Should Football Managers Be Taught the Art of Public Relations?

The question and answer session yesterday with John Henry and Tom Werner was of course the main item on the agenda as although they both appeared to back Roy, they did say that the results up to date are totally unsatisfactory.

I have taken the transcript of the press conference from the Mirror and reproduced it below. Anything written in italics has been inserted by me and I make no apologies for doing so.

Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson does not fear for his job and is confident owners New England Sports Ventures will back him as he tries to turnaround the club's recent decline. I believe that they are only doing that because they still have an awful lot to learn about the English game and the way it works.

Things have picked up in recent weeks but Saturday's defeat at Newcastle did not help. Saturday's defeat was a diabolical display and after seeing what is believed to be a flip chart that was used during a meeting at the team hotel I am not surprised the team lost. I got the impression it was something more suited to 11 schoolboys who were learning the game.

In a fans' phone-in last night principal owner John Henry describing results as "unacceptable" and that was interpreted by some as a thinly-veiled warning to the manager. I sincerely hope it was a warning to Roy because the shambles he is creating simply cannot go on.

However, Hodgson said he was in total agreement with Henry's assessment but was not concerned about his future and was confident the situation would improve, given time and the necessary investment.

"I don't have any fears, worries or concerns," he said.

"But if you put it to me 'You feel there is no chance whatsoever of you getting sacked' then I would be in a minority of one in that respect.

"It happened to Chris Hughton, it happened to Sam Allardyce, Martin O'Neill resigned - we are all in that situation. Roy believe me there are thousands of supporters out there that want you to be number 3. Sam Allardyce and Chris Hughton lost their jobs Monday's so I would be very wary of the next one.

"But as someone who prides himself as a professional, who knows his job and is comfortable with doing his job, then you would excuse me for not going down the route you want me to go down in terms of 'Who can we get rid of next?' Are you a professional Roy, because you certainly do not know how and when to keep quiet. If you are comfortable in doing your 'job' at the moment then there is something seriously still ring at Liverpool Football Club.

"Because basically speaking unless there is a major inflow of cash into the club and the team is going to be changed from one moment to the next then whoever takes my place will be doing a similar job with similar players. That of course is the big question because listening to them yesterday, I got the impression that they have no intention of spending the vast amounts of cash that most supporters believe they will.

"The owners have made it perfectly clear they are in it for the long term and they are going to be patient; they realise it is going to take time. Again and I am going to be berated for this but I see it as more of a business transaction, than something they can get so involved in that they are around for ever. They have already put back the stadium redevelopment/new stadium although it was a pre-requisite of the original sale. This needs to done now, not at some point in the future. Patience is a strange thing because where the team is concerned; I think it should have run out several weeks ago. We simply cannot allow the lack of results to fester for much longer and not only do we need a new manager; we need players that will understand what wearing the Liver Bird on their chest means.

"They realise we can't turn things around overnight and they also realise that the team I am working with is not the team I put together. Things cannot be put right overnight I agree but then you Roy have had since August and we appear to be going backwards rather than forwards. Whether it is your team or not you are supposed to be qualified enough to be able to work with whatever group of players are put in front of you.

"You don't turn things around overnight and they are aware of the magnitude of the task but they are very focused on what needs to be done and I am convinced they will help me get it done." Hopefully they are aware of the magnitude of the task and I hope they realise soon that you cannot do it. The problem here of course is that they are still learning about the English game which is clouding their judgement to a degree.

Hodgson, speaking at a press conference ahead of tomorrow's final Europa League Group K clash at home to Utrecht, was quizzed at length about his position at the club.

He became increasingly frustrated at the line of questioning, although he accepted it was something he had become used to during his short time at the club.

"Once again I come here to do a European press conference, playing Utrecht when we are top of the table, and I find myself answering questions about owners and whether I am safe - it is a sad situation," he added. We are top a table yes -the wrong table in a sense. That table should be the premiership table but I guess we can all dream. The situation has been created by you and you alone.

"I came here to do a European press conference, which I am forced to do for UEFA, when really and truly I am doing a phone-in with you. Tell me Roy when has a face to face press conference become a phone-in?

"That is the nature of the game, it seems to be the major preoccupation of the mass media because they want to see change. It has become a major pre-occupation of the media because they are aware of how us the club's supporters feel.

"It doesn't bother me because I can't do more than I am doing, I can't work harder, I can't work better. If you cannot do more than what you are doing, then why are you are the club? You need to work harder to get the team to gel properly and to get the results that the club needs to return it to where it belongs.

"I have great confidence in my ability, I don't think there is any reason not to have. I can safely say that you one of the very few people that do have that faith in your ability.

"I know the players are working as hard as they can to win matches for Liverpool and therefore me as manager. If they are working hard and not getting the results then it must be something to do with your negative coaching. Torres has not looked happy for weeks and there is no way he is going to score whilst something is bothering him.

"But if you have situations like last night when you have phone-ins to the owners you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know how that is going to go because we are not top of the league. It was imperative that all the callers on the phone were going to ask about your tenure at the club because we have been led to believe by John Henry that he is listening. What he thought when he left the studio I would to know because he certainly knows now how we feel.

"Had we been top of the league it might have been different but we are not, we are ninth and we are Liverpool Football Club. Yes Roy we are ninth and that is not acceptable for Liverpool Football Club and it needs to be put right immediately. Will it happen, unfortunately and it hurts me to say it, but I very much doubt it

"You don't have to be Albert Einstein to work out more people will be unhappy with that than are happy with it." Unhappy - we are furious that our beloved club has been allowed to get into the state it is. Would another manager have got us into the same mess - that of course is something that we will never find out - because whoever takes over when you are finally shown the door is going to have one hell of a job in front of him?

At the beginning I pointed out that I believe he needs a lesson in PR. The fact that I have been able to put an answer to each of his point's, proves that he does not know how to handle the media - hence they caught him out extremely easily. Knowing that you are going to face the press twenty four hours later should have made him aware of the questions that were going to be asked and a list of answers written 'just in case'. It would have saved yet another embarrassing situation for him, the players, the supporters and the club.

Still I suppose this is Roy we are talking about and he has been uncomfortable in front of the press from the moment he walked into Anfield. So yes Managers should be taught the art of PR - any takers?

Once again my thanks to the lads at Mirror Football for publishing the article and I know they won't mind me pulling it apart.