I have been reflecting on yesterday’s firing of Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish and I was struck by the contrasting comments made by Liverpool Chairman Tom Werner and Dalglish yesterday.
Werner basically said that KD was fired because of the team’s poor league form:
“However, results in the Premier League have been disappointing and we believe to build on the progress that has already been made, we need to make a change.”
Dalglish on the other hand focused on winning the Carling Cup saying:
“Of course I am disappointed with results in the league, but I would not have swapped the Carling Cup win for anything as I know how much it meant to our fans and the Club to be back winning trophies.”
And that I think that was the difference between KD and Fenway Sports Group. It boiled down to how do you define success? Dalglish said that a club like Liverpool should be winning trophies every year. So winning the Carling Cup and reaching the FA Cup final is a big step in the right direction towards installing a winning attitude at Anfield.
FSG on the other hand don’t care much for winning domestic cups as it does not have much of an impact on the clubs bottom line.
To them the Holy Grail is the Champions League and the £30+m that comes with qualifying for that. It seems from afar that to FSG a successful season is finishing in the top four and qualifying for the Champions League, not winning trophies. So the Arsenal model would be considered successful to Fenway Sports.
As a Liverpool fan what do you consider a successful season to be? Is it winning domestic cups, qualifying for the Champions League, or is it winning the big trophies like the Premier League and Champions League?
