Roy Hodgson Mega Thread: The Sequel

[MOGLET]

I was disappointed –* and I've told him this – that he –* Dalglish – applied for the job in the summer because I don't think that was ever really going to happen for him.

Putting Liverpool legend Dalglish in his place, a man who has won more trophies than Hodgson has Premier League away* games in his entire time in England

 

That quote in paticular makes my fucking blood boil.

 

Why doesn't he just fuck off and take his mother fucking shitty signings with him?

 

 

Do you find it ironic, that the team dont actually follow the ethic of your sig?

[dennis tooth]

What have I said exactly?

 

If Rafa had won trophies in his last 4 years here and if it was possible to spot any steady progress in any part of the club while he was here he should have been allowed to continue.

 

Such a progress did not exist though and neither did trophies after Rafa gor to put his own stamp on the team, thats why he had to go.

 

I said I would be very happy if Hodgson could win us a trophy, but I would still like him to leave rather sooner than later, especially since I did not want him here in the first place and he has done nothing to make me change my view.

 

Hodgson will not be able to give us much of a progress either, simply because he seems unable to understand that he will have to change and develop his ideas to take this club a step forward, just the same as with Rafa where it always was one step up and two steps back.

 

He won the FA cup AND champions league and got us to a league cup final, another champions league final and regularly in the latter stages of all cup comps (Although to be fair each season we'd go out early in one competition).

 

I'd say we had a manager with a pretty good cup pedigree. It was the league most were wanting and why Rafa lost his job, had we finished in the top 4 last year, he'd still have been here but here you are saying you'd rather have a cup. I could take it if you and maybe others who feel the same way were consistent but people wanted the league after Rafa delivered the other cups, he didn't make the step up in that regard but in the cups he was as good as any of them. I really don't understand that side of your argument about the cups?

[Code]

He won the FA cup AND champions league and got us to a league cup final, another champions league final and regularly in the latter stages of all cup comps (Although to be fair each season we'd go out early in one competition).

 

I'd say we had a manager with a pretty good cup pedigree. It was the league most were wanting and why Rafa lost his job, had we finished in the top 4 last year, he'd still have been here but here you are saying you'd rather have a cup. I could take it if you and maybe others who feel the same way were consistent but people wanted the league after Rafa delivered the other cups, he didn't make the step up in that regard but in the cups he was as good as any of them. I really don't understand that side of your argument about the cups?

 

He did win those two cups before he broke up the squad completely when he got to put his own stamp on it and we have regressed proprotional every year rafa got more control.

 

For me 2nd, 3rd and 4th is nowhere because what you achieve is to be able to compete for another cup, personally I rather win a cup than win the chance to compete for one.

 

I`ve used this argument a few times before.

 

Most of us know how many league titles we have got, most of us know how many European Cups we have, FA Cups we have won and league cups we have won, most of us also dont have a clue how times we have finished runners up in the league at least I dont, because frankly it means very little to me.

 

Winning cups and playing in finals that is something compeltely different again and its something you will rememeber evenj if we lose the final especially if you are there.

 

Thats why I will always value a cup before a 2nd, 3rd or 4th place finish, what if we end up being knocked out in the group stage the following year, how great is it to have finished 4th then?

[Juan Galonso]

Yeah then we spent the rest of our years under Houllier in a football wilderness. It was a catalyst for nothing except restoring some pride in the fans who'd become so success starved as we'd won a solitary league cup in 10 years.

You don't need trophies to compete for the league you need a good manager and players. Funny the likes of Code say it's not enough when it's Benitez but at other times it's the be all and end all. Agenda? Make what you will of it.

 

But the point still remains, we don't have hardly any players in the squad who know what it is like to win a trophy with the club because we were close in 2006 when we won the FA Cup but the team and squad only 4-5 years later is unrecognizable.

 

That first trophy could hopefully be the catalyst of many as we get that winning mentality back. It may not be as Roy Evans and Graeme Souness found out but I for one would certainly like to find out.

 

Pepe, Stevie and Carragher are the only ones left with winners medals for us. Quite sad really when you think about it. A trophy could, just maybe could give that little bit more confidence and hunger to push for even more. It wasn't exactly a football wilderness after the treble season considering we finished 2nd the year after and won the League Cup the year after that, even though the league season was disappointing. Stating that is a little unfair.

[dennis tooth]

Yeah it was unfair, the comparison to Roy Evans league cup was fair though.

 

We like cups but when a manager wins one or two we demand the league as the next step by default. Then slate him for trying and finishing 4th.

