Next Liverpool Manager

[Dicko]

Think my shortlist would be (in order of preference):

 

Hiddink

Rijkaard

Laudrup

Blanc

Hodgson

 

I think we could get any of those relatively inexpensively, and I think they would have us playing decent football. Not convinced any of them would be long term choices for us so I would want to retain Kenny as Director of Football if he'll take the job. Ideally I would have him managing us, but I'm not sure if he would want it or not.

Hiddink has taken over Turkey, or will do.

I'd imagine a hefty compensation fee would be in order.

Realistically Emery will be out of contract and is probably about our most realistic target, seeing as Sevilla want Aragones next season.

[zigackly]

Hiddink has taken over Turkey, or will do.

I'd imagine a hefty compensation fee would be in order.

 

Not really, he only signed for two years.

[Troubadour]

The presence of Oswaldo de Oliveira is genuinely baffling at odds that short. Done well at Kashima Antlers, apparently, but that shouldn't be enough, really, should it? I suppose Wenger came from Japan...you still wonder if someone at Sky Bet's had a tip, mind.

 

Del Bosque's a great shout after the World Cup. He'd help ease the transition for some of the Spanish lads, too, and he's unquestionably a top drawer manager. Big mates with Rafa, though, so you wonder if he'd be happy to play dead man's shoes.

 

Blanc's the best bet if you want a young, hungry manager despite his Manc connections (he was shit for them, though, which means he's not a proper Manc) and Hodgson is the only English manager who doesn't get totally and utterly found out in Europe. Rijkaard would get us playing nice football but his choice of relaxant may be a problem and Kenny would ensure the easiest transition.

 

Other than those, Prandelli, Laudrup and Jorge Jesus would get us playing good football and would all be comparatively cheap. Guardiola is irrelevant - Luis Enrique's his reserve manager, though, if you want to take a real pot shot - and I still think Mourinho would need money, however big the potential ego boost.

 

Fact is, changing manager is a risk, whoever you get in. The bigger the name, the smaller the risk, but it's still there. Or do you stick with a manager who's had one bad season in six?

[Dicko]

Not really, he only signed for two years.

I'd imagine his wages were immense though.

[Pool518]

Well Guardiola was a big risk I imagine, look how that turned out. I heard that Cruyff had Mourinho on the candidates list too, but crossed him out coz he wasnt synonym with the Barcelona way.

[Brownie]

The presence of Oswaldo de Oliveira is genuinely baffling at odds that short. Done well at Kashima Antlers, apparently, but that shouldn't be enough, really, should it? I suppose Wenger came from Japan...you still wonder if someone at Sky Bet's had a tip, mind.

 

Del Bosque's a great shout after the World Cup. He'd help ease the transition for some of the Spanish lads, too, and he's unquestionably a top drawer manager. Big mates with Rafa, though, so you wonder if he'd be happy to play dead man's shoes.

 

Blanc's the best bet if you want a young, hungry manager despite his Manc connections (he was shit for them, though, which means he's not a proper Manc) and Hodgson is the only English manager who doesn't get totally and utterly found out in Europe. Rijkaard would get us playing nice football but his choice of relaxant may be a problem and Kenny would ensure the easiest transition.

 

Other than those, Prandelli, Laudrup and Jorge Jesus would get us playing good football and would all be comparatively cheap. Guardiola is irrelevant - Luis Enrique's his reserve manager, though, if you want to take a real pot shot - and I still think Mourinho would need money, however big the potential ego boost.

 

Fact is, changing manager is a risk, whoever you get in. The bigger the name, the smaller the risk, but it's still there. Or do you stick with a manager who's had one bad season in six?

 

That's highly, highly debatable.

[Guest the boy]

Well Guardiola was a big risk I imagine

 

fortunately, Guardiola stepped into a squad with Valdes, Puyol, Pique, Abidal, Alves, Toure, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Bojan, Pedro, Eto'o, Henry, Busquets and so on. A lot of his success has derived from the youth system there which, though he was a part of, he had little say in implementing. Whoever is here in the summer, whether Benitez or an outside candidate, will have to overhaul large parts of this squad. They'll probably have to do so on the proviso that what they bring in they can spend, and so unless their record is immaculate, I feel we may be riding this particular carousel again same time next year.

[Guest the boy]

That's highly, highly debatable.

 

No; no it isn't. Every season under Benitez until now we have had a top honour to play for in May. Whether we ultimately won it is irrelevant: people fervently tout the 'we exist to win trophies' line on here and Benitez has always had us in the hunt for trophies.

