The FSG ownership of Liverpool FC is turning the club into a comedy of errors, and not a particularly funny one either.
If FSG was a football team, the current score would be at least 4-0 against them and every one an own goal.
Do they know what they are doing? Let’s start here:
The appointment of Damien Comolli as Director of Football
Imagine the conversation between John Henry and Tom Lerner:
JH: Hey Tom, you know Billy Beane over at Oakland, the baseball manager?
TL: Yeah?
JH: Well he recommended this real French guy he met at a conference as Director of Football at
Liverpool. ‘Parantly he can really talk statistics
TL: Yeah, but what about soccer?
JH: Well, Billy Beane says he’s OK and Billy know baseball backwards
It has been widely reported that Damien Comolli was introduced to FSG on the recommendation of a baseball manager. If this is true, it seems a bit like asking a gas fitter how to rewire a house.
Didn’t the owners wonder at the howls of laughter and derision coming from The Emirates and White Hart Lane at this appointment?
A Tottenham, fan commented to me not long after it that Spurs had learned to their cost Comolli’s ability to spend large amounts of money on mediocre players.
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The appointment of Dalglish as manager
Well meant, but was terrible misjudgement. Rumour has it that the owners weren’t too happy about it at the time. Dalglish had been out of management for years.
His most recent spells had not been successful. Neither Newcastle nor Celtic fans were sorry to see him leave. His earlier successes had been at Blackburn, with lots of money, or Liverpool where he had a flying start with the team he inherited.
Add years of under-investment, and the notion that he could deliver a top four spot was unrealistic by any standards. Icon he may be, but Dalglish was not the top manager the club needed.
The tragedy is that if the money spent last summer had been there for a genuine contender this, then the type of top name the fans are crying out for might have come.
The current managerial mess
Didn’t FSG have some idea of who to replace Dalglish with?
The situation of names flying round, and people saying “No thanks” is an embarrassment. The credibility of the club is shrinking daily.
Whoever takes the job is a hostage to fortune. He will inherit players he surely would not havebought himself; will probably have limited funds; and could face hostility from those fans who aredemanding a ‘top name’.
Face it guys, Jose is not coming. They are creating even greater hostility by (reportedly) not interviewing the only manager that many fans feel could deliver.
Still no word on a stadium
It’s 19 months since FSG took over and news on any progress seems to have stopped. Many fans are questioning the credibility of the owners.
I don’t think the club has swapped one Hicks and Gillett combination for another but to allow this sort of disquiet to develop is not good management.
This comedy of errors is turning the club into a laughing stock. John Henry was understandably upset over the PR mess that was made of the Suarez-Evra affair, but FSG need to look at their own PR right now.
Where are FSG taking Liverpool? Who should the new manager be?
image: © kong niffe
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