Tony Barrett
Last updated at 2:59PM, May 15 2012
Kenny Dalglish has returned to Merseyside following talks with Liverpool’s owner, Fenway Sports Group (FSG), in Boston.
The Liverpool manager travelled to Massachusetts yesterday along with Steve Clarke, his assistant, and met with John W Henry and Tom Werner, the club’s principal owners, as part of an ongoing review into Liverpool’s performance last season.
As planned, Dalglish flew back to Heathrow after the meeting had ended, while Clarke remained in Boston where he accompanied Henry and Werner to Fenway Park to watch the Boston Red Sox record a comfortable 6-1 win over the Seattle Mariners.
Contrary to speculation that surfaced following the summit, Dalglish did not resign and nor was he sacked with the outcome of the talks being a mundane acceptance from all parties that the process of reviewing the season will continue.
Henry and Werner are seeking an explanation for Liverpool’s shortcomings during a disappointing campaign which culminated with them finishing in eighth place in the Premier League. The duo are also looking to Dalglish and Clarke to provide a vision of how they will revitalise the club’s fortunes.
Having already dismissed Damien Comolli from his role as director of football and a number of other senior executives, FSG have demonstrated that they will not shirk at making big decisions but they will know that removing Dalglish, a hugely popular figure amongst Liverpool’s support, would be another matter entirely.
For his part, Dalglish continues to plan for the future by scouting and targeting the players who he believes will help spark the kind of improvement that Liverpool’s owners are looking for. But until the review is concluded it is impossible to say with any great certainty that Dalglish will be in a position to put those plans into practice.