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A shame for Agger. He seems like a smart guy though, someone who isn't totally dependent on football in the way that many players seem to be. CB is a strange position at the moment. Agger injured long-term, Carragher progressing to ceremonial status, Kyrgiakos old and supposedly temporary, Skrtle inconsistent, and Wilson waiting in the wings. We need to bring someone in, but it's not even clear who to get rid of.

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Thanks for the link, good article.

Well, you have an interpretation. My point was that in general this stuff is a proxy for how rubbish a manager he is. It is not unknown for football fans to find ways of legitimizing attacks on those they don't like for other, more simple reasons.

Is that the 'Got no evidence to back any of this up but a good source' comment from RAWK? Really? I don't see how saying you don't want to work in a particular country again is xenophobic. The article I read implied he didn't like the press in Norway. Maybe he doesn't want to work in those leagues again because they're rubbish and he's old. There are a thousand explanations without needing to bring racial or national characteristics into it. I don't believe anyone would even mention it if we were 3 points above Chelsea.

Ungracious yes, but you have to read it that way to get xenophobia out of it. If a Sky reporter turned up in Milan to ask Rafa about rotation, and he replied 'I will make a note never to come back to england' it would not be xenophobic. The comments Hodgson made in 1997 about Italians not being embarrassed about diving, which I presume you're referring to, are priggish but arguably true. I'm taking a long term view. We have been s*** this season, but Hodgson is surely capable of keeping us in the Premiership. He's not that bad. After all, last season...

What has he said that's xenophobic? All managers are arrogant and conceited to a greater or lesser degree. The self-aggrandizement is true, although it is unsurprising that he is trying to bolster his position given that he's on shaky ground. The worst thing you can say about Hodgson's character is that he is too nice, or rather wants to be liked too much. He actually answers journalists questions honestly, and so walks smilingly into their preprepared controversies. As a journeyman, it is not his instinct to tie himself inextricably to a club and its tribal loyalties. That is a fault of sorts, and points out how well our previous two foreign managers have understood the club, despite the default tabloid attitude towards them. That stands apart from his undoubted mediocrity, which is the fact underlying most of the vitriol directed towards him. Which raises a point about the Liverpool support in general. If a club whose philosophy is founded on winning finds itself mediocre, how does it react? We find ourselves aggresively calling for the removal of a new manager in October.

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