The Hodge is even worse than Ole-at-the-wheels, in my opinion.
So utterly clueless and yabbling through his posterior orifice.
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I hold no grudge with Hodgson he was the wrong man at the wrong time.
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At the time Hodgson had a far better CV than Ole ever had.
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The problem with the managers in the 1950s is that the club was run in a very amateur fashion. They didn’t let the manager pick the team and wouldn’t sanction significant transfers - the ceiling was what they paid for Albert Stubbins in 1946. This only changed when Shankly became manager.
Don Welsh didn’t really achieve much and suffered the relegation, although he nearly achived promotion before his sacking.
Phil Taylor was similarly hamstrung by the club but he managed to scout players like Roger Hunt, so you do wonder how he would have done with a budget.
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That is true. On the other hand, Hodgson was confronted with g+h, probably the worst owners since the Welsh/Taylor era.
That shows once again how crucial a good ownership is for a club.
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Sorry. That owl did my head in for a long time.
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To be fair he probably still does.
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Hodgson. Out of his depth. Spoke about us as a plucky little underdog. Didn’t get the team, the city, the people, the culture. Just a bad choice on many levels.
I appreciate the shout for Welsh, due to relegation, but that is a historic reference I’ve no feel for.
Souness didn’t exactly cover himself in glory as our manager, either. He wanted to change things quickly, but he got it wrong in the market more often than not. We had some aging players in the latter stages of their career. Obviously replacements were needed, but do it with some respect, and then crucially, bring in the requisite quality. I thought Souness failed on both counts. There was also the infamous interview with The Sun, later on, that got a lot of people’s backs up.
Still light years ahead of Hodgson, mind.
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There’s a famous line in succession that sums up Souness’ time in charge
But he was at least trying to win. He saw real problems that needed to be addressed and just made bad decisions in how to address it, but I’ll always give someone credit for trying to be great and failing. Especially when you see that it really mattered to them. Hodgson just wanted us to accept coming 10th, despite having a team that once Kenny disposed of the dross Hodgson brought in and played, would go on the be the second best side in the league. That sort of lowering of the bar is unforgivable.
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To be fair, lowering expectations has been Hodgson’s primary aim in every job he’s had.
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Remember that weird thing he did, rubbing his face vigorously when he was exasperated, which was quite often as he was woefully out of his depth. I should mention that he came in under the worst owners in our history.
Then again, that’s the only way he would have come in as manager.
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The decision not to get rid of Evans 97/98 season and even try the dual management was another huh moment.
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What sums it up for me in the Souness debacle, was when we had a chance to sign a young Roy Keane from Nottingham Forest, Souness went out and bought Julian Dickead…
Ferguson snapped Keane up, and the rest is history.
Keane had everything in his armoury to become the greatest midfielder ever, but then why sign up someone that would ultimately take that title, when the manager was still parading himself with same coveted moniker.
As a player, Souness had few equals, but as a manager, he was a bullshitter of the highest order… There is no shame in being a great player but unable to transfer that into a man managent talent, no shame at all.
He brought Phil Boersma as his fanboy from Rangers when he was appointed LFC manager, and I remember looking at the dugout in one game, and seeing two perfectly matched coiffed and bouncy perm hairstyles, accompanied with a body language akin to preening type peacocks strutting back and forth to the touchline during the game. Thought to myself then… Jeeeeze, who the fuck have we entrusted with our football club..!
Yeah safe to say, the Souness era was the worse for me, for that was when the rot began to emerge. You only have to listen to the guy when he is on pundit duty, even now, late sixties/early seventies… he just can’t get his point across, so gawd knows what he was like trying to explain tactics forty years ago…
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That was the most frustrating part of the Hodgson reign. Of course, there was plenty of justified anger at Hicks and Gillett at the time of his appointment, and he came in with a credible reputation. But he seemed to treat this club like a mid-table side that could see itself in a relegation battle, instead of one that should be challenging for trophies. He wasn’t built for a club of this magnitude.
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I don’t think I’ve ever got to the point where I gave up caring but that Blackburn game which I think was his last was the day I gave up caring. I had just got a new job so was moving to pastures new and was quite excited and I just couldn’t be arsed following what I knew would be another loss for a guy FSG it seemed we’re waiting to provide enough rope.
I remember walking through the shopping center in Swansea where I had recently viewed a flat and saw Sky sports stand reporting that he had been sacked and Dalglish was coming in. Everything seemed a lot rosier that day.
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its gotta be Roy in my lived experience…the caveat for me is that at least with Roy the Fan base was united and i gave that sense of lived together experience…the good the bad, in it together…
the lows of Rodgers were worse for me, a genuinely hard to like human, bluffing his way through, and we were divided, against each other, with a Brentesque chancer in between us…when Rodgers got the stay of execution, those months up until Klopp (October if memory serves correct)…they were about as low as i could get in my supporting life…i didnt hate it, i just couldnt raise the passion to hate it, which was worse…
so the lows of the Rodgers years are lower than the Roy period…but Roy the overall winner …because of 2014…
special mention for the period at the end of the Houllier reign…absolutely dire football on display, boring as batshit to watch, but Geds not in this conversation becuase of what he brought to the club during his time…
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BR was a very difficult man to like. From talking up his coaching skills and taking credit for an event on the field instead of giving it to the players, to his attitude of preseason 14/15 where he talked like he could walk on water after narrowly missing out in 13/14 as if he had cracked the code for delivering a PL title: boy had his ego played tricks on him there!
One of the factors when answering a question like this for me is asking whether they improved the club from when they took over to when they left, or if they Lobbed a grenade over their shoulder Fergie style.
I would say that we completely overhauled our wage structure during that period. How much of that BR had a hand in who knows. As a manager, maybe not much. But we certainly improved on the performance we got out of the players vs the wages we were paying, and it was a stepping stone to Klopp taking over and the structure being reinvented while Klopp was at the club. How many of BR’s signings continued on 1,2,3 years under Klopp? That’s a question as idk.
For the fact there was improvement across the board at the club, I wouldn’t put BR as the worst. Did the club look any better after owlface? I feel like we had low expectations when he arrived, and lower expectations when he left.
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He had an overestimated view of his worth. The 13/14 season itself showed his naivete. Any other coach in that position like Rafa etc would have pressed for some defensive midfield reinforcements and even a half decent goalkeeper.
Instead these were who we bought. Most of them never even used by Rodgers that season.
Cissokho on loan who was used as left back. Victor Moses on left wing.
Disposing of Aspas and Luis Alberto way too quickly
A beyond it Kolo Toure
Sakho did do a reasonable job that season as did Mignolet but any other coach who didn’t have his head stuck up his arse would have asked for reinforcements to guarantee the title.
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