I have been predicting Dalglish’s departure from Anfield ever since his comments about the cups being more important than the league just before the FA Cup final which Liverpool lost 2 – 1 against Chelsea at Wembley. ‘King’ Kenny’s departure was mostly due to Liverpool’s poor form in the league, more specifically home form, in which the Reds won six, drew nine and lost four games, gaining only 27 points from a possible 57 scoring only 24 goals in 19 games in-front of the Kop!
I have never been one to call for the head of the manager but in this case I believe it was time for Dalglish to leave. His comments prior to the FA Cup final about cups being more important than fighting for fifth place in the league was the straw that broke the camels back for me. Liverpool ended the season with only 52 points out of a possible 114, which is a hit-rate of only 45.6%, and a massive 37 points or the equivalent of 12 wins off league leaders Manchester City and United!
Three other members of staff have left Anfield this season; director of football Damien Comolli and head of sports medicine Peter Brukner left the club earlier in the year, first team coach Steve Clarke also resigned after the announcement of Dalglish’s removal as manager yesterday.
Now the hunt for a replacement for Dalglish is on; with former Reds manager Rafael Benitez and current Wigan manager Roberto Martinez installed as early favourites for the vacant managers position. There is an old adage about bringing back a former manager being a bad idea and in the case of Dalglish; that is true, same was true for Plymouth Argyle when stepping back in time re-employing Paul Sturrock. So I’d rather not have Benitez back at Anfield, personally I wouldn’t have Martinez either, he only has a win rate of 26.77% in three seasons at Wigan Athletic.
Kenny Dalglish is; and always will be a Liverpool legend but at this time, the Scot is not the right person to push the club forward. He has made some questionable signings with Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing and Andy Carroll not representing good value for money, costing the club a total of £70m, only scoring 13 goals in the 2011/12 season, that’s £5.4m per goal; which is piss poor!
Although I don’t think Dalglish is ultimately the man to push Liverpool onto league glory, I would have given him another season to prove me wrong! What baffled me is that when Dalglish took over from Roy Hodgson as caretaker manager in January 2011, he dragged Liverpool upto sixth place from 12th, just five points off relegation. But after spending millions on new players in the off season; Dalglish guided Liverpool to their worst league performance since their 1993/94 season.