A New Dawn Begins This Afternoon At Anfield
Several weeks ago Rafa Benitez, the man, many supporters of the club saw as their messiah and savour left Liverpool Football Club. For five of the six years that he was at the club, success seemed to be high on the agenda and everything appeared to be going to plan. Last season though, perhaps through lack of money, bad buys, injuries and players who appeared to have lost any interest in playing for the club Rafa could only guide us into seventh place.
After weeks of speculation about whether he would stay or whether he would go Rafa reached an agreement and he left the club. This signalled the start of what has become a month of rumours, a month of supporters hopes being pulled this way and that. Old rivalries have been opened up with some supporters openly voicing their opinions why a certain person should not be in the hot seat. Newspaper and internet forums have been filled with vitriol and hatred towards anyone whose name was not Rafa Benitez or Kenny Dalglish. Christian Purslow and Martin Broughton though have maintained a dignified silence through it all and after weeks of speculation, Roy Hodgson is the man now poised to take over the hot seat.
He is expected to arrive on Merseyside to put pen to paper this afternoon and will be unveiled tomorrow lunchtime at a press conference which has a provisional star time of 1-2 p.m.
Roy I understand will then immediately begin the task of persuading Stevie and Torres that their future still lies within the walls of Anfield. Mascherano I am not too sure about as I believe he has not been happy for quite a while and in everyone's interest it may be better if he moves on.
What could prove to be a pivotal time in the clubs history has also been bolstered by press reports last night, that the club are looking to expand Kenny's role which would enable him to work alongside Roy. This would I feel be great for the club and perhaps the old boot room spirit would become evident again. Both men have a wealth of experience in the football field, some good and some bad, but lessons I am sure have been learnt along the way and the players will soon benefit from a good English system being put into place at the club.
What everyone has to remember is that a new dawn is about to start at our beloved club and what happened in the past has to now become part of its history. If stability can again be found in the dressing room and on the pitch, it may open the door to a new beginning in the boardroom.
I urge every Liverpool supporter to get behind our new manager, whatever your feelings. I think we may be in for a very pleasant surprise.
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I believe LFC have launched a new motto to welcome the new manager "striving for mediocrity"
Good Point Faith :)
We must get behind the man in charge as We've always done :)
Wise Up! Pleasant surprise my Ar$e...So long to our few world class players...welcome back Danny Murphy! Joke
Great Article with great sentiment. All we need now is for Torres ( I think he will stay ) and Gerrard ( I think he will go ) to commit and things will look much better.
Good Afternoon RedRedMan.
Thank you for your compliment. Lets hope the players will commit to another season at least with us. I am sure we will find out the answer to that very quickly. Things I am sure will start to look better very soon.
Regardless of what you believe he IS our new manager, and he deserves the respect of every other manager we have had so far. If results say otherwise i will be the first to voice concerns, but he hasnt even signed yet so get off his back until he does.
Personally I hope he brings danny murphy back with him just for the fact he scored that goal against the mancs - One Danny Murphy, theres only one Danny Murphy LOL
new manager, jovanovic come out and silenced the gutter press rantings by pledging allegiance to us, some cash for players if can offload donkeys such as riera, babel etc, and maybe even a whip round at anfield for a bit of a war chest to start with.
Can tell you one thing, its lookin better than it was yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that. .
Will be fair and give him a chance, if it doesnt work then il boycott Liverpool until the ownsers AND manager goes.
Look on the bright side, hes not Rafa so may not play shite like Lucas and Ngog every single week, which the in Rafa we love lemmings gloss over, how can you have faith in a manager who thinks they are good players???????.
Yer Whoppers.
Good afternoon Ste. I hope you give him a least season to prove that he can perhaps work the miracle we all want to see.
If you feel the need to boycott the club, then to be honest you are not a true fan. The true supporter sticks by his club no matter what. Yes we club as issues and I agree because they are major ones but the most important thing we can do is support the manager and the players.
Tom Hicks and George Gillett are going to be around for quite some time yet unfortunately. It is not just the case of a new owner signing on the dotted line - the mess created and as you and I both know is massive - has to be sorted out.
I had faith in Rafa at the beginning but began to notice his failings very quickly. I now have faith in Roy and believe he can quite possibly start us back on the road of recovery.
Good afternoon Andy,
You are quite right when you say yes Roy is our new manager and deserves respect from all the supporters. I am sure if he does not turn around the teams fortunes within a reasonable amount of time, then yes people will make a point of letting him know. What worries me is that there are some called supporters out there, who shout and jump like ill behaved children, the moment he loses a game. He has to win over a disenchanted group of players, plus any new member of the squad and that is going to be hard enough at the beginning. I believe at the time of writing that his signature may well be on the new contract - I may be wrong of course - it may well be done during the press conference tomorrow.
I really do hope he brings Danny Murphy with him, the lad should never have been sold in the first place but again that is my opinion. I am not sure of the Jovanovic situation, so cannot comment apart from my belief that if he did sign a pre-contract in January then he should be bound by it.
Who Roy decides needs to go in a clear out will be entirely up to him. I suspect though he has already been given a list by Sammy Lee of the players he feels need to move on. It will indeed be interesting to see what happens in the next couple of weeks.
