Liverpool In Crisis? - Part I

18 months ago, Liverpool Football Club was in shambles. Roy Hodgson was managing a free falling team, 4 points off the relegation zone. The clubs financial affair was horrific and there was a possibility that the club might go into administration.

Fans were divided. It was anarchic.

In the midst of these chaos, came New England Sports Venture (NESV) lead by John Henry and Tom Werner to salvage Liverpool. They presented a plan to move forward this great club which included investments in a youth setup both in terms of players and management. The court was happy with the plan and later allowed NESV to wrestle Liverpool away from Hicks and Gillette.

I would imagine the plan to be so comprehensive that it would definitely require a few phases to complete. Remember, they are not running a brothel. Liverpool FC is a huge club and decisions have to be made based on a proper, well thought plan.

Listed below is my assumption of what the plan might have looked like:

Phase I   - To stabilize the ailing club after the mess left by Roy Hodgson, Gillette and Hicks

Phase II  - When the club has stabilized, a new young manager is put in place

Phase III - To start investing on players, focusing on youth with potential

Phase I
At the time when Roy was about to leave Liverpool, the fans were divided and the clubs result, pathetic. If Roy leaves, who in the world can breath hope into the players to make them perform? Who can unite these divided fans into a strong force, back to being the 12th man in Anfield and make them trust the management again? The answer was Kenny Dalglish.

Ian Ayre, commenting on the departure of Kenny Dalglish in the latest Liverpool debacle had only this to say about Kenny's initial appointment back on 8th January 2011;

• "It absolutely wasn't a mistake and couldn't be further from it, to be honest. If you look back across that period, let's be clear - we asked Kenny to come back, he didn't ask for the job. We very much went and asked him to take the position, to come back and to help and he did all of those things. He always said 'if I can be of any help, I will'. He really was the catalyst to everything we have now to go forward. He was the person who galvanised everyone around such a difficult time, he brought people together, he brought the club, the fans and the players together. There were issues all over the place and in bringing all of those together he cemented us all with this unity to work together."

Kenny Dalglish second coming was very much anticipated and his appointment as caretaker manager proved to be a fantastic decision as it brought the fans together and made the team perform better. At the end of the 2010/11 season, Liverpool finished 6th in the league. Up 6 spots from where they were when Roy left. The mild success Kenny brought to the club at the end of last season meant phase II of the grand plan had to be adjusted. Kenny's managerial contract was extended from caretaker manager to 3-years full time.

Honestly, the change in plan was a natural decision. Last season ended with the fans thriving and the players upbeat. If they had kept to the original scheme of things, Kenny would have not been offered an extension, the new young manager would have started the season for Liverpool and the whole of Anfield would have gone berserk.

(..to be continued)