LFC : The new beginning

I have just finished reading "Dalglish - My Autobiography", what a 'story'! From his playing days with Celtic to his management days with Blackburn.

The autobiography

I was too young to understand anything then, I only knew Liverpool was coached by someone called Kenny Dalglish and he has top players with him, Barnes, Beardsley, Rush and others. 

Then he left. It was Souness next, then Liverpool had Roy Evans, Evans+Houllier, Houllier, Rafa, Hodgson and now, it's the man - King Kenny again for the second stint as a Liverpool FC manager. Liverpool last won the league, their 18th title in 1990 and it has been 21 years now. Manchester United has finally took over as the most successful English team to win the league with 19 honors last season. It was a bitter fact for the fans to swallow but we just have to accept that United is that good and we were bad in so many ways.

Enough with the emotional babbling. Now with new owners in FSG, led by the charismatic American John W Henry things are looking much better for Liverpool FC. He re-called Kenny when the gaffer was away on holidays, without any hesitation the King reacted instantly to the S.O.S call. They brought in 2 exciting players, Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll and managed to finished 6th in the league. It was considered as a fair result looking at how badly they started earlier last season.

The actual re-building starts during this summer. Until now, Kenny with the support he gets from the new owner has bought Downing, Charlie Adam, Henderson, Doni and the latest inclusion Enrique from Newcastle.

I am actually getting a sense of deja-vu. Maybe its because I just finished reading the autobiography. Kenny is doing what he did at Blackburn. It was never the same during his time as a Liverpool manager. The time he took over from Joe Fagan, he inherited a magnificent squad, including himself because he was then the player-manager for LFC. So not much work to be done except continue the excellent work that has been laid in by previous managers, especially Bill Shankly.

At Blackburn it was different. They were a team from a Championship side that got promoted to the Premier League. He had good people working with him, the staffs and the players. But he needed to strengthen the squad with new players that's able to cope with the Premier League-like pressure. They finished 4th in their first season, 2nd in the second season and finally became the Premier League Champions in their 3rd season. What a success! Of course it was not duly to his own work but inclusive with the support he got from everyone at Blackburn. Even Sir Alex couldn't make United a champion less than 5 seasons in charge.

The same thing he is doing now at Liverpool. Only I don't thing it will take Kenny and Liverpool 3 seasons to become the Champions. Reasoning?

Liverpool FC is a club with its own tradition and stories. Most of it was about the success they had achieved, domestically and abroad. 18 times champions of England and 5 times champions of Europe, not including FA Cups, League Cups and UEFA Cups. Liverpool FC has their own style marked for so long. Kenny just needs to put everything back in place. Unlike the time in Blackburn, he had to build everything from scratch. They didn't even have a proper youth setup back then.

Kenny is Liverpool and Liverpool is Kenny. It may sound corny but its just the way it is. Even taking over the job half-way from Hogdson last season didn't took Kenny that long to get the team to play as how Liverpool FC should play.

Finally with the financial backing that he's got, Liverpool FC will be a force again, in England and in Europe.

YNWA