Football Update: Liverpool Legend Ray Clemence believes firing Roy Hodgson is not the solution
Liverpool is a team that is always in the news for all the wrong reasons these days, the reds who have won 18 league titles and 5 European cups are currently in the drop zone in English Premier League. This is their worst start to the season in 3 decades,
and already there are calls to sack the new manager Roy Hodgson, who took over in the summer after Spanish manager Rafael Benitez left.
Former Liverpool player, Ray Clemence has come out in defence of the manager and said that it is not fair to judge the man after just 3 months in charge.
During the last League match for Liverpool against Blackpool, which they ended up losing 2-1, the shouted loudly to bring back former manager Kenny Dalglish back.
Clemence believes that sacking Hodgson is not really a quick fix, and he is just being made an escape goat. He said that the problem in much bigger and the team owners are the ones to blame for it. He said that until the 2 American owners Tom Hicks-George
Gillett leave the club Liverpool will continue to suffer.
The former England keeper said, "I can't believe after two to three months that people are questioning the man (Hodgson).”
"He has managed and coached at the highest level. He got Switzerland to over achieve with his organisation and tactical knowledge”.
Clemence said that Hodgson is a respectable manager and he should be given proper time to rebuild the club. He added that when Roy was at Fulham he built them in due time and made them into a team that had no big names but still managed to fight their way
through to the final of Europa League. Clemence went on to say that if a team like Fulham can grow so much under the same man and go on to beat some of the biggest names in Europe, there is no reason why Liverpool can also not do the same.
Clemence said, "He has coached in different places in Europe. He made Fulham into an excellent side, took them to a situation they've never been in their history.”
"Why wouldn't he be the person to be given the opportunity at Liverpool? But he is in a situation which is not ideal by a long stretch of the imagination at the moment."
The former Liverpool legend said that changing managers rapidly never helps much; he added Hodgson for sure does know what he needs to do in order to improve the squad. However, at the moment, his hands look to be tied and he would have to cope with the
same team until January. He added that there needs to be a change in the ownership of the club and once that happens there would be significant improvement in the team.
"Until they get the club sorted out in terms of who is going to own it, where the money is going to come from, then it is going to be a difficult three or four months.”
"The problem is that the fans are confused as well.”
"They've been having a go at the top people for so long; the top people still don't appear to want to move, so where do they go now? We'll have a go at the manager.”
Liverpool have long been tagged as one of the top 4 in English football, in past decade they have not been able to muster up any serious challenge for the league title. However, the saving grace was always that they were able to finish in top 4 and Champions’
League football was ensured. They were given a wakeup call in 2004 when Everton managed to beat them to the race in 4th spot, Liverpool though did manage to play in Europe next season as they were the defending champions of Champions League (UEFA
has since changed that rule).
Last season though it really went wrong for them, ever since former manager Rafael Benitez took over there was a suggestion that domestic league was no longer their priority. After winning the Champions League in 2005, they could not repeat the dose in
Europe either. The final nail in the coffin however was last season when they managed to finish just 7th and eventually Benitez was asked to leave.
The need of the hour clearly is to reshape the whole team, but as Clemence said Liverpool do not need a quick fix. What they really need is a thorough process of rebuilding and for that, Roy Hodgson may not be the ideal man but may be good enough to lead
them towards the new era.
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