benno2

So the Daily Mail reads RAWK.

It rings out all over Norway.

I hadn't seen that. We'll see over time, I imagine. It would be funny if they denied Utd their first choice though. As long as they don't deny us ours.

I agree, but the point is does Guardiola / the Barca hierarchy? Pepe's better than any keeper at those other clubs that are sorted in my view too. It doesn't mean they think they need to spend what would be a huge amount of money on a position that isn't perceived to be a problem. Do you ever hear about Barca being in the market for a keeper?

They're not though, are they? By far the two biggest clubs in his homeland are sorted for years to come for a start. Only Utd, Arsenal & Milan are really options on the same level, maybe Bayern at a real push. Two of those he probably wouldn't want to join out of respect for the fans. Inter have Julio Cesar, it's entirely possible that Rafa would prefer Pepe, but he's not in charge of transfers and Cesar is very popular there.

That just prolongs the uncertainty in my view. How do you get players to sign long-term deals under that scenario? How do new players sign for a club that doesn't know its medium / long-term direction? Some would, of course, but maybe not the right ones. If Kenny is thought to be the man, then he should take over full-time, but only once the full executive team is in place. Don't get me wrong, Roy's not the right man for me either, far, far from it. But the next man in should feel like the whole club is behind him. Events may overtake this if we have another miserable run of results, but my ideal scenario would see the board finalised and then they get their man in. Shoddy decision making has got us into this mess and to me there's only one way out.

I believe he was yes.

This is the problem when players are allowed to fill a leadership vacuum to dictate events and it puts NESV in a real bind here. They cannot allow their decisions to be led by players' wishes and demands, no matter who they are. This is probably why we're in this position in the first place and it's no surprise that some of our top players look unhappier than at any point in their time here. To do the same again would just anger some other parts of the squad and then where does that end? Reina isn't demanding anything publically and he may not have done in private with JWH either. Although I would hope that JWH would have asked the right sort of questions to get to the bottom of any discontent, with all the players he talked to. We have to hope that the new directors look at this properly and from all angles and make the best decisions calmly. Any decisions over the manager have to be done properly. Both sackings and appointments. The only criteria are getting the best for LFC in the medium-term. Even with the new structure and Comolli in place, the manager's position is still the most crucial of any employee at the club. It also has to be done with the full backing, as far as is possible, of all those above him in the hierarchy. That hierarchy isn't yet complete, so it makes no sense for NESV to get rid of Roy now, because they need to be clear as a body as to who follows. This cannot be done yet until the right CEO is found and appointed. An environment has to be created where all players both already here and those that we wish to pursue can be happy that their professional needs and ambitions are met. This requires leadership, strong leadership. This doesn't include bowing to foot-stamping and knee-jerk fan demands. The mess we're in isn't one created by NESV, we're all aware that it's inherited. They need a bit of time to create a regime that everyone, players and fans included, can unite behind.

If all this is true, then the true cost of getting rid of Rafa just mounts and mounts.

Holloway might be free soon.

Why would he move here? He's at the biggest club in his homeland who are going well in the CL and likely to qualify again next year. It's not like he even played for us.

So was the finish.

Even when Kuyt was up front in the first half, he spent an awful lot of time on the right side in an advanced position. Let's face it this makes sense, because with a left-side of Cole, Zhirkov and Malouda and with us having a debutant right back, they were likely to attack down this side a lot. Personally I thought this was quite a smart tactic. But I agree that Meireles is much better in a central position. If we had proper pacy wingers / wide attackers we could now start to go 4-3-3 with Lucas sitting and Gerrard & Meireles roaming box to box stylee. Kuyt's not perfect for this, but the right is the lesser of our problem sides, so get a good left-winger in January and we could move towards this. What am I talking about? That''s not Roy at all, is it?

That's entirely possible, in the days of bland PR and standard lines, it's very difficult to tell who is genuine and who's just playing the game. My point was more to do with the fact that Hodgson could still have said no. So could he. Maybe the money was too good to turn down and he would still have come if we'd put Barry Fry in charge. Maybe it was a Cisse like deal where the club felt it couldn't pull out. Who knows? As your later post rightly says, it matters little now. He's here, at the worst it appears that he's not unhappy with the move if his efforts are anything to go by and he's fitted in well.

