Dalglish in.. Dalglish out.. in-out, in-out, throw the sentiment about, you do the hokey-cokey and you turn around, what’s all this talk about?
In all seriousness though, Dalglish in or Dalglish out? It all depends on your age, your experience of football and indeed your experience of Liverpool Football Club.
Are you still crying over the departure of Rafa Benitez? Are you frustrated by seeing Manchester United on the cusp of their 20th league title?
Are you part of the X-Factor quick fix, easy fame generation?
If you’re too young to remember Hillsborough then you’re too young to remember Kenny Dalglish, he is a man of iconic status, as told by your dad, uncle and granddad. He’s the man that chipped the winner in a European Cup Final, the man that won 10 league titles at Liverpool, the Scouse Glaswegian Messiah.
So now you see a man (some may say) devoid of ideas, devoid of structure or instruction, devoid of the qualities needed to lift 11 men week in week out. You see a man that doesn’t resemble the messiah your dad told you about.
I can understand the frustration, the anger at an assembled squad lacking in true quality, grit or determination. I can understand the frustration of seeing the old foe from Stretford surpass the historic achievements of our fine club. I get it, I get it all.
Maybe the return of Kenny Dalglish led to some rather foolish ambitioned thoughts by us all. The man that led us to our last league title was back, surely his first full season would deliver number 19.? The man knows no failure in red. Your granddad was over the moon, your dad was beside himself, this was our time, this messiah you had heard so much about, seen so much of on DVD was back to reclaim his rightful crown and he’d drop kick old whisky nose in the bollocks whilst he was at it.
Maybe you are the dad, the uncle, the granddad that told so much about the return of the King, the return of the good times. It’s as good as done, fucks sake, its Kenny Dalglish of course we’ll reign again, back on OUR rightful perch.
So it’s disappointing isn’t it.? Look at what we saw week in week out then, to what we see now. A team that can’t pass, can’t score, has no fight and can’t be motivated. Is this the same man that led Barnes, Rush and Beardsley to numerous titles? It looks like him in the dugout, but it doesn’t act like him, what’s going on?
We all scoffed at Utd’s banner, we self indulged in their inadequacies. “3 years of excuses and it’s still crap. Ta-ra Fergie”.
Who wishes social media was around in 1989? Who wishes the likes of Daniel Taylor were around then? If they were Ferguson would have been gone in ’89, off up back to Scotland with his tail between his legs. What a thought. Truth is they weren’t and Ferguson won the FA Cup and had a reprieve, he’s gone on to become one of the greatest managers the English game has witnessed (that sentence hurt a lot).
Yes Dalglish has got it wrong this season. The T-shirts, the media on occasion, the starting 11, the substitutes.. Dear God the substitutes (lack of), but he has got a winners medal.
“So what it’s the Fizzy Pop Cup, its worthless” they cry, they being those who periodically finish 3rd or 4th with no trophies or medals. The Carling Cup is worthless when you’re not in the Final, I doubt Arsenal thought it was worthless as they kicked off against Birmingham in 2011. History remembers winners, history remembers champions, be them league champions or cup champions it doesn’t matter. History doesn’t remember runners up or 4th placed teams.
Trouble is we live in a ten minutes ago world, an impatient world where everything has to be now, last week, tomorrow is too late. The next week will go some way as to define Dalglish’s ability to continue as manager. Victory against Everton will buy time as will any improvement in league form.
After the debacle of Hodgson the majority of reds will admit that Benitez was let go too soon, what would he have done with FSG’s money? That question is rhetorical; I don’t think he is the answer for Liverpool Football Club.
Modern football is moribund; don’t let us add to it. We used to be known as patient supporters, not knee-jerkers, we laughed at the likes of Chelsea and their manager turnarounds. Would a 4th manager at the helm inside 2 years really help progress?
Before we cast Dalglish off as a failure after one full season let us revisit the banner we scoffed at so joyfully in 1989.. “3 years..”
Those 3 years became 7 in total before Ferguson delivered a title, never were the words of Thomas Fuller more truthful than during those years: “All things are difficult before they are easy”
When Liverpool Football Club, its players and supporters needed a tower of strength in its most darkest of times a beacon shone through, Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish was that light.
When the club, its people and its City was on its knees Dalglish went above and beyond the call of duty for a football manager.
Some may say this is his Liverpool managerial hour of need, let us repay him, because if we do we have repaid only a tenth of the debt owed to him.
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