The ‘End of Season Review’ conducted by FSG at the conclusion of the 2014/15 campaign resulted in a strange turn of events, namely the sackings of first team coach Mike Marsh, and assistant manager Colin Pascoe, the latter of whom had been Brendan Rodgers’ long-term confidante and was his assistant at Swansea before they moved to Liverpool together.
It has been reported from some in the media that Rodgers was complicit in the sackings of Marsh and Pascoe, and that the decision was mutually made by himself and members of the board. It is unlikely us fans will ever find out the complete truth surrounding the matter but, nevertheless, Liverpool have been swift in lining up replacements for the positions vacated by Marsh and Pascoe; rumour has it that Pepijn Lijnders – currently the under-16 coach – is likely to be promoted to first team coach, although nothing has been no announced of an official nature to ratify this. With regards to the assistant manager position, reliable sources have confirmed that Sean O’Driscoll will be the man to take over.
O’Driscoll is currently the manager of England under-19s and it has not yet been clarified whether or not he will continue this role in tandem with assisting Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool. However, O’Driscoll has experience coaching – and managing – at club level; he was also a professional player for Fulham and Bournemouth. At the latter club, O’Driscoll made the transition to coaching following his retirement from playing and was eventually appointed Bournemouth manager in 2000. During a six-year stint as manager he orchestrated a successful period for the South Coast club, managing to achieve promotion into the Second Division (now League 2) despite being somewhat limited by meagre financial capacity.
Following his spell as manager of Bournemouth, O’Driscoll moved to Doncaster Rovers, and continued to impress at the League 1 club. In his first year in charge – 2007 – Rovers won the Football League Trophy, beating Bristol Rovers in the final. This achievement was eclipsed when Doncaster Rovers won promotion to the Championship in O’Driscoll’s first full-season at the helm.
He departed Doncaster Rovers in 2011 and was appointed assistant manager at Nottingham Forrest the same year, working under manager Steve Cotterill. This period of O’Driscoll’s career is of interest to us Liverpool fans, given it is the same position he will be undertaking at Anfield. Tom Evans, journalist and Nottingham Forrest fan wrote for the Liverpool Echo about his stint as assistant at the City ground and provided some very insightful analysis. Evans writes: “and best of all, his arrival as first team coach that January – at a time when we’d been playing our worst football for several generations – had been the catalyst that turned our season around and spared us another relegation to League One”. I find this encouraging.
Given his influence as assistant manager it is perhaps not surprising that O’Driscoll was appointed Nottingham Forrest manager in 2012. However, this stint as manager was mired in disappointment as he was sacked just five months into his reign. Don’t panic, though, this was one of the most bizarre sackings to occur that season as Forrest were sitting in seventh place, a mere one-point off the play-off places – only a season before they had been flirting with relegation until O’Driscoll came in as assistant and helped improve things.
After Nottingham Forrest, O’Driscoll was appointed Bristol Rovers manager in 2013. Unfortunately his record at Rovers was not good and he was sacked by the board in November that year, the club lying second-bottom of the league. However, to be fair to O’Driscoll, Bristol’s down-fall was multi-factorial and after spending big in previous seasons without success they decided frugality to be their best option and hence he had to work under a massive budgetary-cutting structure.
Overall, I think Liverpool have made a good appointment in O’Driscoll. His record, on the whole, is good and Brendan Rodgers rates him very highly: perhaps illustrating FSG’s trust in our manager more than anything else. Hopefully the club invest in some more quality players and O’Driscoll can play his part in a successful period for our club.
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