Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan has criticised FSG's approach to recruiting Liverpool's next manager, arguing that John Henry and his partners don't know what they're doing.
Wigan manager, Robert Martinez, met with FSG in Miami yesterday, and is hotly-tipped to be FSG's preferred choice to replace Kenny Dalglish. Whelan has not been impressed with the strategy employed by FSG though, and believes it could turn out to be counter-productive. He argued:
"I don't think they fully understand the game of football in England. My understanding is that Liverpool are seeking a final shortlist of six managers to interview. I am amazed that they think they can do that, it sounds very much an American way of dealing with these issues in sport, but I would wonder how those six managers might feel."
He's probably right that FSG don't 'fully understand' football, but according to Ian Ayre, the group is being advised by 'pre-eminent' figures in the game, so even if they're in the dark, hopefully, the football people advising FSG are giving them good advice. More concerning is Whelan's next statement:
"My information is that the new Liverpool manager will not be given full responsibility of the football department. The set-up on the football side goes well beyond the norm even with a director of football. There will be somebody else signing players and they might not necessarily be the choice of the manager".
I imagine that Whelan got his information directly from Martinez himself, and if what he's saying is true, then I think fans may have grounds to be concerned.
A DoF picking the players and foisting them on a yes-man manager is not the way Liverpool should be run, and if that's the system being sold to prospective managers, then I can't see how the club will attract the very best candidate. After all, who wants to play second-fiddle to some interfering overlord?
The likes of Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger wouldn't tolerate it, so why should a Liverpool manager have to put up with it?
Jaimie Kanwar
Wigan manager, Robert Martinez, met with FSG in Miami yesterday, and is hotly-tipped to be FSG's preferred choice to replace Kenny Dalglish. Whelan has not been impressed with the strategy employed by FSG though, and believes it could turn out to be counter-productive. He argued:
"I don't think they fully understand the game of football in England. My understanding is that Liverpool are seeking a final shortlist of six managers to interview. I am amazed that they think they can do that, it sounds very much an American way of dealing with these issues in sport, but I would wonder how those six managers might feel."
He's probably right that FSG don't 'fully understand' football, but according to Ian Ayre, the group is being advised by 'pre-eminent' figures in the game, so even if they're in the dark, hopefully, the football people advising FSG are giving them good advice. More concerning is Whelan's next statement:
"My information is that the new Liverpool manager will not be given full responsibility of the football department. The set-up on the football side goes well beyond the norm even with a director of football. There will be somebody else signing players and they might not necessarily be the choice of the manager".
I imagine that Whelan got his information directly from Martinez himself, and if what he's saying is true, then I think fans may have grounds to be concerned.
A DoF picking the players and foisting them on a yes-man manager is not the way Liverpool should be run, and if that's the system being sold to prospective managers, then I can't see how the club will attract the very best candidate. After all, who wants to play second-fiddle to some interfering overlord?
The likes of Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger wouldn't tolerate it, so why should a Liverpool manager have to put up with it?
Jaimie Kanwar
They have this system in Chelsea, it has its advantages and disadvantages, but seriously, Dave Whelan's "understanding" is just what he hears from the press. There is no shortlist of 6 managers, from my own understanding, the media is just unnecessarily creating a circus. AVB's cooled interest is the proof. Nothing he has said in public has been directly correlated with Liverpool, which means he was never approached, considered yes, but not approached.
ReplyDeleteI believe only Brendan Rodgers and Roberto Martinez have been approached so far. It is their club, their money, they can wish to conduct the search however way they want, as long as it is within legal boundaries. Who cares what Dave Whelan thinks, he's just desperate to hold on to Roberto.
who knows what goes on behind closed doors
ReplyDeletesix interviews at this rate will take six weeks ? no just one interview and some waffle for the punters and hey presto we have the Manager they probably approached before they sacked Daglish. Dont trust liars, they are proven liars of Daglish, "He is safe whatever happens " He would have gone anyway" someone is doing a George Gillett.