 

At the end of the day though a top manager is more important than any trophy I think we can all agree, the trophies will follow the right appointment and hopefully the one we want most, after all, the league is still a cup competition.

[Section_31]

Roy, our chaps have won the Battle of Britain, it could be said that in the field of human confilct, never has so much been owed by so many, to so few?

 

"Well to be fair the Spitfire pilots were here when I first got the job, and as everyone knows I'm a Navy man by trade."

[Kevin D]

were they taken in 2005? Looks very fresh faced there.

 

All that hand-rubbing really takes it out of a man.

[StevieH]

Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson pleads to John W Henry and Tom Werner for chance to build team in his image - Telegraph

 

John W Henry and Tom Werner, the principal backers of the club’s parent company Fenway Sports Group, have lost patience with the 63 year-old and will consider replacing him — initially by installing a caretaker before making a permanent appointment in the summer — as soon as they have identified their preferred candidate for the temporary role.

Hodgson, though, believes it would be unfair to judge his troubled reign at Anfield based on his results with a squad largely bequeathed to him by Rafael Benítez.

 

Instead, he has urged Henry and Werner to back him in the January transfer market, providing him with the funds to build his own squad, before making a decision on his future.

 

“Being honest about it, I am hoping that one day I will get a chance to stamp a little more of my authority and philosophy on the team by choosing some more of the players,” Hodgson said.

 

“It is not often mentioned, but I have not been that active in the transfer market since I have been here.

 

“The players who are playing are the ones you have watched playing for the past few years. They have done exceptionally well for me in accepting a new manager, with a new style and a new training method, and giving the performances they have given, albeit that unfortunately we have been guilty of inconsistency.”

 

The structure introduced at Anfield by FSG suggests that Hodgson’s wish is destined to be a forlorn one. The appointment of Damien Comolli as director of football strategy — the first made by the Americans after their takeover in October — means the Frenchman will be handed overall responsibility for recruitment, regardless of who is manager.

 

That, in turn, allows FSG to make a decision on Hodgson’s position regardless of the obvious need to bolster Liverpool’s resources in the next four weeks.

 

The group are thought to be concerned by the former Fulham manager’s failure to inspire his side to improved form after a poor start to the season, while the breakdown of his relationship with fans is believed to be a concern.

 

So determined are Henry and Werner to bring an end to Hodgson’s regime that they have abandoned their initial hope to make their first managerial appointment since their £300 million takeover a permanent one.

 

It is believed that an interim candidate is now preferred to give the club time to conduct a thorough search for a new, long-term successor.

 

It remains unclear when such a decision will be taken, though only an improbable upturn in form would now save Hodgson. Even then, he would not survive beyond the end of the season.

 

More likely is that FSG are simply waiting for the right moment to end his tenure in a month when the club face four games in 11 days.

 

Liverpool face Blackburn at Ewood Park on Wednesday night before travelling to Old Trafford for an FA Cup third-round tie against Manchester United.

 

The rearranged league tie with Blackpool is on Jan 12, before the second Merseyside derby of the season brings Everton to Anfield on Jan 16.

 

FSG will be well aware that going into such an exacting period with a new manager in place is hardly ideal, especially given Hodgson’s admission that he — or any replacement — cannot rely on either Steven Gerrard or Fernando Torres to play three times in a week.

“If we are going to win games it is the Torreses, the Gerrards, the [Pepe] Reinas, that are going to be the ones to get us up the table and lift us above the rest,” said the Liverpool manager.

 

He added that he would have to rest them at times this month “and we will have to hope that the fans understand that.

 

“Fernando had a very serious knee injury, which — touch wood — seems to be in the past, but when you have had an injury there is always the little risk of recurrence.

 

“And Steven, of course, is susceptible to muscle injury if he plays too many games one after the other.

 

“I have just got to hope that the ones who just seem to keep going — the Duracell bunnies like Dirk Kuyt and Lucas Leiva — can keep us going and give me a chance of giving a rest to the others. But it is the same for all the teams in the league. We have got a couple of matches [rearranged], which doesn’t help, but a lot of teams do.

 

“But going into it our squad seems quite big and we probably have a little bit more chance of changing things around than some other teams do.”

[StevieH]

Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson could be replaced by Ralf Rangnick, the former manager of Hoffenheim - Telegraph

 

Kenny Dalglish seems the obvious choice to return to the post he last occupied 19 years ago, given the vociferous backing from the Kop he has already received. Ralf Rangnick, the little-known former manager of German side Hoffenheim, is a little more left field.

