I'll open up with a little honesty: No, I did not want Roy Hodgson, nor did I want Rafa sacked.
I felt and still feel a great deal of bitterness towards the way a man who truly understood the club and the city was forced out of his job by the xenophobic british media, a clueless board, certain wankshafts in our own support, and if certain rumours are to be believed, our own egotistical, ageing, big-headed players. However, if Rafa was to go, and at the end of the day I accept he's gone, and despite my feelings, will probably never return, I didn't want him to be replaced by a manager who was clearly inferior. I wanted Dalglish. Honestly. And someone like xerxes with his Machiavellian opinions will probably come along and stick the knife in a legend of the club again, saying he is past his best, that he's been out of the game too long, that he doesn't understand; but I don't really give a fuck about that. I wanted someone who had some visions of success. Who had been one. And/or someone who understood what Liverpool Football Club was about. Not only that, I wanted someone who hadn't been pushed into the job, his candidacy forced, by the 'great British media'.
It didn't happen, obviously. So much so that to quote another post I read around the time, when the season finally kicked off, I felt like I was watching the first Liverpool manager appointed by Sky Sports. And it was depressing. But it's not me nor is it 'The Liverpool Way' (personally I think that died a while ago, but whatever, it's obviously important to some people) to stick the knife in the manager before he has started. So I gave him a chance as we all did. And, yknow, originally he wasn't bad. Arsenal was an interesting game. Played well. But the first signs of trouble came. 'I was happy with the draw'. But you know, we had 10 men. Fair enough. But then when he's happy to draw away at Birmingham. When he derides the future of the club as 'the B-team' after they don't win a game against Northampton playing his shitty tactics. When he plays Raul Mereles on the right hand side of midfield to accomodate Gerrard in midfield. When he says 'my expectations weren't that high anyway'. When he describes Daniel Agger as 'on the wrong side of 30'. When he calls SOS and concerned fans 'that group of people' before a protest, you wonder if he understands what it means to be Liverpool manager. You wonder if he knows where he is, or what he's doing.
Finally, the nadir, today. I just watched a team in the merseyside derby, one of the biggest games in our season, who clearly had no intentions of trying to win the game. That's one thing I liked about Rafa and that has been a constant thread in our history. 'We will try to win.' Right now I don't feel like I'm watching a team that wants to win. I don't feel like I'm watching a team that can win, even if they wanted to, because of the submissive, two banks of four, ultra defensive style of play. Worse still I'm watching a manager who doesn't appear to want to win. I know that sounds daft , but you hear him in the press conferences. We seem happy to be nothing. Happy to let other teams dictate play. Happy with draws or close defeats. It sickens me. Liverpool is about winning; about success; about trophies. It's not about 'formidable opponents' or 'happy with the draw'. Shankly would absolutely hammer a Hodgson side. Why? Because no matter who they were up against, he believed he could, nay should, win. 'We'll beat Ajax 5-0'. And people believed him, and the team believed him, and the team believed it, because that was the ethos he fostered. As for the 'Fat Spanish Waiter' that Sky didn't like...'We are Liverpool, you are playing for Liverpool. Give yourself a chance to be heroes.' And we did. 3-0 down to 3-3 and the greatest night in my life. Fans singing 'You'll Never Walk Alone'. The players believed. The fans believed. Why? Because our manager did. Each manager has continued that. They understood Liverpool. Its mystique. Its history. They knew 'first is first and second is nowhere.' Roy Hodgson does not. From the ethos of Shankly, we've suddenly started thinking as a mid table side. A submissive side. A side that no longer believes it can win. And when such comments are publicly made by the manager, how can anyone be surprised when it filters through to the pitch?
People can make the excuse about Rafa leaving a bad side. He didn't. Look at the abilities of 'his' players and look at what Roy's brought in. Consider the fact that Rafa had the same 'bad squad' in 7th last year, and that was considered failure. What the fuck is 19th? Reina, Johnson, Agger (not picked by Hodgson, inexplicably), Aquilani (got rid of by Hodgson), Torres, Kuyt. Beyond the first team, Ngog, Ayala, Suso, Pacheco. Also made the likes of Gerrard and Carragher into even better footballers. The irony is, if they forced him out, I wonder what they're thinking now?
And yeah, thats it. I don't care if I'm a kneejerking c*nt or I'm not following the Liverpool Way. I want him out. It's too late to salvage. If he does not understand Liverpool Football Club and the ethos around it now, then he never will. The media and their bias can fuck off. Any of the pro-Roy posters on this board and the pro-Roy writers in the papers cannot tell me shit looks, tastes and feels like cake. I know what I'm seeing, I know what I'm hearing, and it is a man who is utterly in over his head. If he has any pride or any humility, he must go now, and this club must make a fresh start with our new owners, and become the progressive, successful football club that we should be.
The future starts now. Start it off right.