[Brownie]

No; no it isn't. Every season under Benitez until now we have had a top honour to play for in May. Whether we ultimately won it is irrelevant: people fervently tout the 'we exist to win trophies' line on here and Benitez has always had us in the hunt for trophies.

 

'We exist to nearly win trophies'.

[Guest the boy]

oh, and if it comes to it, unquestionably the first choice should be Mourinho. I can't abide the man, but football is football.

[Ted]

In league terms its his fourth bad season out of six.

[Guest the boy]

'We exist to nearly win trophies'.

 

To be in the run is a predicate of winning them. The fact of the matter is, every May Benitez has had us in the running for a major trophy. Some seasons we've won them, some seasons we haven't. I would struggle to class a season where we've ended in contention for the League/European Cup/FA Cup as anything other than a 'good' season. And I won't even begin to drawl on about the circumstances and conditions surrounding the club as a whole during that time.

[Brownie]

To be fair, i'll hold my hands up and admit i'm wrong here. This is the first really bad season under Rafa. There's been a few seasons that i'd describe as 'okay' but looking at Troubador's post, he said, 'bad', so in that sense I can't argue.

 

Being just 'okay' is not good enough though, hence the angle I was looking at, and since Ted has also elaborated a bit on that.

 

The main thing for me is the league.

[Troubadour]

In league terms its his fourth bad season out of six.

 

In league terms alone - which isn't especially fair - I'd say it's his second and a half. 2005 was a bad season league-wise, because we regressed, and then 2008, when we finished fourth for the second year in a row was bad, but less bad, because we didn't move forward. One of those years, obviously, was not a bad season in any other way.

 

Fourth isn't good enough for Liverpool, obviously, but it is the minimum requirement now, for better or worse. You can't say it's been a bad season if we achieve our minimum requirement. Just because it's not a good season doesn't mean it's a bad season, I suppose. It's not black and white etc

[Ted]

06/07 was a terrible league season and what did we do in 07/08 to make it anything above average/shite? Torres was the only good thing to come out of that league season.

[Pool518]

fortunately, Guardiola stepped into a squad with Valdes, Puyol, Pique, Abidal, Alves, Toure, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Bojan, Pedro, Eto'o, Henry, Busquets and so on. A lot of his success has derived from the youth system there which, though he was a part of, he had little say in implementing. Whoever is here in the summer, whether Benitez or an outside candidate, will have to overhaul large parts of this squad. They'll probably have to do so on the proviso that what they bring in they can spend, and so unless their record is immaculate, I feel we may be riding this particular carousel again same time next year.

 

Actually no, Guardiola stepped into a squad who came third. the only big names they had then were Puyol, Ronaldinho, Deco, Messi, Eto'o.

 

Xavi and Iniesta only emerged after Ronaldinho and Deco left, and Guardiola made them main men. Pique and Alves were Guardiola's purchases. As for Pedro and Buisquets, they only emerged this season, coz Guardiola promoted them.

 

Im not asking for us to wow like Barcelona, but we definitely have the squad to win. Reina, Mascherano, Torres, Gerrard, would walk into any team. And we have young up and comers like Pacheco and Babel..Plus some creativity in Aquilani(I think) and Benayoun. We just need the right manager to mould them into a winning team.

 

Btw, I do agree that Guardiola has an easier job than our next manager, but what Im saying is, if Guardiola can take a squad that came third and win 6 trophies in the following season, I don't see why our next manager shouldnt be able to win at least one major trophy.

 

Our squad isnt that bad. It's Benitez thats making it look crap.

[Ted]

In league terms alone - which isn't especially fair - I'd say it's his second and a half. 2005 was a bad season league-wise, because we regressed, and then 2008, when we finished fourth for the second year in a row was bad, but less bad, because we didn't move forward. One of those years, obviously, was not a bad season in any other way.

 

Fourth isn't good enough for Liverpool, obviously, but it is the minimum requirement now, for better or worse. You can't say it's been a bad season if we achieve our minimum requirement. Just because it's not a good season doesn't mean it's a bad season, I suppose. It's not black and white etc

 

I don't see how it's not fair, it is his bread and butter.

 

06/07 was a terrible league season. I've elaborated on it in the fanzine this month. It was regression then and its regression now.

Edited April 5, 2010 by Ted

[Brownie]

To be in the run is a predicate of winning them. The fact of the matter is, every May Benitez has had us in the running for a major trophy. Some seasons we've won them, some seasons we haven't. I would struggle to class a season where we've ended in contention for the League/European Cup/FA Cup as anything other than a 'good' season. And I won't even begin to drawl on about the circumstances and conditions surrounding the club as a whole during that time.

