Liverpool Continue Radio Silence Following Season Review and Staff Dismissals
It’s been over one week since Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers sat down with the Reds hierarchy to thrash out the details of a difficult season, and though the Northern Irishman has been widely tipped to still be in charge at Anfield come the beginning of the season, there’s been no official word from the club regarding their manager’s still tenuous grip on his job.
It’s not just that though — there hasn’t been a peep out of anyone. Liverpool chairman Tom Werner, who is quite fond of making proclamations, was one of the board members that met with Rodgers along with influential FSG director Michael Gordon, for what was expected to be a last meal of sorts for the faltering coach. With rumours circulating of highly rated former Borussia Dortmund boss Jurgen Klopp’s availability next season, the axe looked almost certain to fall, but instead they left the meeting room with what the BBC calls a “comprehensive plan” to improve performances next season.
“I am pleased they have stuck with him. I don’t agree with this haphazard, “Let’s sack managers on a whim,” plan,” said Anfield great Steve McManaman. “I always try and stick up for managers when they are under pressure. This clamour for change all the time is not good for the game.”
After a season rife with poor performances, the term “on a whim” is highly debatable.
Either way, it would appear their comprehensive plan got kick started right away with a purge of the Northern Irishman’s coaching staff quickly following the meeting. Both Mike Marsh and Colin Pascoe have been relieved of their duties, though no official announcement has been made by the club or the coaches themselves. Major League Soccer bound ex-Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, often thought to be consulted on if not in the know of almost all major decisions going down at Anfield, spoke of his surprise earlier this week at the pair departing the club, even going so far as to call on the Reds hierarchy to explain why they were let go.
While that’s almost certain to happen in the coming days, it’s been nothing but radio silence from Anfield as of late. Even the captures of Manchester City midfielder James Milner on a free-transfer and long-term target Danny Ings from Burnley haven’t elicited a peep from Rodgers, CEO Ian Ayre, or anyone else for that matter, leading some sections of Reds supporters to speculate that things aren’t exactly all they seem on Merseyside.
Time, of course, will tell the tale, but quotes from Klopp’s agent of his desire to manage in the Premier League will only fuel speculation that the German will head to Anfield once he decides to call time on a self-imposed break from the game. “The Premier League is very exciting, and we do not only think about the top four because there are some other great clubs below them,” said Marc Kosicke, agent to the enigmatic manager, before confirming that he’d prefer to work with a Director of Football — something Rodgers initially refused before FSG finally relented. “I am not sure the profile of the job could work,” he continued, speaking of English clubs reliance on the manager taking a leading role in transfers. “In Germany there is a clear separation between manager and sporting director and I think in principle this is very good. Jurgen does not like to speak to players’ agents or to carry out a transfer. So we have to see which is the most useful arrangement.”
Not even the dimmest of dimwits would expect anyone associated with Liverpool to comment on links to Klopp of course, but someone is going to have to say something about anything sooner rather than later. Flirting from agents aside, this lack of updates does not bode well for the Reds with instability at the club already seen as a major issue. While it seems that each and every summer is a “big one” for the Anfield outfit, after failing to qualify for the Champions League next year, it goes without saying that the trend will continue. Getting back-room distractions and clearing up the manager’s position out of the way early will do them no harm whatsoever.
Steven: I haven’t seen this discussed on any other blogs, but… what’s your opinion about the timing of signing a new manager?
It’s possible that a new manager that has to build a team from the ground up (we’re really a few feet under, actually) would prefer to start right away to benefit from a whole year of undivided attention to Premier League football, before attempting a first crack to the CL.
It wouldn’t make any sense to sign Klopp mid-season with only 6 months to prepare for CL (assuming we end up fourth, right now a very distant certainty).
Besides, if by mid-season Brendan Rodgers is somewhere better than he was in the last season, it will be harder to give him the sack.
There’s never going to be a better time to sack him than right after Stoke.
At least I’m hoping I won’t see anything like Stoke ever again.
I have no idea what FSG are planning but I can’t find any football logic in this.
It must be exclusively financial logic, then.
In forty years supporting this great club I have never witnessed so much mess on and off the field ,Radio silence ? There isn’t a pulse at anfield ,no direction from the manager who has clearly run out of ideas ,and as for FSG they simply must feel Brendan’s severance package is to steep to let him go just yet ,regardless of record breaking defeats and European capitulations .Finances come before glory that’s for sure with FSG ,I would like to know why they appointed a Novice manager in the first place ?
