Monday 7 February 2011

Good Kop Bad Kop

Liverpool's majority shareholder, John Henry, has suggested Kenny Dalglish could be in charge of Liverpool on a permanent basis.

Dalglish was appointed as caretaker manager by the owners, Fenway Sports Group, to take charge until the end of the season. Kenny Dalglish has already made a big impact at the club and the manager’s experience going forward has given the strikers at the club a big confidence boost.

However, the new owners have also made an impact in their first transfer window, they took a punt selling Torres, but the owners reinvested the money from the transfer to buy two strikers. (Andy Carroll and Luis Suárez) A punt most people are happy with. The new strikers did not come cheap though, Liverpool had to break the club's transfer record to bring in Andy Carroll from Newcastle for £35m, and signing Luis Suárez for £22.8m was also an extravagant buy. The fans and the pundits would argue that the Liverpool squad is stronger than it was when the transfer window opened, and the club even managed to make a profit on transfers this January of about £10.2m

In an interview John Henry was asked how he felt about his decision to appoint Kenny Dalglish as caretaker manager, "In our case it was very fortunate, but we could not have made a better choice," Henry said. "I know he [Kenny Dalgish], for a long time now, has wanted to be in this position, so it's a great thing for the club, for Kenny and for us."

Henry suggested Liverpool might not build a new stadium, but instead redevelop Anfield. "The Kop is unrivalled," he said. "I was really surprised because we've heard so much about needing a new stadium. We were surprised at how beautiful Anfield was both viewing it as an empty stadium and then with the first game. It would be hard to replicate that feeling anywhere else."

Henry also explained why he sold one of Liverpool’s best players (Torres) "One of things that we talked about from the very beginning was how important it was that everyone was on the same page. No player is bigger than the club, we expect players to want to be here. If they don't want to be part of Liverpool Football Club then we should do everything we can to facilitate them going elsewhere." Strong words from a successful man, the fans of Liverpool have wanted a new stadium for some time now, the failure to build a new stadium is one of the reasons Hicks and Gillett became so unpopular with the fans, the fans will be hoping that this is not déjà vu. The new owners have a lot in common, they both are American, they both own American sports teams and they both promised a new stadium and backed out. Hopefully for Liverpool fans the only other thing they will share is Champions League football.
Written by Thomas Munson

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