If Liverpool can afford to take their time and rebuild, why can’t Chelsea?
After a home 2-1 defeat to Arsenal, Liverpool’s chances of making the Champions League appear to be blown.
Does this mean club owner John W Henry should fire Kenny Dalglish?
According to the Roman Abramovich rule of ownership, yes.
So Liverpool are destined for life in the Europa League, after their Carling Cup win, but is it all that bad?
Kenny Dalglish is rebuilding the club, supporters will accept winning a trophy as a sign of steady progress, and will hope that next year Champions League football is achieved.
For Chelsea there seems to be no such patience, not with the club hierarchy any way.
Most Chelsea fans are realistic, they realise the club is ‘in transition’ and since November it has been clear that a title challenge was beyond them.
So if the club misses out on the Champions League, is it the be all and end all?
Not if it is just for one season. Liverpool now face a third successive season without Champions League football.
Are they in administration, are the walls collapsing in around them? No.
To be quite fair, as Arsenal’s hammering at Milan and Chelsea’s defeat to Napoli showed, the standard of European football is so high at present that there is little point finishing third or fourth because you are going to get taken apart in Europe sooner or later.
Yes playing in the competition means the club can attract better players, but the instability shown by the manager sackings will serve to put off the world’s best and cancel out the attraction.
Whether Andre Villas-Boas was the right man for the job in the long term we will never know.
But sooner or later the club have to stop overreacting to a run of bad defeats, or slipping in the table, and show patience and support.
Only then can the club truly rebuild. Will Kenny Dalglish ever bring back the glory days at Liverpool?
Who knows, but at least he is being given a proper chance to do so.
image: © Freer-ers
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