You’re absolutely right — I don’t think there’s a better time to sack Rodgers than right now, but I’m of the opinion that he’ll be manager come the start of the season. If you want to take the conspiracy theory route, FSG could turn the screw in attempt to force him to resign (sacking back room staff, a lack of funds and backing in the market, undermining his position on the transfer committee, etc.) to avoid a pay-out, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.
For all intents and purposes, Klopp is there for the taking. Whether or not he’s attainable for us is another question. I think if we get someone competent in as an assistant (Hyppia, Ayestarán, Meulensteen) and we get off to a another poor start to the season, Rodgers will get the sack with whomever taking over the interim.
Bringing in a manager — especially a bigger name — mid-season would more than likely be problematic to a push for Champions League qualification, but they’d also be given time to reshape the squad and tactics so it’s unlikely that not finishing in the top four would be held against them by anyone. Maybe it’d be better for a manager unfamiliar with the Premier League to take over a faltering side mid-season and say “we’ll get it right next year” rather than have them start in August and have to spend the first half of the campaign getting acquainted.
I think we’ll get some more insight into this when the transfer window opens in earnest.
That has some logic. But I still can make no football sense of waiting another six months if Rodgers’ demise is most likely going to happen anyway. I also find it hard to believe Rodgers’ payout day is of any relevance to FSG pockets. I read somewhere that the cancellation clause of his contract is about £10m. If this is a purely financial decision, £10m seems like little money, it doesn’t make financial sense to risk losing a lot more if Rodgers stays. Like, you know, wasting £110m, and parting with Suarez in exchange for a write-off season. Especially since we already saw them sack Kenny Dalglish at least nominally for this reason.
Rodgers has crashed a very expensive car beyond recognition and yet he was given the keys to this car again.
This makes neither football nor financial sense, unless Rodgers’ contract cancellation clause is a very, very expensive luxury that the club can’t possibly afford. North of £20m or £30m.
I otherwise can’t make any sense of the current situation making Rodgers dig his own grave for another 6 months.
I’m not sure that they want him to dig his own grave — I think that FSG want Rodgers to succeed for a number of different reasons both financial and otherwise but a major factor may be his willingness to play by their rules.
What FSG did when they took over the Boston Red Sox has been well documented and you saw echoes of that when they moved in on Merseyside. They’re going to do things their way and they’re going to bring in people that are willing to work within their plan. Could you imagine someone like Rafa Benitez being hampered by a transfer committee and signings that he apparently wasn’t interested in bringing in?
Now, whether or not those people are up to snuff is a different matter, but I think Rodgers has shown that he’s able to produce results if he has the kind of players at his disposal that work well in the kind of system that he wants to play. You can say that 2013/2014 was all down to Suarez, but it’s quite a bit more complicated than that. I think if Sturridge was fit for at least half of the season that we would have been seriously challenging for a top four spot if not pipping United to it.
But I digress…
No pulse! Love it!!
I’m not sure if they don’t want to fork out some severance money or if FSG think that Rodgers still has something to offer. I’m not expecting an official statement saying that he’s staying, but the silence coming from the club is deafening and indicative that something is going on behind the scenes. Just what that is I don’t know…
FSG cannot fire Larry and Curly and leave Moe Bodgers in charge it makes absolutely no sense. Get rid of him and get Klopp.
It was all Suarez but that didn’t stop bodgers claiming all the credit the big headed mupprt got he’s big head well and truly deflated this season though.
All the eventualities, and possible contingencies we weren’t prepared for are ultimately Rodgers’ responsibility.
All the “If Sturridge” explanations are really exoneration of responsibility, since everybody always knew Daniel Sturridge was injury-prone since the very beginning.
And we had no Plan B. We never had a Plan B.
All the lamentations about not scrapping the title, or the top four, or any other goals not achieved have to do with a lack of acknowledgement of the unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that was sitting before them.
This is a team which played without anything recognisable as a defence for the most part of the last three years.
Placing yet more responsibility on the handful of players who killed themselves and performed beyond expectations doesn’t seem fair to me.
Yes, Brendan Rodgers did overachieve at one point.
Yes, Brendan Rodgers had both the luck and the ability to improve what Luis Suárez was.
Yes, it’s to Brendan Rodgers’ credit that he saw the rough diamond that Daniel Sturridge was, and polished him, and made him a star glowing high in the firmament.
And then, he, and FSG, squandered it all.