On the May 14th 2012, the man dubbed by the supporters as 'King Kenny', was relived of his duties only one year into his three year contract, this was despite winning the League cup and getting to the final of the FA cup. The club's cup runs however, was in stark contrast to their League form where they finished in eighth place and below local rivals Everton. What didn't help of course was that many of Liverpool's big money signings (Carroll, Downing, Henderson), did not perform to the standard that their price tag's suggested.
Once Dalglish had been dismissed, many manager's names were banded about to replace the Scot with Wigan manager Roberto Martinez and former Chelsea boss Andre Villas Boas appearing to be the front runners for the post. Martinez was given permission by Wigan chairman Dave Whelan, to speak to Liverpool and did so on at least two occasions, in the end though the reds decide to raid Martinez's former club Swansea, for their manager Brendan Rodgers. Rodgers who initially turned down the Anfield club's approach, changed his mind once he discovered that their interest was genuine and is set to sign a three year contract after a rumoured four or five million pound compensation package is agreed.
It has been an extraordinary couple of years for the Ulsterman. He joined the Swans in the summer of 2010 after a very unsuccessful few months at old club Reading the season before. In first full season at the Liberty stadium he guided the club to promotion via the playoffs, ironically beating his former side Reading in the final. This was some achievement as Swansea had become the first Welsh club to compete in the Premier League, beating much fancied rivals Cardiff to the accolade. Before this past season had even started, the Welsh outfit were heavy favorites for relegation with some bookmakers even suggesting that there was more chance of Elvis Presley returning from the dead than the Swans staying up. How wrong they were!, Swansea not only stayed up, but did it in such a style that they were dubbed the 'Barcelona of England,' winning plaudits up and down the country.
It seems however that Rodgers will have a new challenge on his hands, to wake the sleeping giant that is Liverpool Football Club. He will have a lot of pressure on him from both owners and fans, if he has a poor start he may be feeling the heat, just ask Roy Hodgson. Rogers will have to try and rebuild the club after some of the poor signings made over the last few years and to do this he needs to be given time, if the owners rate him as much as they seem to, then they have to back their man. This is a massive gamble for the new owners and for their sake's it had better pay off.
In my personal opinion I believe Rodgers is overrated and unproven as a manager after inheriting a good squad at Swansea following the work of Roberto Martinez and Paulo Sousa. Despite this I believe he deserves to be given a chance and who knows, maybe the answer to a problem isn't always staring you in the face.
No comments:
Post a Comment