2010 has been a horrible year for Liverpool FC.
A disappointing league campaign ended with the reds being knocked out in the Europa League semi-final before narrowly missing out on the top 4th, being forced to make do with 7th and European qualification.
The former hated owners, and Football Manager playing Managing Director, removed the Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez a year after he had managed to finish 2nd with a record points haul. The asset stripping of the previous 3 seasons had clearly had a knock on effect on the team, with key injuries to Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard not helping to our league performances.
Then in the summer, Roy Hodgson was picked for the job. His CV may have impressed the rest of the Hodgson household but it never impressed us, and it never impressed the Kop as a whole.
The season started poorly. The fans campaign against the owners and their £450M debts increased. Protests were held outside the ground, and this website and others even went as far as campaigning for fans to refuse to attend cup games and boycott official merchandise. (As Ian Ayre pointed out recently – this was having an effect on the club).
After court cases in London and in Texas, eventually control was wrested away from the former hated owners, and the club now stands on a debt-free footing. It’s immediate future secure. That should be a great source of pride for Liverpool fans who campaigned so vigorously to effectively ‘save our club’.
Martin Broughton and Christian Purslow left as the new American owners, NESV, took over and began their footballing education.
But Roy Hodgson continued to spread the decline on the pitch.
Many fans will have thought last season was bad enough – but the results this season have made it look like a fairly decent season in comparison. Liverpool currently lie 3 points above the relegation zone, still in negative goal difference, a way off last years performances and now the manager has turned on the fans, suggesting that we lack the ability to ‘support’ the club.
We appreciate that the new owners may not be footballing geniuses, but surely somebody at Anfield must have some football brains or even management brains. The relationship between manager and fans, and probably manager and players has broken down beyond all repair.
It was not an easy decision for us at Anfield Online as Liverpool fans to suggest 6 weeks ago that NESV had to act to remove the current manager. At that time, a decision could have ensured we at least fought for the top four. Now that chance has gone, the very best we can hope for now is probably a top half finish.
The longer NESV sit on their hands, the greater the risk to Liverpool FC, the pride of it’s fans and possibly our Premier League status.
Liverpool can’t afford amateurs in the managers dug-out or the boardroom for much longer.