ReplyDeleteI dont trust John Henry, I do trust Tom Werner, that said Liverpool fc comes first so I hope they succeed which means we succeed.
ReplyDeleteThey expected a top 4 finish, and Dalglish agreed, and he failed, what else do you expect? I could understand if we had missed 4th place by a few points, but we were miles apart.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite interesting that most of the talk in the media about the next Liverpool manager has been made by this Whelan idiot... It seems that this is his change for the "15 minutes of fame".
ReplyDeleteHe has had fame in the past rather more infamy than fame
ReplyDeleteI
wouldn’t believe a word that comes out of the publicity hungry largest
exploiter of Child Labour in the UK who
pedals his tacky sportwear through slave labour in the UK
paying no more than the minimum wage to the vast vast majority of his employees
Whelan, is no stranger to
being "economical with the truth". In 2003 clothing manufactured by
child slave labour in Burma
was found on sale in his JJB shops some months after Whelan had given his
personal, but false, assurance that no such stock was carried. After a brief
campaign Whelan agreed not to do further business with Burma.
Whelan was found guilty of
being part of an illegal price-fixing cartel which operated in 2000-01 and the
Office of Fair Trading levied a fine of over £8m for Whelan’s role in the scam.
The way I see it, we cannot compete with City or Chelsea by just throwing money at the team, we cannot compete with Barca in terms of youth development (short term) and we cannot offer CL football to players or managers at the moment to entice them to Anfield. Maybe, just maybe, the way FSG are going about things might give us a competitive advantage and establish us as a great club again. It may backfire, but the fans do not need to know what goes on behind the scenes. Our job is to be supporters, and so I think we should give FSG a chance to attempt to make LFC great in their own way, because we have been falling behind for too long.
ReplyDeletethe job is done. Martinez will be the next manager, just go to dailymail and you will see a picture of henry and roberto meeting each other, walking in the streets with coffees on their hands, that is more than clear, now i understand fsg's strategy , they always choose the cheapest way for lfc to progress and thats not the way you win things nowadays in modern football, see what city real m barca done in the past years just to win some trophies, they spent as hell with class managers, if i knew fsg will appoint martinez id surely back dalglish to death to stay, this feels like the end of lfc , this is a huge blow i fear many fans will leave the club in the upcoming months.
ReplyDeleteI for one don't care what DW says. He's got his club to run and he should do just that. FSG own LFC and they can run it anyway they like. They put their money where their mouth is and gave KD over 100 million to spend. Seeing most of that money being wasted so what if they want some control so it doesn't happen again. The only concern I have is that IMO Benitez is proven mngr and better than both (RM,BR) put together is not being interviewed. Is CHL football they want and apart from his last season he kept Liverpool there every year as mngr of lfc. It wasn't easy to make Liverpool the most feared team in Europe.
ReplyDeleteI read this story about 2 days a go.
ReplyDeleteRight on Junssius, Whelan is selling Martinez to the highest foolish bidder, why play up his chances with a 'big' team, surely he means Villa. This oldman is a sales rep, JJB, he did this last time, is it not time LFC told his to stick to his mediocre team? Noone knows except the Yanks
ReplyDelete"my information" haha Nobody that knows anything about Liverpool would tell an anti-fan like you. My opinion :)
ReplyDeleteyes i have seen that picture and ironically the pair of them are walking past a shop with a sign SALE 70% OFF in the window
ReplyDeleteI dont see a problem with drawing up a shortlist. It may not have been done in England before, but things change.
ReplyDeleteHe is just trying get Liverpool to hurry up on their decision, nothing more. Liverpool will make the decision when they are ready.
True Supporters will not leave our team, but the Yanks will leave eventually if they mess it up again like their fellow yanks, who believed that H&G will leave? What is the difference with the current owners, they are inviting trouble if they go for Martinez, Rodgers etc. Rodgers knows what is going on, he wont move. People just watch out for the PRESS! They are just playing around with our heads, lets keep them well screwed on .
