As a uniformed grammar school we were always under threat from the local council (ran by a former pupil) to remove such elitism, such a throwback from a former age, from the city’s schools. This wasn’t boaters and rowing clubs, it was the Toxteth riots and plaster falling off the wall during Maths lessons. For the entire duration of my time there one of the Geography teachers had an engine for a Vauxhall Viva on top of a bookcase. Not exactly Eton.
My first two headmasters were good firm scholars. Both traditionalists in their own way, stern but always keen to recognise and encourage talent whenever it raised its head. In my final year one of them was forced to retire thanks to an unreasonable audit by Derek Hatton’s stormtroopers. They offered him a good deal and he would have been a fool not to accept. No one thought ill of him for it but he was wracked with guilt at what was to come. The council brought in a much lesser man to replace him. This was a man who looked at notes whenever he was asked a question at parent’s evenings and glanced at Hatton nervously at parent’s forum nights before speaking. He was a prop. A patsy. A front. A puppet.
Welcome Roy
With the club’s usually trademark speed and efficiency we finally have a new manager. The Spanish King is dead, long live the Vice President. He’s only had one interview and I’m bored already. The majority seem keen with the appointment but for some it’s like bringing your new girlfriend to meet your new mates. Yeah, she seems okay, knows where the bar is and is polite and civil but…but..but I wonder what happened to old Whatsername.
Operation Rafa Out and Roy In cost £8m or two Benayouns if you must. Kenny would have cost a car park space nearer to the front door and new initials on Rafa’s old tracksuits but Purslow knows best. True, the fans know something of the game and have had a pretty good six year job interview a few years ago but Roy nearly won something last year and has to count for something.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure Hodgson is a decent man and is capable but is he capable of managing the third most successful team in Europe? Is he a worthy name to add to the litany of great managers we’ve had from Shankly to Benitez (even Souness won the FA Cup)? Will he win a Champions League, have mosaics built for him, and sit cross legged on the grass calmly watching the most important penalty ever seen at Anfield? Will he ever get 86 points? Will he get 56? Rafa beat him last year and we were bloody awful.
Oh, it’s easy to romanticise Rafa even given the debacle of 2009/10. Yes, there were dark times but he gave us trophies. He’s the past now and Roy is the future. For a while.
What concerns me most is the non-footballing aspect. This is a man who wouldn’t criticise England during the World Cup so what’s he going to be like when the Four Dolts of the Apocalypse talk of wage bills and debt repayments and ‘do we really need that Torres guy?’ Say what you like about Kenny, he can moan for Scotland and isn’t backwards in coming forwards. Would he stand for this? Is Roy going to re-enact the resignation scene in Quadrophenia? More like Goodbye Mr Chips. We, as a fan base, don’t need that. We need a voice of dissent from within the club. This is a club who has ONE left back on the books. One. Liverpool Football Club! One left back! This a club who think that they know about the game because they work in the same building as some that do. Do you want Roy in your corner, asking for permission to speak? Today he said that he hasn’t spoken to the board about money for transfers. That would have been my first question!
Naturally we know nothing about the future but with that start in the League he’s going to need a miraculous start to stop people leaving in January. No pressure, there. Maybe he can galvanise them and shake Rafa’s dust from their feet but with no Torres, Yossi and Gerrard it’s not going to be easy. Scratch that, it’s not going to be easy WITH them either.
Whether he is just a crutch for the owners or a wily old campaigner who can bring us good results and focus remains to be seen. Such is the loss of affinity with the club that it’s easier not to care. Part of me wants us to fail so we can get rid of the poisonous element and build from the turf up but even that’s a million miles away. This is going to get worse before it gets better.
Still, at least Murray’s going well in the tennis.
