28 Jan 2024 23:28:48
I think one thing that hasn’t really been mentioned is how often managers leave a squad of this strength and performing well and of their own accord. I can think of maybe heynckes, zidane and Ferguson off the top of my head, and you can argue that the latter two left squads not in the best shape. The new manager will have a team that’s hungry and experienced, some won it all, some ready to prove they can. There’s no huge overhaul needed, no culture issue, just a team that can be moulded and worked on. That for me makes me think alonso would be perfect. Albeit inexperienced, it’s always a challenge, but it’s not insurmountable. There are leaders and talent to work with, and players who I believe just want to win.
{Ed001's Note - Heynckes did not leave Bayern of his own accord, he was pushed out of the door for Guardiola. Ferguson's team was ageing and in desperate need of surgery. Zidane is a different one as Madrid were in the middle of a change in recruitment culture, so his squad may have not looked at its strongest but there were a lot of younger players on the verge of coming through.}
1.) 29 Jan 2024
29 Jan 2024 07:00:44
I hope our new manger is smart enough and more importantly modest enough to come in and keep the changes minor, tweaks here and there of course but nothing major. My fear would be a manger who changes for sake of it so he can say its his team. bascially for his ego.
2.) 29 Jan 2024
29 Jan 2024 06:33:58
Ed001 The best manager I know left a team very strong Sir Bob Paisley it was that strong I think am right in saying the next season it was the first English club to do a treble.
{Ed001's Note - correct.but Fagan was a brilliant man who was beloved by the players.}
3.) 29 Jan 2024
29 Jan 2024 08:57:46
Ed01,and they put out in the media that Heynckes was retiring cos that's what I read at the time and tho I wanted Dortmund and Klopp to win the title and the CL final, I was happy for Heynckes cos he always kept his dignity even tho, he gets treated badly by some of the clubs he brought success to. The guy won Madrid the CL for the first time in about 40 yrs in '97/ 98 and STILL got the sack.
However, Heynckes would get his revenge when Bayern shamelessly and desperately had to go on their knees begging this same Heynckes to come in and save their season in the 17/ 18 season after Carlo Ancelotti had failed miserably and Bayern were very close to losing the title. Never had a bad word to say about Bayern and the way he got pushed out either for Pep who would failed at Bayern, btw compared to him. A man of true integrity.
4.) 29 Jan 2024
29 Jan 2024 09:56:33
Digger, exactly what I was thinking. We need to be wary of bringing anyone in who wants to make wholesale changes just because they can. Souness did that IMO and look where that left us. We have a great young squad, apart from a replacement for VVD in the next few years it doesn't need major surgery or huge tactical change at this stage.
5.) 29 Jan 2024
29 Jan 2024 10:56:42
Spot on, Johnnyr1970. We can't afford another Souness situation nor can we afford to hire some guy with an ego and arrogance the size of Anfield to come in and prove he is the new big man on campus with the "It's my way or the highway" type vibes. Nope, hard pass.
6.) 29 Jan 2024
29 Jan 2024 10:59:51
Johnny I think even when Souness took over we had an ageing squad and the recruitment hadn’t been great. We had signed the likes of Sean Dundee and Glenn Hysen who were simply not up to standard.
This Liverpool squad is very exciting but what we don’t know is how much Klopp and his staff has to do with that. Is it the Klopp factor that gets the extra 10% out of good players to make them great or will they be great for the next manager too? At this level a very small drop off can be catastrophic.
It’s a great opportunity for someone to come in, take what Klopp has built and move it forward with a very talented squad. We just need to find the best person to do that and get the best out of the players we have.
7.) 29 Jan 2024
29 Jan 2024 11:33:55
Sean Dundee? You sure about that? Houlier/ Evans signed him from memory. And Hysen was decent when we first signed him but he was already almost 30 at that point and started to get injuries towards the end of his career with us. In general though, yes, we did have an ageing team at that point.
8.) 29 Jan 2024
29 Jan 2024 09:44:34
Ed01 who would you personally like to see get the job? Apologies if you have been asked this already.
{Ed001's Note - Xabi Alonso. He stands head and shoulders above the rest for me.}
9.) 29 Jan 2024
29 Jan 2024 12:40:18
Kenny did sign a couple of duds towards the end of his tenure but Souness made changes beyond that getting rid of players that still had something to give and replaced them with second rate players.
10.) 29 Jan 2024
29 Jan 2024 12:37:39
Ed, apologies, my knowledge isn’t that great clearly haha. But I guess my point was, how often is a new manager coming into such a strong position? And it seems very rarely. The biggest challenge probably will be the klopp comparisons, but as I said, alonsos lack of experience doesn’t bother me, as he has less issues here than he did at leverkusen for example, so pressure aside, is almost an easier gig to start.
{Ed001's Note - I do agree with your actual point completely.}
11.) 29 Jan 2024
29 Jan 2024 13:43:05
Exactly, Firmane. the whole "Well, he's not Klopp" comparisons will be doing my head in, for sure. Bracing for impact, as we speak.
12.) 29 Jan 2024
29 Jan 2024 13:47:50
That’s if they all want to stay. We might have an exodus of players for all we know.
