Liverpool fan Mal James explores where Liverpool should go with their future, how the FA Cup Final affects it, and the big decision facing the club’s owners.
I asked a Liverpool supporter the following question yesterday – “Would you rather Liverpool won the FA Cup and Dalglish stayed as manager another season, or that they lost the final?”
He thought long and hard and finally couldn’t answer. The reason was he (obviously) wants Liverpool to win the final. He does not want Dalglish to stay as manager.
He isn’t the only one. A widely read Liverpool fan website recently asked the fans a different question. It was “If the club decided to sack Dalglish with immediate effect and replace him with Benitez, would you support that change?”
A stunning 70% said “yes”.
And yes, I know Liverpool have just won very well against Norwich. But is the team changing from a one- man side that was Stephen Gerrard to a one-man team that is Luis Suarez?
The fact remains that, Suarez aside, the rest of the signings that Dalglish admits responsibility for have been poor.
It says a lot that the best news many Liverpool fans have had all season is that Charlie Adam will not be able to play for the rest of it.
I’m a Wigan Athletic season ticket holder, but a red born and raised. At Wigan, I see Victor Moses signed for £2.5m as a winger – a superb player with huge potential. Then I look at Downing. He cost a reported £20m and so far has no goals or assists.
I see Shaun Maloney, signed for less than £1m, who is head and shoulders above both Henderson at £16m and the woeful Adam. Yet the Liverpool manager recently claimed his signings had done “fantastically well”.
So the Liverpool owners have a problem. They appointed a manager who is unsackable. The 30% who voted “no” would create afurore if “King Kenny” was removed. The media would have a field day.
If Liverpool win the FA Cup, Dalglish will remain manager for at least another season. However, the owners probably have doubts about his judgement in the transfer market, so it is likely he will have to work largely with the players he has now.
Significant funds to strengthen are not likely to be available. If, after another season, the likes of Downing, Henderson and Adam do not deliver a top four finish, then can the vocal minority will be ignored.
But if Dalglish did go, who would replace him?
There is one solution, not perfect, but a possibility, at least in the short term. Still living in Merseyside is a manager who many fans equally revere. Rafa Benitez.
He is Liverpool through and through. He took the team from nowhere to two successive Champions’ League finals and one win.
He kept the club near the top despite chronic under-investment. He lost his job primarily because he was the one person within the club who defended it against the actions of the previous owners.
He is loved by many, but despised by others. The civil war that is breaking out among Liverpool fans is increasingly between those who want to keep the faith with Kenny, and those who want him to go and Rafa to return.
Or another option? I’m a As a Wigan fan as well as a Liverpool one, I’d hate to see the manager, Martinez, leave. But if he did, there is only one destination I’d want to see him go to. That is to Anfield.
He is an outstanding choice. The problem is the owners can’t consider such a move while Dalglish is in place, and he’s going nowhere. If the time does come for him to step down, Martinez will probably, by all reports, by then be at Tottenham.
If the board have considered him, they may want to think about a move sooner rather than later.
Could Martinez do a job at Liverpool? Is Benitez the ‘next-in-line’? Does Dalglish deserve more time regardless of the FA Cup Final result?
image: © illarterate
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
