From the ECHO, someone said the other day that they've gone incredibly pro the club, I think they are anything but these days. They seem highly cynical about the whole thing..
Who’d have thought it, eh? All that investigating, all that speculating, and it turns out the butler did it.
Or, rather, the assistant manager and the first-team coach.
Colin Pascoe and Mike Marsh are the first victims of Liverpool’s end-of-season review, the first major casualties of a season which started badly, briefly threatened to improve, and ended shambolically.
Their departures were agreed during Tuesday’s meeting between Brendan Rodgers, Reds chairman Tom Werner and Mike Gordon, the Fenway Sports Group executive. “Mutually agreed,” is the suggestion. Believe that if you will.
Actually, in a sense, that’s correct. Basically, the proposal was put to Rodgers, and he, after discussion, signed up. He stays, while two of his key confidantes depart, and the rest of the world is left to speculate.
For the manager, it is a chastening end to a chastening week. At best, it's a stripping away of his authority. At worst, it could be perceived as an act of treachery. He survives, while his chief lieutenants pay the price.
Harsh? Possibly. But then this is an unusual step. It is rare for a club to change its staff without it affecting the manager’s position.
So have Liverpool simply picked on the easy targets? In truth it is difficult to assess, accurately, exactly what kind of impact the departures will have.
Much of a coach's work, generally, is intangible, subjective even. What works for one player may not for another. We can make educated guesses based on results and performances, but ask players about a coach, and their answers may not tally with the common perception.
It is not known whether senior Liverpool players were consulted by FSG prior to this decision. What is known is that departures of Pascoe and Marsh, who have been by Rodgers' side since he walked through the door three years ago, will certainly affect the manager, and his network of power at the club.
“My staff here are absolutely critical to what we’ve done,”
he said when the Reds were flying high in April 2014. “I couldn’t do it on my own.”
He won’t be asked to do it on his own, of course, but the perception now is that whoever comes in will be FSG appointments, with the manager told to simply get on with it. And with them.
Rodgers rejected, last season, the idea that more top-level experience was needed on his staff. “We don’t need it,” was his response to suggestions a specialist defensive coach was required after a sloppy start to the campaign.
That was in October. By February, with his team’s form on the up, he was able to joke about the issue with reporters. “Must be that new defensive coach, eh?” he smiled. His joke would return to haunt him.
Now, the clamour is back. FSG’s feeling is that more experience IS needed, and that a reshuffle is for the best. They are also aware that, in Marsh, they have sacrificed a coach with a genuine affinity to the club. It would be no surprise if his replacement was another ex-player.
Already, the likes of Sami Hyypia and Jamie Carragher, as well as Pako Ayesteran, the former assistant of Rafa Benitez at Anfield, are being linked.
All would be welcomed by Reds fans, though all would, you feel, add to the pressure on Rodgers if they were appointed – all would be seen as possible replacements, looming large behind him should he stutter next season.
Of course that pressure will there regardless. Rodgers knows that better than anyone. He knows his neck is on the line, and that without Marsh, and in particular Pascoe, he has been left even more exposed. Not quite flying alone, but with less protection, less support from within, than he did have.
There is an acceptance, from both the club and its supporters, that something needed to change after last season. Sticking with the status quo was never really an option after the way the campaign ended.
Fresh eyes, fresh voices, fresh ideas on the training field – they can all help. The key now, for Rodgers especially, is that the transition as handled smoothly and professionally. No politicking, just a team pulling in the same direction, for the same cause - to bring success to Liverpool Football Club.
He’s had his warning, the manager, and he knows that the scrutiny will be enormous once pre-season gets underway. A clear, and immediate, improvement is required, both in terms of results and performances.
Fail, and the consequences are obvious. This may not be the last-chance saloon for Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool, but it is sure starting to feel like it.
