I realise some of you will fly off the handle at the title of this thread, but please give this a read....
For clarity: this writer will never consider Roy Hodgson’s reign as Liverpool manager as a success.
Hodgson’s reign from July 2010 to January 2011was littered with terrible results, inappropriate media dealings, poor handling of players both on and off the field and all while perfecting the defeatist demeanour of someone who had long accepted things were beyond his control.
However, in many ways they were.
Hodgson came to a club that was quite frankly, in turmoil last July. The iron grip of Tom Hicks and George Gillett continued to strangle the club, a highly dispiriting previous campaign saw the Reds finish 7th under Rafa Bentiez, the crippling debt preventing any significant outlay on transfers to improve the thread-bare squad and the loss of key assets such as Javier Mascherano and to a lesser extent Yossi Benayoun. The latter revealing his unhappiness in his final few months at Anfield after leaving for Chelsea.
There were certainly mitigating circumstances that offered Hodgson numerous ready-made excuses when his team performed badly, but just seven wins in 20 Premier League games, home defeats to Northampton, Wolves and Blackpool, an appalling away record and an abject 2-0 defeat in the Merseyside derby all spoke for volumes.
Indeed, Hodgson left as the only modern-day Liverpool manager never to win any silverware. Infact, the former Fulham man was ousted from the hot-seat before the first pieces had been handed out.
Such was the dislike of Hodgson at Anfield, it is tempting to suggest he will not be afforded a good reception from the travelling Reds who make the trip to the Hawthorns on Saturday.
But Liverpool are unlike any other club. Only the people who are viewed as shunning the support of the Kop are not remembered fondly, and Hodgson, for all his flaws was never one of them. He once complained he never truly had the support of the fans, but this is a far cry from the acts of others who are no longer adorned in the confines of Anfield.
Hodgson was honest enough to accept the lack of support was ‘understandable’ and the fans did not take to him because the team had ‘not won enough games to keep them happy’.
It is too simple to suggest we should all let by-gones be by-gones, because the Reds are still suffering due to early season poor form, but a set of fans famed for their class should allow their former manager the decency of a warm reception.
The Reds have moved on, guided by their King.
For clarity: this writer will never consider Roy Hodgson’s reign as Liverpool manager as a success.
Hodgson’s reign from July 2010 to January 2011was littered with terrible results, inappropriate media dealings, poor handling of players both on and off the field and all while perfecting the defeatist demeanour of someone who had long accepted things were beyond his control.
However, in many ways they were.
Hodgson came to a club that was quite frankly, in turmoil last July. The iron grip of Tom Hicks and George Gillett continued to strangle the club, a highly dispiriting previous campaign saw the Reds finish 7th under Rafa Bentiez, the crippling debt preventing any significant outlay on transfers to improve the thread-bare squad and the loss of key assets such as Javier Mascherano and to a lesser extent Yossi Benayoun. The latter revealing his unhappiness in his final few months at Anfield after leaving for Chelsea.
There were certainly mitigating circumstances that offered Hodgson numerous ready-made excuses when his team performed badly, but just seven wins in 20 Premier League games, home defeats to Northampton, Wolves and Blackpool, an appalling away record and an abject 2-0 defeat in the Merseyside derby all spoke for volumes.
Indeed, Hodgson left as the only modern-day Liverpool manager never to win any silverware. Infact, the former Fulham man was ousted from the hot-seat before the first pieces had been handed out.
Such was the dislike of Hodgson at Anfield, it is tempting to suggest he will not be afforded a good reception from the travelling Reds who make the trip to the Hawthorns on Saturday.
But Liverpool are unlike any other club. Only the people who are viewed as shunning the support of the Kop are not remembered fondly, and Hodgson, for all his flaws was never one of them. He once complained he never truly had the support of the fans, but this is a far cry from the acts of others who are no longer adorned in the confines of Anfield.
Hodgson was honest enough to accept the lack of support was ‘understandable’ and the fans did not take to him because the team had ‘not won enough games to keep them happy’.
It is too simple to suggest we should all let by-gones be by-gones, because the Reds are still suffering due to early season poor form, but a set of fans famed for their class should allow their former manager the decency of a warm reception.
The Reds have moved on, guided by their King.