It would be easy to characterise the 52 year-old as a continental nobody, to mock his previous engagements at the likes of Ulm and Reutlingen in his homeland and his brief playing stint at Sussex County League side Southwick FC as evidence of how inappropriate his CV is for the task of taking over English football’s most decorated club.

 

Yet his work at Hoffenheim qualifies him perfectly. After comparatively unsuccessful spells at Stuttgart and Schalke, Rangnick, nicknamed ‘The Professor’ by a German football establishment suspicious of his modernity, took the tiny village club — admittedly bankrolled by the billionaire Dieter Hopp — from the German third division to the cusp of Europe.

 

His Hoffenheim side played thrilling, rapid football — an offensive 4-3-3 with two wingers, Demba Ba and Chinedu Obasi, employed purely offensively — which took Germany by storm and by surprise; he sought out bargains, like striker Vedad Ibisevic; and he invested heavily in youth, preferring to sign players between the ages of 17 and 24. He is fluent in English, having studied in Sussex in his youth.

 

On Saturday, he left Hoffenheim, together with his assistant, ostensibly over the sale of defender Gustavo Luiz to Bayern Munich.

 

Rumour suggests he – or Dalglish, Guus Hiddink or Frank Rijkaard – might take over when Fenway Sports Group decide to end Hodgson’s reign. Rangnick remains the outsider, as he has always been. He likes it that way.

[usernameunknown]

Oh look, its another "its not my team" message. What a wanker.

[WaltonRed]

We need someone to unite the fans, Rangnick wouldnt do that in my opinion

[Torvald Utne]

anyone half decent at their job would unite the fans.

[Iantn]

We need someone to unite the fans, Rangnick wouldnt do that in my opinion

 

What makes you think he wouldn't?

[WaltonRed]

What makes you think he wouldn't?

 

most people have no clue who he is Ian.

 

We struggle, the mongs would soon be moaning and tweeting John Henry about 'dis no mark'

[Iantn]

most people have no clue who he is Ian.

 

We struggle, the mongs would soon be moaning and tweeting John Henry about 'dis no mark'

 

Perhaps, but that'd only happen if we was shite. If he was to take charge and we starting playing some good footie and winning games I don't think many would argue at all.

 

I do agree that we've got too many blerts about though.

[Kevin D]

Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson pleads to John W Henry and Tom Werner for chance to build team in his image - Telegraph

 

John W Henry and Tom Werner, the principal backers of the club’s parent company Fenway Sports Group, have lost patience with the 63 year-old and will consider replacing him — initially by installing a caretaker before making a permanent appointment in the summer — as soon as they have identified their preferred candidate for the temporary role.

Hodgson, though, believes it would be unfair to judge his troubled reign at Anfield based on his results with a squad largely bequeathed to him by Rafael Benítez.

 

Instead, he has urged Henry and Werner to back him in the January transfer market, providing him with the funds to build his own squad, before making a decision on his future.

 

“Being honest about it, I am hoping that one day I will get a chance to stamp a little more of my authority and philosophy on the team by choosing some more of the players,” Hodgson said.

 

God forbid.

[chrisbonnie]

ive never, in all my years (29), seen a manager so blatantly blame ANYTHING BUT HIMSELF then ive seen with this ejit

 

at every chance he gets he makes excuses, talk about passing the fucking book,

 

he's a no mark, medicore, prick with no fucking backbone,

 

even when he slagged us off after the wolves game, id have had more respect for him if he hadnt have apologised, it proves how weak he is,

 

never was and never will be Liverpool material,

 

you need to be arrogant, and nearly airing on the egde of cocky to manage us, you need to believe Liverpools stature alone will win them games, you need to make opposing teams think, "oh fuck, we've Liverpool next week",

 

he will never do that, fuck all this, "3 more games to save his job" bollocks, cull him, and cull him now!!

[G Richards]

He's like Audley with his gold medal.

 

Best analogy I've read about Hodgson!

[Tyler Durden]

most people have no clue who he is Ian.

 

We struggle, the mongs would soon be moaning and tweeting John Henry about 'dis no mark'

 

Fuck the mongs

[Antynwa]

I feel nothing but pity for Hodgson.

[Fugitive]

The fact he is still here make Putin a sad Panda...

 

[JohnnyH]

Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson could be replaced by Ralf Rangnick, the former manager of Hoffenheim - Telegraph

 

Kenny Dalglish seems the obvious choice to return to the post he last occupied 19 years ago, given the vociferous backing from the Kop he has already received. Ralf Rangnick, the little-known former manager of German side Hoffenheim, is a little more left field.

