United make £65m more on match-days
IT WAS the season of Light,’ wrote Charles Dickens. ‘It was the season of Darkness.’ Then again, he didn’t have a major strategic review to conduct. You could pull off a bit of duality in 1859. Unfortunately, John Henry has a football club to run. He needs something a little more finite. And that is the problem with the season at Liverpool; it almost defies evaluation.
The best of times, the worst of times? Glass half-full or half-empty? Rafael Benitez won the Champions League and, technically, failed to qualify for it in 2005 — UEFA’S rules changed to get Liverpool in — but even that contradiction could not compare to this.
Football will always have the capacity to bamboozle. Birmingham City won their first trophy since 1963 and were relegated the same year; Chelsea were one win and a decent penalty away from a Premier League-champions League double, delivered neither and sacked the manager; Leeds United believed they were on the cusp of joining the European elite when the money ran out and the abyss opened; Portsmouth got their mitts on the FA Cup and it bankrupted them.
Yet, somehow, Liverpool under Kenny Dalglish have earned a unique place in football purgatory, because their contradiction centres on the perception of one man.
Grey was always going to be the nightmare under Dalglish. Black and white were easily addressed; it was the shade between that would throw up imponderables. What if Dalglish was not bad? What if he was just OK? What if Liverpool took two steps forward and two back? What if the jury was out, and staying out, unable to make up its mind? Who would be brave enough to remove King Kenny if he had not failed outright?
If Dalglish proved to be a roaring success or a crashing flop, issues would be resolved and the way forward clear. Yet, somehow, he has contrived to be both. A trophy winner who is overseeing Liverpool’s worst League run since 1953; potentially Liverpool’s most successful manager in a single season since Gerard Houllier in 2001 and their worst in the Premier League since it began in 1992. And he is still the King, meaning nothing he does is viewed dispassionately.
Even if Henry and his Fenway Group brought the best team of statistical analysts in and went all Moneyball on Liverpool’s season, adding plus and minus points according to expenditure, divided by points won, multiplied by trophies contested, over goodwill generated, to the power of £35million down the chute for Andy Carroll, they would still have to factor in around 10 million additional credits for Dalglish just being Dalglish. This is not an exact science.
Nobody should diminish the worth of winning a domestic trophy, even the often derided Carling Cup. Dalglish could only contend for three prizes when the campaign began, and may yet land two. Do that, and it would be impossible to question the merit of his first full season in charge.
Yet, does Carling Cup glory alone override the most unsatisfying League campaign of the modern era; or is Liverpool’s dismal League form unfairly diminishing the glow from the first trophy won since 2006? Riddles, riddles. If Liverpool spend in excess of £110m to finish close to 40 points off Manchester United, how can the manager be anything but culpable? What, even if he has taken his team to a Wembley final twice and won? You see the complexity.
Liverpool’s dilemma is that to live in the here and now demands praise for Dalglish the trophy-winner; but to consider the future demands that we question his buys, and his marshalling of a team who are struggling to make the top seven, let alone the top four. Henry, who said that anything less than a Champions League finish would be a disappointment, is now left to make sense of some pretty contradictory numbers.
While there is no question that the major strategic review will recommend removing Dalglish, the take on the manager long-term is vital. For the consequence of Liverpool’s inconsistent form and questionable acquisitions is not one lousy League position. Dalglish’s second coming is taking place at a critical time when UEFA’S financial fair play rules will change football’s outlook, perhaps permanently.
As it stands, Manchester United make £65m more from match- days each season than Liverpool, and when the club accounts are published later this month, the stalled progress of the plan to redevelop Anfield or find a suitable new home will be revealed.
The last accounts stated a figure close to £50m had already been unsuccessfully invested, and much would have to be written off. A naming rights deal is now being sought — sacrilege to some loyalists — although the continued absence of Champions League exposure will depress the price.
As much as Dalglish insists on doubting the intelligence of critics, Liverpool’s problems are not solved by one Carling Cup win. What needs to be established is a means of returning