 

As I said above, this is the first really bad season under Benitez, although all of the others have been a mixture of good and bad, depending on which competition you look at.

[Guest LFD]

I don't see how it's not fair, it is his bread and butter.

 

I agree.

 

He has shown little sign that he can get the players to perform week in, week out.

 

He has done very well in Europe, but how hard is it to motivate Torres, Gerrard etc to perform against Barca, Chelsea, Madrid, Inter etc?

 

A maanger needs to get his players to perform against the likes of Stoke etc and it is something Rafa has always struggled with, bar part of last season.

[WaltonRed]

The squad doesn't need a huge overhaul, it needs sensible transfers with players being bought for the position we need them for, rather than the scattergun policy of the Rafa/Eduardo axis. Sell some dross to free up the wage bill, use some youth players and maybe bring in one player of great quality. Some people make out like we're Hartlepool.

 

In one.

 

What is the main criteria for a Liverpool Manager at present in our current situation?

 

Are we looking at someone who can make an instant impact in the short-term and make us competitive like Hiddink did at Chelsea, or are we looking for an Arsene Wenger who can work to a budget and be part of a long-term project that will see us playing good quality, attacking football and will develop young talent ?

 

You can do both surely?

[Pool518]

As I said above, this is the first really bad season under Benitez, although all of the others have been a mixture of good and bad, depending on which competition you look at.

 

This is the worst season Ive had in all my years following Liverpool, but league wise for Benitez, Id say this is just below average for him. His "first place" is the table's "third place". And its this mentality which means we gotta change manager.

[Guest the boy]

To be fair, i'll hold my hands up and admit i'm wrong here...being just 'okay' is not good enough though, hence the angle I was looking at...the main thing for me is the league.

 

Which is fair enough. Essentially I think this is where a lot of Rafa's supporters and detractors have differed. Personally, I'd take a European Cup win over any League title. With the exception of Leverkusen, I was there throughout '05s away run. I was there in the Nou Camp, and the San Siro, and the Bernabeau. And for that reason it's not quite simple enough, to my mind, to say 'well, okay boys we gave him a chance, but let's farm him out and get the next hapless candidate in; they don't know what they're in for!'. I can't quite get my head around an Alex McLeish or a David Moyes. Even a Martin O'Neil or a Roy Hodgson.

 

Whomever comes in next, they do not know what they're in for. The expectations heaped upon the next manager will be incredible. From people such as myself who have seen Benitez raise the bar whereby anything other than a European Cup semi-final is seen as failure, or by people such as yourself, who see fourth place finishes behind sides entrenched in the philosophies and management of Wenger, Ferguson and Mourinho (all of whom will leave a legacy establishing themselves as the greatest manager in the history of each club) as failure.

 

Without real investment whoever comes in next will be on a hiding to nothing, and I'll openly, if reluctantly, say that all I expect from a new manager is positive football. I no longer expect trophies: not whilst the ownership issue carries on as it has.

[Guest the boy]

This is the worst season Ive had in all my years following Liverpool

 

I presume you're 7, then.

[Troubadour]

Actually no, Guardiola stepped into a squad who came third. the only big names they had then were Puyol, Ronaldinho, Deco, Messi, Eto'o.

 

Xavi and Iniesta only emerged after Ronaldinho and Deco left, and Guardiola made them main men. Pique and Alves were Guardiola's purchases. As for Pedro and Buisquets, they only emerged this season, coz Guardiola promoted them.

 

Utter, utter bollocks.

 

Ted, I don't want to turn this into a Rafa thread, especially because we're basically just disagreeing on the use of one word. 06/07 wasn't a bad season because we comfortably made it into the CL while also getting to the final, and 07/08 was average, rather than bad, because we achieved our minimum aim. I'm not saying either season was good, just that it's unfair to call either of them bad seasons. Plus this is only taking into account the league, not Europe, when the first was definitely a good season and the second wasn't bad either.

[Kevin D]

Ted's right about 06/07. Finished a point behind the mancs the previous season, they bought Carrick and, instead of buying an accomplished goal scorer and/or direct winger( as we all agreed should have been the case) we came back with Dirk/Bellamy and Pennant. It was a shocking summer which went onto cost us big time in the league( we were only ahead of Arsenal on GD); fortunately we salvaged a European cup final which I don't like talking about.