Well he wasn’t wrong, here we are still talking about that win 13 years later.
The obvious answer is Hodgson. Especially under H&G, I’ve never felt as hopeless for the future of the club.
Well he wasn’t wrong, here we are still talking about that win 13 years later.
The obvious answer is Hodgson. Especially under H&G, I’ve never felt as hopeless for the future of the club.
The fact that the club would spend the next eight years in the 2nd Division suggests he was not the only problem.
For some reason I thought you meant Roy Evans and was going to say how incredibly harsh that assessment was.
The guy that sent us to the second division for eight years that was in the 50s I think,
Bill Shankly came on the scene long after, Then we had Bob , Kenny then a drought of the PL with Graham, Roy, Gerard ,Raph #5, Woy, Brendan, Jurgen #6 #19.
Is easily Hodgson, though he had a horrible team,
Wrong for job and fans.
He won a cup and made another final as well as finishing in the top 8.
It wasn’t the best of periods but it’s not worse than some of them.
Hodgson.
We were fairly recent European champions, a true giant of the game, and his whole approach was like we were plucky underdogs. It grated when he gave interviews, and I never thought that he spoke for me, or for Liverpool, or for Liverpool FC.
Another thing about Hodgson, harder to prove granted, but in my opinion it was there - hubris. He came across as the sort of leader who wanted to get his CV out every five minutes. He seemed insecure, like he wanted to be respected, or acknowledged, for his standing in the game.
The best managers we have had have all been humble men. They have been real men of substance, but their genius was in pouring into the group, and lifting others, rather than in demanding to be lifted themselves. That made Liverpool FC great, and by extension, it made the manager great too.
Hodgson, by a long long way during my lifetime. He just didn’t seem to “get” the job or the club.
Some may be tempted to look at Souness for this accolade but having heard an interview with him on that period and the stuff he was trying to do, bring in and deal with I have more than a lot of sympathy for him.
I agree… The main thing I remember about Souness though… when Roy Keane was at Nottingham Forest and he was obviously available, Souness instead, went out and bought Julian Dicks…!
If he had brought Keane in at that time… His LFC story may have turned into a success.
Cant argue with that. Some strange transfer decisions most certainly but I guess if he was constrained financially or otherwise, needed a full back his choices were limited?
However, that period does show how far behind we were in embracing changes in the game. Quite embarrassing really
Not sure it was a money issue… Julian Dicks cost LFC £3m + David Burrows + Mike Marsh
Roy Keane Cost Man Utd £3.5m
I always felt, and still do… If LFC had signed Keane, he would have become the best midfield player LFC would have ever had in their history… Even surpassing Souness in that estimation…!
No. 2: Julian Dicks
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In what was seen by many as a surprise signing, Souness spent £3.0million, a fee which included important squad players David Burrows and Mike Marsh, to bring West Ham hard-man Julian Dicks to Liverpool in the summer of 1993.
Liverpool fans were immediately unhappy with this signing. Dicks was seen as a thug who preferred to kick people rather than tackle them. With Souness having already signed Neil Ruddock shortly before Dicks’ arrival, fans were worried that Souness was moving too far away from “The Liverpool Way” and was instead assembling a team of hatchet men. This may actually have been the case as Souness also pursued Leeds midfielder David Batty that summer. Thankfully he was unsuccessful in that pursuit.
Dicks knew he wasn’t a popular signing but announced that he would use his performances to gain the support of the Anfield faithful. Unfortunately the only thing Dicks gained that season was weight. During the course of the season he managed to add 19 lbs to a body which wasn’t slender to begin with and he was sent back to West Ham after only one season where the only two things of note that he managed were to score the last ever goal in front of the old Kop before it was demolished to be replaced by an all-seater stand, and to cause £17,000 worth of damage to a dressing room and bath at Liverpool’s training ground following a bust up with Souness.
Here is another Souness signing… Some may remember this guy :0)
No.1: Torben Piechnik
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In September of 1992, to the bemusement of the majority of Liverpool fans who had never heard of him, Torben Piechnik arrived at Liverpool for a fee of £650,000 from FC Cophenhagen to the delight of Graeme Souness. Souness really talked Piechnik up. He told the Liverpool faithful that this was the man to finally replace to the legendary Alan Hansen, who had retired the previous year, as the leader of the defence. He told them that he had got a bargain by signing an international central defender in his prime.
What he neglected to mention was that Piechnik wasn’t actually any good at football. A lot of Liverpool fans won’t remember Piechnik, and those that do generally tend to block out the memories, but for those who are interested, think of Sotirios Kyrgiakos, now take away his heading ability. That was Torben Piechnik. He had not one single strong point to his game.
Other than the ability to commit an incredible number of fouls (such as the rugby tackle on Marc Van Basten above) during a 90 minute game of football. Piechnik managed just 17 games for Liverpool and induced countless groans from the Liverpool fans before being packed off to AGF Aarhus in June 1994.
Arguably the worst player to ever play for Liverpool and in my opinion, certainly the worst signing of the Souness era.
Istvan Kozma?
He was the one I always used to mention as a “does anyone remember him”.
Disagree strongly. Top player but no.
Been around for all bar Welsh but to my mind Woy by a country mile,if he’d lasted the whole season he would have had us relegated,they still took too long to tip him.
And those bloody facepalms,they still haunt me!
Not the worse , but for me this was the very best moment of a manager’s reign, the one true King getting the goal that won us the title (from memory)…
Was the greatest player by a mile , and what a season that was
Brought a tear to my eye. Proper celebration by King Kenny, arms in the air, big smile, pure joy. Not like the fakes today. I’m looking at you CR7.