton – you get my drift.

I am pretty sure that the few who have never thrown a stone, and never broken a window, will scream “How dare you” at my provocative piece – I am without interest in you, take your outrage elsewhere – Bothered – Face.

The next time football fans wave that sword of moral indignation around, they perhaps want to be extremely careful they don’t chop off a fellow supporters head – or worse still their very own – That could cause memory loss.

You can find me on Twitter https://twitter.com/christobinsings