I'm sorry Kev if this should be in the other thread. I'll delete if needs be but it;s not about his future as such.
When the head of the LMA came out last night and gave his warning to premier league club owners about the perils of short termism in relation to sacking of their managers my first reaction was “Bastards, that’s some timing. Roy’s on the brink and they wheel out the big guns to back their man. Where were they when Houghton got the sack at Newcastle amongst others”?
So it got me thinking what is it about Roy that everybody likes? Why has he shown none of those likable traits while at my club? This just does not add up to me. At all.
Almost every voice who has been asked in English football has backed Roy. Most of our own ex players and club legends, Gerard Houlier, Andy Gray and co, multiple newspapers, Gary Lineker and Co, his fellow premier league managers, his former team’s captain and now the head of the LMA.
Why all the excuse making and going easy on him?
Do they see something I don’t? Do they see an old man trying his best to fill his boots in his last big chance maybe?
This is not to say that I agree with them but it did get me thinking and trying to look at things from another angle. An angle outside my biased impassioned position. As a fan I have too much anger to direct at this man who is destroying the club with his inability to do the job.
I posted in another thread this evening that up until today I have been as vociferous as almost anyone in my wanting Roy out the door asap (Although I tried to leave the abuse out of it) and I still do but my reasons have changed somewhat. What I saw as disrespect I now see in a different light. What I saw as claiming credit for the good work of others I now see as desperation. What I saw as bumbling rambling after bumbling rambling I now see as horses for courses.
Let me explain.
To me Roy has been drowning since the beginning of his tenure at our club. We know who appointed him and that it was ill judged to say the least but this is not the fault of the man himself. He has said that he viewed Liverpool as the panicle in his career and who wouldn’t take a top job if they had spent 35 years in their chosen field?
The problem Roy has is that the 35 years he has put in are not translatable to his current position. They are chalk and cheese in real terms. All his experience counts for nothing as such because he has not spent more than a year or two at any job even coming close to this level.
The result was and is inevitable. Failure.
The football his previous teams played was not transferable to Liverpool but most importantly and most damningly in so far as buying him time, is the fact that his media skills are nowhere near what he needed. He is a good talker, articulate in his musings but his problem is the content. Roy has been managing teams that are underdogs for so long that his “stock” of phrases and comments in interviews are on a different planet to what the fans of a club like Liverpool expect.
He’s desperate and in his desperation he is looking for positives he can attach to himself to try and buy more time. This comes across as stealing credit from others but desperation is a terrible situation to find yourself in. He has never been anywhere that his every word is scrutinized to such an extent and his head must be spinning at this stage. Evidently so by the absence of anything but staged comments in the last couple of days. He is out of time and he knows it.
I take no pleasure in this as an outsider watching this car crash. It’s ugly to see a man broken in front of your eyes. He is hiding it well at the moment but this must be hurting him no doubt.
As I said in the other thread I liken Roy to a boxer who has punched himself out and his hands are dropping. He knows he is about to be knocked out but pride is keeping him upright or in this case in the dugout at Liverpool Football club.
Anyway, that’s my take on him before he goes. (If he goes)
It’s ugly, it’s painful to watch, it’s destroying my club and it’s largely not his fault imo.