It would be easy to characterise the 52 year-old as a continental nobody, to mock his previous engagements at the likes of Ulm and Reutlingen in his homeland and his brief playing stint at Sussex County League side Southwick FC as evidence of how inappropriate his CV is for the task of taking over English football’s most decorated club.

 

Yet his work at Hoffenheim qualifies him perfectly. After comparatively unsuccessful spells at Stuttgart and Schalke, Rangnick, nicknamed ‘The Professor’ by a German football establishment suspicious of his modernity, took the tiny village club — admittedly bankrolled by the billionaire Dieter Hopp — from the German third division to the cusp of Europe.

 

His Hoffenheim side played thrilling, rapid football — an offensive 4-3-3 with two wingers, Demba Ba and Chinedu Obasi, employed purely offensively — which took Germany by storm and by surprise; he sought out bargains, like striker Vedad Ibisevic; and he invested heavily in youth, preferring to sign players between the ages of 17 and 24. He is fluent in English, having studied in Sussex in his youth.

 

On Saturday, he left Hoffenheim, together with his assistant, ostensibly over the sale of defender Gustavo Luiz to Bayern Munich.

Rumour suggests he – or Dalglish, Guus Hiddink or Frank Rijkaard – might take over when Fenway Sports Group decide to end Hodgson’s reign. Rangnick remains the outsider, as he has always been. He likes it that way.

 

Ha ha, love that. Just name a bunch of managers. Sure if he adds another 20 names then he has every single base covered.

[James Dean]

Has Barretts last (tonight) article been posted yet?

 

I can't be arsed trawling through the mud.

[JohnnyH]

Has Barretts last (tonight) article been posted yet?

 

I can't be arsed trawling through the mud.

 

Not seen or heard. Anything good in it?

[KirkdaleRick]

Roy Hodgson out to forget his troubles with spree at the January sales

 

Tony Barrett

1 minute ago

 

Roy Hodgson has pleaded with the owners of Liverpool, Fenway Sports Group (FSG), to allow him to spend his way out of trouble despite his future at the club being shrouded in uncertainty.

 

FSG has already determined that Hodgson will be replaced as manager, the only question being whether or not his successor will be identified and appointed before the end of the season.

 

Only a dramatic and unlikely U-turn by the club’s American owners prompted by an upsurge in form would afford the 63-year-old any chance of remaining in situ, but Hodgson is seeking an opportunity to stamp his “authority and philosophy” on the team by staging a spending spree during the January transfer window.

 

Hodgson maintains that the present Liverpool team cannot truly be described as his unless and until it contains more of his own signings. After his appointment as manager last July, Liverpool recruited seven players, including Joe Cole, Raul Meireles, Paul Konchesky and Christian Poulsen, but Hodgson says that an even more significant incursion into the transfer market is necessary if he is to bring about the kind of revival that his critics claim is beyond him.

 

“I’m hoping that one day I will get a chance to stamp a little bit more of my authority and philosophy on the team by choosing some more of the players,” Hodgson said. “Although it’s not often mentioned, I’ve not been that active in the transfer market since I’ve been here.

 

“The players are the ones you have watched playing for the past few years and who’ve done exceptionally well for me in accepting a new manager with a new style and a new training method, albeit that unfortunately we have been guilty of inconsistency.”

 

The dilemma for FSG is that in planning for a future without Hodgson, it may be loath to offer him substantial transfer funds this month, but the decline in Liverpool’s fortunes could force FSG to be more liberal with its spending than had previously been expected.

 

The presence of Damien Comolli, however, may offer a solution because the club’s recently appointed director of football strategy could be empowered to direct all transfer operations regardless of the managerial uncertainty.

 

Hodgson’s desperation for top-class recruits stems in part from his belief that Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres cannot be relied on to figure in each and every game. The manager’s concern is such that he has warned the Liverpool supporters not to expect the pair to start all the games in January as he seeks to protect them for the rest of the season.

 

“I think we will have to [put Torres on the bench in some games] and have to hope that the fans and supporters understand that,” Hodgson said. “Fernando had a very serious knee injury, which seems to be in the past, but when you’ve had an injury there’s always the little risk of recurrence. And Steven, of course, is susceptible to muscle injury if he plays too many games one after the other.

 

“So I’ve got to hope that the ones who just seem to keep going, the Duracell bunnies — the Dirk Kuyts and the Lucas Leivas of this world — can keep us going and give me a chance of giving a rest to the others.

 

“But I think you’ll find a lot of teams have a lot of matches coming up. Our good fortune is that the squad going into these matches is relatively whole. We don’t have that many injuries, touch wood.”

 

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