I saw that game for Brazil against the Ukraine and would put his increased confidence, in part at the very least, down to that. He was superb in that as he was yesterday.

It looks that way. But for Meireles to feel the need to be persuaded by Roy would hint that the deal was not done, even if it had been lined-up. Therefore Roy had his hand in this and could presumably have said 'no, I want player x instead'. Therefore, at the very least it had Roy's blessing and was his decision in the end.

That doesn't necessarily rule out the former, does it? If he had been lined up under one managerial regime and then that changes, then as the player concerned, I would want to speak to the new manager and would need a little bit of persuading that this was still the right move for me.

All true, though I'd say he did okay rather than playing well. To me he also looked less nervy than previously, as though he feels a bit more comfortable and consequently wasn't as wasteful in possession. He's still got a long way to go though.

Lucas Torres Gerrard

True. But Skrtel going off for Sami in the 3rd CL semi away at Chelsea was also pretty crucial to that result. Drogba's very difficult for any centre-half though, but especially those with no pace. It's a big shame, because it does rob us of a goal threat.

You might well be right, but I'm not convinced the examples you give here prove that. After all, it wouldn't take 3 minutes to see that our squad is on the old side compared to Arsenal and is ageing generally with Carra, Gerrard, Maxi, Konchesky, Aurelio, Kuyt, Poulson & Kyrgiakos all pushing or the wrong side of 30. The management structure they're implementing is the same or very similar to what they're used to in baseball and the man they've appointed DoF is even known in their favoured baseball circles. And they've actually shown nothing yet on whether they do actually know what a good manager is other than name checking the obvious in Ferguson and Wenger. Don't get me wrong here, I'm greatly encouraged by what they've done so far, indeed some of it was what I was advocating last week. The clear intelligence they bring is also what I'd want to see. There will be great many apposite parallels to the professional sports they're involved in and they're obviously learning quickly so that's all good. I believe them though when they say they've still a lot of learning to do, because it's hard to believe that they can't have.

Good point yes. They should be praised for recognising and making that distinction. In reality, there are only 2 or 3 managers in the world that are successful and powerful enough through that success where that would apply. I would be prepared to bet that they would follow such a manager, with a DoF system though. Yesterday, I was of a mind that Hodgson would see out the season, providing our ongoing record was reasonable (by our standards, not Hodgson's), but yours and others' comments here have made me more hopeful that this is preparing the ground for change on that front too.

I don't think it's a dumb 'act'. They've clearly made a big effort to educate themselves quickly and are intelligent enough to keep up with the steep curve, but there's also a limit to how much you can learn in such a space of time, which although longer than the 3 weeks they've been here still encompasses only 4 months at most. About Arsenal, I don't remember them having a DoF, so they've added their own thing to whatever model of Arsenal they wish to follow for a start. But that probably falls in line with your guide not a blueprint bit.

More than a theory I'd say. The manager really becomes a head coach and because of the diminished responsibilites of his role, he should cost less too. This also means that pay-offs are smaller. Now the latter is theory, but ought to hold sway. But this does rather depend on making the right appointment as DoF in the first place and it does worry me that they've made this appointment so quickly with little knowledge at their disposal. But I don't agree with part of your first paragraph at all. I'd be extremely surprised if they've done this just because we're near the bottom on arrival. They've done it because they believe it's the right way to go forward and is something they're used to, believe it is the best way of dealing with recruitment and are comfortable with it. I also think it's not just that they believe player recruitment is the first priority, rather that it's always the priority going forward.

I'd be very surprised and would share your concern if that's the only recommendation they've acted on. But I can't see it being done on that alone. What does concern me slightly is them admitting they've got very little knowledge of football, yet have felt able to make an appointment of what they see as a crucial footballing position going forward. This does make me think that their list of possible candidates for this role wasn't exactly extensive.