Ruthless say some, reckless says I.
Disagree.
I think FSG’s strategy makes complete sense. Just to quote myself:
Liverpool FC Forum / Our most important signings this Summer.
« on: April 6, 2012, 11:58:06 AM »
So i would like to see:
1. Tactics. Andre Villas Boas.
This is the level of detailed tactical acumen you need to succeed in the modern game (dammit can't embed)
2. Goalkeeping. Xavi Valero.
Pepe was twice the keeper when Valero was our goalkeeping coach. Buying out his contract with Inter would surely be cheaper in earning us an extra 6 points a season compared to spending millions more on a slightly better defender than we already have? Plus it was well documented that he used to help Torres by advising him how to play against certain golkeepers. Another addition who would pay for himself.
2. Kenny’s performance hasn’t been good enough this season
Then: Kenny is the embodiment of the club and I back him completely for at least another season – not just because he is Kenny and deserves that but also because he has earned it with the way he came in at the tail end of last season and stabilised the club, had us playing amazing football and put together a consistent run till we ran out of fit players. Last season that was in the top two managerial performances of the season for me. Even without significant investment I thought we would challenge for a top 4 spot in the league as kenny's ideas became more asimilated into the cub and the players got more used to learning how to play with Suarez and Carroll.
Now: Kenny is the embodiment of the club and I back him completely for at least another season – not just because he is Kenny and deserves that but also because he has earned it. Nevertheless his performance as a manager has not been as good as Ferguson, Mancini, Wenger, Lambert, Moyes, Rogers or Pardew this season. You can have the strongest squad with the best players and still fall short if you don’t have the best manager (or at least the best managerial performance) which is the situation that Man City are facing right now. We are already way short as a team so the question is can we succeed with the 4th best managerial performance (let alone the 5th or 6th?)
Lesson Learned: Kenny was more than good enough as a manager last season which means that with the right backing he can achieve that again. For me the one massive overriding difference between now and then is the players we have brought in. The experiment hasn’t worked and we need to change our policy of player recruitment. At the moment we don’t know if that’s down to Kenny or Comolli so if we are going to back Kenny we have to back him all the way and give him complete power over the transfers coming into the club.
We need better tactical acumen, better coaching, better transfers and for better value.
The personnel who have been fired reflect that completely. Without these things being optimised it’s impossible to evaluate Kenny as a manager.
Yes, Comolli was brought in nepotistically but this was as part of a project by FSG to introduce some new thinking into the game – without a new approach we are destined to fail since we are already behind our rivals and can’t outspend them. To this end, a statistics-based approach need the right personnel to see it through and enact it, frankly it doesn’t matter HOW those people were initially found as long as they bought into the project. Just because he was appointed on the recommendation of someone who used a moneyball approach in Baseball doesn’t mean he was appointed on a ‘whim’. Oddly you acknowledge he was a reasonable appointment when you say he did an alright job – but the experiment (as far as FSG and others including myself are concerned) has failed. Giving him more time in the position won’t change the failure of this season – even if his acquisitions this summer were all to be successful. It would be a big gamble to throw money after bad.
Now, ideally the best thing would be to get things right first time – but that rarely happens at this level – what you hope for is that the owners have the courage to jettison a plan that has been given a fair chance but is patently not working. Your comments on Hodgson actually show why FSG should be given some patience – yes we could have got rid of him earlier but the plan was to make the best of that season and appoint a new, young, forward-looking manager in Summer – the fact that Hodgson did so badly that we had no choice to jettison him was the only reason Kenny was even in the frame.
Ultimately, only time will tell if they have made the right choice - but the chances of that are high because they have been, as in most of their decision-making, smart, bold and ruthless.
