Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish was
roundly
chastised last week for suggesting that Liverpool's season, by
every other measure than Premiership points, had
been a success. The Reds sit in eighth position on the Premier
League table after a forgettable 2012 that has seen them take only
eight points from their twelve fixtures since the turn of the year.
Although a peculiar statement, the fact
is that he could be right. The Kop legend just failed to articulate
his sentiments correctly – everything depends on your definition of
“success”.
Broadly speaking, all sports fans want
to see one of two things from their club: present success or promise
for the future. There's scant, if any, middle ground. If a club
isn't on the threshold of achievement (whether than be team harmony,
staying
in a division, avoiding
liquidation or securing a title) then fans must see
management putting structures into place that will realise ambition.
Those structures, as Dalglish rather
ineloquently posited, could be on-field – such as new players,
value-for-money signings or a team adjusting well to a new style or
set of tactics. They could also come from the boardroom, like the
now-infamous
kit deal.
However, clubs can only trade on hope
for so long before it becomes fatuous. The confounder therefore is
supporter expectation, a notoriously difficult and formless concept.
Despite an improved squad and a
collapsing percentage of achieved points (his ratio has decreased
from last term's 61% to 45% this season), Scouse fans should feel
their icon's major failing has not been mismanagement of players but
of fan expectation. With the arrival of Bellamy, Carroll, Adam, Downing,
Henderson, Doni, Enrique and, ultimately and definitively, Luis
Suarez, Reds could well have expected a Champions League challenge – at least.
For that to occur the team would have
had to have gelled instantly and avoided all controversy and injury.
All three were highly unlikely. Though he's been lost/lazy/awful at
times, Carroll still has the potential to the league's best big
forward, and I defy suggestion that Henderson and Adam won't at least
be serviceable. However, all three depend upon being deployed
correctly. There remains plenty of promise for the future, if thosee
talents boasting “Standard Chartered” on their chests are aptly
harnessed.
Sponsorship and stability should be prized as well - if not perhaps more so than finishing above Everton, or winning the League Cup. Dalglish, in the immortal words of Obi-Wan Kenobi, could quite rightly say "What I said was true ... from a certain point of view".
Courtesy: dailymail.co.uk |
Dalglish began trading on instant
achievement when, with
Carroll and Henderson struggling, Bellamy crocked and
Suarez, well, controversial, the club were better placed to plug
the promise of seasons to come for one more year.
How this would have gone over with his
superiors is anyone's guess, but with squad expenditure since January
last year topping out over ₤85
million, indications are that success had become th expectation.
However, and by whoever, the suggestion that the club was placed to
succeed now, rather than after a short seasoning period, has placed
Dalglish's stiffening
neck in a tightening noose.
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