It was great news this afternoon to hear about the appointment of Kenny Dalglish as permanent manager of Liverpool Football Club. Of course, there was some impatience among some Reds fans that this hadn’t been done earlier after the massive turnaround which has taken place under King Kenny, but I think it was right for FSG to take stock of things, and make sure they made the right decision in their own time.
John W Henry and Tom Werner are two highly intelligent individuals, and along with Managing Director Ian Ayre and Director of Football Damien Comolli, the Reds have people in place who are taking the club forward in the right way. With the decision over Kenny’s contract, they looked at the massive lift of confidence around the players and the fans, the uniting force which Kenny brought to the club, his unrivalled knowledge of both the club’s philosophy and ethos, and they decided to make the decision before the end of the season.
From my point of view, it was very important that the decision to appoint Kenny was done sooner rather than later. No doubt Damien Comolli and Kenny Dalglish were already drawing up transfer targets before the contract was signed, and it is very difficult to plan for the future of the club if the manager’s future was still uncertain. Kenny said as much in his press conference today. When asked about plans for next season he said:
“Work was getting done anyway about players’ coming back for training. The only difference is there isn’t someone else coming in to take over what the planning is.”
If somebody was to take over the planning, it would have caused a lot more difficulty as the club is trying to get to a point of stability where the outlook for the club’s future is planned out somewhat. Damien Comolli alluded to this as much today when he stated that the philosophy and ethos of the club had been found once again under King Kenny, and that it would be difficult for anyone else to take the club forward where the team could play the same way at Under 13s level up to the senior team.
It is hard not to be optimistic about Liverpool for next season. Having Kenny back just brings a feelgood factor that is hard to measure the importance of. Add to that some youngsters playing out of their skin with consistency and I am a happy chappie!