SOCCER:IT IS Saturday, October 16th, and the eve of the first Merseyside derby of the season. There is a collective hangover in the red half of the city in response to the Royal Bank of Scotland ending the toxic reign of Tom Hicks and George Gillett the previous day and Roy Hodgson is invited to meet Liverpool's ambitious new owners.
This is all fantasy.
He is asked why he should continue as manager if his side lose at Goodison Park. This is not fantasy. This is the question legitimately being asked by Liverpool supporters right now.
The Kop’s call for Kenny Dalglish towards the end of Sunday’s home defeat by Blackpool represented a seismic moment in Liverpool’s history. A support that prides itself on patience and loyalty humiliated its manager after 14 matches in charge.
This is a position treated with reverence at Anfield and has prompted outright revolt only once – against Graeme Souness – since Bill Shankly “made the people happy”. There is no connection with Hodgson, and Hodgson has offered nothing to warrant the affections of Anfield. Quite the reverse in fact, and the tide may feel irreversible if Liverpool endure further misery at Everton.
Anfield was braced for its primal scream on Sunday.
Three debt-laden years under Hicks and Gillett have created a trickle-down effect and protests are no longer confined to the streets outside the stadium or to US businessmen.
That is not simply due to a series of pitiful performances, many Hodgson has defended, but because the 63-year-old is emblematic of the club’s decline and has hardened suspicions that he was appointed by the managing director, Christian Purslow, for reasons of compliability. Liverpool spent €10 million to change their manager this summer (agreeing a €7 million pay-off with Rafael Benitez and paying €3 million compensation to Fulham for Hodgson), a hefty sum for any club.
For that you would expect improvement in the manager’s chair but Purslow replaced a European Cup and La Liga winner with a man whose CV is more impressive for the destinations travelled than trophies lifted.
Whatever one thought of Benitez, it is hard to disagree with his recent assessment of the Anfield hierarchy. “The last year at Liverpool I had directors who knew nothing about football,” he said.
At his unveiling on July 1st, Hodgson was asked if he had accepted an impossible job. He rejected the notion in an accomplished, refreshingly honest press conference that did not set the tone for subsequent performances.
Eleven years after his last caretaker stint at Internazionale, and nine since his last trophy, a Danish league and cup double with Copenhagen, it was certainly true that he had been presented with a glorious opportunity. And equally true that it is being squandered.
Negative tactics, new signings looking out of their depth or played out of position (€5.7 million Christian Poulsen and €13.5 million Raul Meireles respectively) and poor individual contributions from the likes of Fernando Torres and Glen Johnson have not given the impression of a steady pair of hands.
Deep-rooted problems mean there is no easy way back for Liverpool, whoever is in charge. But for Hodgson to keep the spectre of Dalglish at bay and to deliver a convincing case for his employment under a new regime, he needs to deliver at Goodison in 12 days’ time.
