"Bas" has his say in the matter.....
Kenny Dalglish clinging to Liverpool manager's job after meeting with club's owners fails to lift doubts over future
Kenny Dalglish’s position as Liverpool manager looks increasingly fragile after he failed to receive reassurances about his future from the club’s owners.
By
Chris Bascombe
11:59PM BST 15 May 2012
Dalglish returned to Merseyside on Tuesday after a whistle-stop visit to Boston, Massachusetts. He remained in his post after talks with principal owner John Henry and chairman Tom Werner, but there is no guarantee he will be in charge of team affairs at the start of next season.
Dalglish travelled to the United States with assistant manager Steve Clarke, initially to establish the club’s plans for the pre-season, but to also challenge the perception that his job is under immediate threat.
Clarke has not flown home because he is holidaying in America, but Dalglish made an instant return to Liverpool to await the Fenway Sports Group’s next move.
Henry and Werner are troubled by
Liverpool’s failure to mount a serious challenge for the
Champions League places and are establishing the best way to ensure there is no repeat next season. They have been assessing if their vision for Liverpool can be realised under Dalglish’s leadership.
The owners are disillusioned with the inconsistency of performances and intolerant of suggestions that bad luck was the main cause of Liverpool’s failure to challenge the top four.
Dalglish has known he is in a vulnerable position since director of football Damien Comolli was sacked for buying too many underperforming players. The implication was that Dalglish, too, was being blamed for targeting mediocre signings.
Although Werner said at the time Dalglish had his “full support” there were no promises he would keep his job if Liverpool did not improve their league position.
Home defeats to Wigan and Fulham made the situation worse and there was a feeling that only winning the
FA Cup would save the manager.
Losing to Chelsea at Wembley raised concerns that Dalglish’s fate was sealed, and the refusal of the board to comment publicly on his future was a sign his position was being assessed.
Dalglish believes the most adequate response to a disjointed campaign is to allow him to continue rebuilding the squad and to pursue new signings and contract extensions.
In the meantime, there is a sense of impasse at Anfield as the outcome of the Boston summit is digested. The signs are not promising for Dalglish.
Although sentiment and popularity with the fans are on his side, any suggestion he would willingly step aside for a younger man is a misjudgement.
Acutely aware of the sensitivities of removing an iconic manager from his post, the Americans would seek to progress as carefully as possible in the event of dismissing Dalglish. They did not summon him to Boston and it was not a pre-planned visit.
The face-to-face talks with Dalglish were very much a late call following intensifying speculation. It was the manager himself who decided to accompany Clarke, who was already planning a trans-Atlantic trip as the assistant’s views are considered hugely significant in the end of season review.
The lack of a resolution after Monday’s meeting has led to an air of uncertainty at the club. The prospect of an amicable parting of the ways, with Dalglish willingly stepping aside, has been shown to be an unlikely solution.
There have been suggestions Dalglish would remain in an alternative role, possible reverting to the ambassadorial status he enjoyed before moving back to the dugout.
There is nothing to suggest that would attract him, and it also runs the risk of a successor being dissuaded from working at Anfield under his shadow — a prospect which will be unpalatable for those who witnessed the experiences of Roy Hodgson.
It has been a period of growing disharmony on Merseyside in the past few weeks with regular sackings and a sense of impending gloom for Dalglish’s supporters.
Comolli still needs to be replaced and the Head of Sports Science, Peter Brukner, also lost his job.
In the absence of a director of communication, following Ian Cotton’s departure a week ago, there was no one at the club in a position to comment on the feverish speculation surrounding Dalglish’s role on Tuesday night.