Yes the future is beginning to look a lot brighter on the pitch at least, but as I said a happy team and an improvement in results could lead to much greater things.
Fully agree
Lets get these forums bouncing with positive vibs, I'm sick of the negative.
The owners will sell (RBS told them so)
Any player wanting to leave should go, we now need 100% commitment. This is now about a battling attitude, we need a strong club again, not a few strong players ... weakening the club by holding them to ransom.
And all money from sales WILL go to the manager (that has been confirmed in the past and even Rafa didn't complain about money from sales)
What a great future we have ... with new owners some time this year to give us financial stability.
A manager that will bring the "old school" attitude back ... respect!
Great players (if Roy can find there ON button)
and world class supporters.
I'm getting a little excited ... 45 years as a support and the buss never leaves :-)
Time to Walk On ... with positive in your hearts :-)
RR
Good afternoon RR
I agree, the forums lately have been full of negative vibes, in fact because of what I have been saying about Roy and my belief that he will be a good appointment, I have had some rather nasty and necessary insults thrown at me, but that I guess is part and parcel of taking part. The owners will sell, but it not going to happen as quickly as people think. I have been advised that there is an offer on the table which RBS feel is the right one, the problem of course is out dear friend Tom and his asking price of ã800 million. He has it appears no intention of bringing the price down. I just wish RBS would bite the bullet and tell him, enough is enough.
I think Roy will have interviews with all the players and hopefully players such as Mascherano, who I believe is determined to leave will tell him exactly what they want to do. Hopefully as it has been promised, the money from sales will go towards the new players, but we have heard all that before and I await the outcome.
I think the old school attitude at the club will be back sooner rather than later. Maybe a boot room can be bought back in - order the brown ale anyone.
As you said Great Players, Great Club and Supporters who care very deeply about what goes on. The club has a great future and we must all Walk Onwards towards that.
Good afternoon David, What a bitter man you are. Rafa is now in the past and yes as I said we may all be pleasantly surprised at the end of next season. If we loose any of our world class players that is because they made the decision to move on many weeks ago. Danny Murphy was and still is a good player. If he does come back then like Roy he needs to be supported.
Good Afternoon Rick,
We must definitely get behind the man in charge especially a new one. If the players can see he has the fans support, I am sure it will help them show him that they also care.
If Gerrard goes, fine - he walked about the pitch like a 4 year old last season, so good luck to him. If Torres goes, fine - he's getting more fragile, and although his goals record can't be disputed, we need strikers who last a season, not a third of it. From those two sales we would get roughly 75-90 million on a good day. If Roy Hodgson was given that money to spend I'd trust him to bring in at least 5 decent players. We have no money, and we need at least 4 new players, so high profile players are going to have to go (Mascherano first). I think it's an exciting time for the club and I trust Roy Hodgson to turn us around. Don't expect any marquee signings in the summer, but do expect solid, battling and consistent players to be brought in - which is exactly what we need at the minute. If given free reign to buy and sell, Roy Hodgson will shape a decent season for us
Hi Redian,
Why on earth do you believe that employing Roy Hodgson will send the team heading toward mediocrity. The complete opposite may well happen. If anything and I hate to say this but if Rafa had stayed on, then yes I do believe Mediocrity was not far behind.
Please give Roy a chance - he yet change your opinion.
Faith Fulcher
Top man, positive comments all the way. As fans we can only support the Manager and Players and live in great hope things will get better. I believe they will, when the time comes I dont whats the point!(that will never happen though) Roy can bring stability back to the club and maybe we can be the club that gives him time to build something! Which he hasnt really had at other clubs, people forget the poor Inter side he took over with a complete lack of discipline, he soon sorted that rabble out!
I really believe Roy has the ability to command respect from all players and is also capable of the hair dryer treatment if needed!
YNWA
Good afternoon Harky.
I hope Stevie does not leave. I know he was himself last season - the poor lad had problems on and off the pitch but hopefully these are all now in the past. Torres, I get the feeling he is another Michael Owen. You are right, he does appear to be getting more and more fragile. We do not strikers definitely that can and will last season I am sure that Roy is aware of this but although he has been promised funds from any players that he sells, I cannot see him having anywhere near the figure that you have quoted. I don't believe his war chest at Fulham was very large so he is well aware of type of transfers he may have go after.
I certainly don't expect any marquee signings this summer, that in fact is not going to happen for quite some time as I have said with Roy knowing how to deal in the cheaper transfer market, I expect good solid players and ones that will relish the idea of playing for a club such as Liverpool. I am sure Roy will given all the support he needs in the transfer market and as you say we can look forward to a decent season in front of us.
Hi Dave,
I not sure if you mean me when you say top man - but its a nice compliment anyway.
We must always support the manager, even if we have to grit our teeth whilst doing so. I for one will definitely support Roy all the way. I am sure too that the players that stay and the players that he brings in will do exactly the same.
Roy will bring stability to the club, that I am sure of and yes hopefully we will be able to give him the time to build something special. If and when the new owners come in, they can see that he has made an improvement, they may indeed want him to stay.
That has been the problem over the last week Dave, people have tried to discredit him by talking about his mistakes, not the good ones such as Inter where he pulled the team completely round. He certainly has a challenge in front of him but I believe he do can do.