13.) 29 Jan 2024
29 Jan 2024 14:22:41
The Souness thing being mentioned again. Maybe those people should check the facts concerning players who were sold and the reasons why and the restrictions that Souness had to work under were completely different.
14.) 29 Jan 2024
29 Jan 2024 16:09:19
Mark Walters, Mark Wright, Julian Dicks, Dean Saunders, David James, Paul Stewart, Razor Ruddock. Just some of the dross that Souness purchased and back then a lot weren’t cheap. There are others of course Kozma and Peichnik for example. In fact it’s easier to pick out the good players, Rob Jones, a steal but that’s your lot.
15.) 29 Jan 2024
29 Jan 2024 17:54:59
Just food for thought on the whole xabi not being ready
Pep Guardiola had 1 season managing Barcelona b side then in his 1st season got rid of Ronaldinho and deco and low and behold went on to win the treble . He had great players at the club like messi Henry and puyol and great youth getting promoted with the likes of busquets and pedro
The point I’m getting to is whoever comes in are inheriting a great squad with some great youth coming through
I don’t think the club will be short of candidates because a lot of managers will be looking thinking hang on I could be on to a winner with these .
Not the club struggling to make an appointment the way some people are making out .
Klopps only a hard act to follow if your trying to be klopp .
16.) 29 Jan 2024
29 Jan 2024 18:28:49
In response to the Sean Dundee point he was bought in 98 if memory serves correctly. So definitely nothing to do with Souness.
I believe he was 98 and then Erik Meijer the following season in 99.
What a time to be alive.
17.) 29 Jan 2024
29 Jan 2024 19:15:03
Didn’t Kenny sign David Speedie and Jimmy Carter?
Klopp is leaving a good squad although Salah and Van Dijk could be on the move.
Alisson is a key player.
But Jota, Diaz, Nunez, Gravenberch, MacAllister - great solid foundation there.
18.) 29 Jan 2024
29 Jan 2024 20:41:40
regarding Souness and his buys and players he signed, what you are ignoring is, this was at a time that uefa enforced the 4 foreign player rule on english clubs, which included irish welsh and scottish players. Either all the home nations had to be a GB national team or these British players were now classed as foreign. That is why he had to sell all but 4 non english players, and then try to sign english players to replace them. As all clubs were under the same pressure, most of the best english talent were not available.
19.) 29 Jan 2024
29 Jan 2024 22:05:32
Stevie tell me why he sold Beardsley and replaced him with Saunders then.
20.) 30 Jan 2024
30 Jan 2024 00:18:40
Saunders was signed before the rule change and was sold very quickly afterwards .
21.) 30 Jan 2024
30 Jan 2024 06:02:17
souness did inherit an aging squad that needed an overhaul (Hansen's insights are interesting) but he has said himself that he did too much too quickly. Coupled with some dud transfers (which to be fair even klopp has done though even Keita wasnt as bad as Dicks or Piechnik) and the writing was on the wall.
22.) 30 Jan 2024
30 Jan 2024 06:32:29
Correct stevie but under the same restrictions as other teams in the league we finished 6th in his first season. Some of the foreign players such as Kozma, Piechnik and Saunders to replace the likes of Staunton? He made a dogs dinner of it in my opinion and we never recovered ?♂️.
23.) 30 Jan 2024
30 Jan 2024 08:47:46
Sorry Johnny I was thinking of Istvan Kosma not Sean Dundee. The Scottish connection confused me a bit! lol.
It was similar to the situation at Utd when Fergie left, we had an ageing squad that really had no right to win the league in 1990 but we then got the wrong guy in Souness who had no idea how to rebuild the squad.
Add to that the emergence of Blackburn and Utd at the advent of the premier league and we just got left behind.
24.) 30 Jan 2024
30 Jan 2024 09:32:35
We seem to have a Souness fanboy in the thread here. He did a terrible job all round, defending his time as Liverpool manager is pretty much pointless TBH.
25.) 30 Jan 2024
30 Jan 2024 09:38:49
The restrictions Souness was under have never been faced by any other manager. Fact. Of course he made mistakes every manager has. Souness also faced a medical problem needing a triple heart bypass operation and still managed us in the fa cup final. One of our greatest and deserves more respect than he gets.
26.) 30 Jan 2024
30 Jan 2024 10:43:12
And also sold the story of his sickness to The S*n. He might have been a great player but he was a dreadful manager for this club and contributed significantly to the many years of dross that followed his reign. Someone needs to remove their rose tinted glasses.
27.) 30 Jan 2024
30 Jan 2024 14:21:08
@Dhfc, Xabi will either be ready or he won’t. We won’t actually know until he is offered and accepted the role and has introduced the way he wants to best use whatever squad will be at his disposal. There is no real point in comparing him to x, y or x and their career development as each had / has their own unique circumstances.
28.) 30 Jan 2024
30 Jan 2024 20:28:59
Complete tripe. Souness sold McMahon, Beardsley, houghton, staunton, Gillespie, burrows, ablett, all players who were still performing well and winning man of matches at their new teams. He replaced them in his first year with rubbish. No excuse, he ballsed it up completely.