ReplyDeleteI agree that a lot of fuss has been made about the process. Not quite sure why, but the media have made much more of the LFC interview process than Chelsea's.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so worried that the Americans want to do it their way. In any other business management would interview more than one person; and that goes from a bar job to CEO of a multinational. Why should the LFC manager's job be any different? The problem is that, despite their best attempts, the media are intruding on a normally private process (Not helped by Whelan). If I were to look for another job I wouldn't tell my boss I had an interview, I'd simply take a day's holiday. My boss might guess, but he wouldn't ask and I wouldn't have to lie. This is the normal way of doing things.
The LFC job is a massive one, and this is a very important appointment for FSG. When they took over there was a lot of skepticism because of the previous regime. They appointed KK, to universal approval, almost by default. They have now taken the difficult, and probably correct, decision to replace him. So far they have kept their part of the bargain. They supplied significant funds for transfers, and seen no progress in the league. The next manager is how they will be judged. If it goes well, they will be cheered for their acumen, if not, well ...
My concern is that our fans now feel they have the right to pick their own manager. I felt sorry for Hodgson, he was never given a chance. He wasn't KK, but that wasn't his fault. He had a miserly budget, but his results were still better than KK's.
I don't know if Martinez or Rodgers will do a good job. I'm a normal fan, so I only know what I see on tv or read in the media. FSG are in the room with them. They are asking the pertinent questions. Frankly, I'm glad they're taking the time to determine who they think is best suited to take us forward. I'd rather wait for the right person.
Whoever takes over I will support him. I hope everyone else lives up to our motto and does the same.
Jamie K wears dresses when he's alone :P Are you gonna block me again so I can use my other 5000 ip addresses :D you might run out of blocking room he he
ReplyDeletei like dave whelan,he's always honest and open but i wish he'd shut up.it's obvious he doesn't want to lose martinez but coming out outand saying he knows what the structure will be etc is nothing to do with him but it obvious that people like him in the game think fsg are making a circus out of this managerial search.
ReplyDeleteit's obviously hard for him to run his club when he isn't sure if he has to get a new manager or not.
ReplyDeleteno he doesnt, he wears a red shellsuit he bought in JJB
ReplyDeleteif martinez agree to manage LFC then we'll wait and see in January 13 a new manager will be appointed and LFC are in lower table
ReplyDeleteMartinez is under contract. Isn't he. DW is his boss and he can set a deadline for him, can't he.
ReplyDeleteHate the way LFC Conduct themselves now - believe many will not renew season tickets - NO CLASS
ReplyDeleteI am surpised so many people are concerned about remarks made by the Wigan chairman, he has no credability and I think he is just scare mongering , cant stand the union basher
ReplyDeleteWhelan is senile!!!
ReplyDeleteexactly - who the f*** is Whelan? He's just bigging him up to guarantee a "2m-3m compensation". I don't accept much credence to "his understanding" of the process at all - he should get back in his box
ReplyDeleteMost level-headed post I've read in two weeks. Thanks mate and well said. Wish I could copy paste your comments on a number of Liverpool sites. Now all we need is for someone to put a sock in Whelan's mouth.
ReplyDeleteHmmm very Interesting. You say you don't trust John Henry but you trust Tom Werner!! Yet if you go back weeks ago John Henry didnt shake hands with Dalglish while Tom Werner was saying that although we let go Damien Commoli Dalglish is safe. From the 2 of them I know which one was lying.
ReplyDeleteSaid that I beleive that both of them are doing a great job. I think that by lying Tom gave support to Dalglish before the final so that Dalglish still got the respect from the players. And everyone was focused. Once the season was finished as Dalglish always said (we will count the points and see where we stand) the result was not good enough. And rightly so they decided to let Dalglish go.
Personaly I'm really happy that we have FSG as owners and I think that they are doing the right thing. They gave Dalglish a try since fans where calling for him but it wasnt to be. Now they want to try it their way and take the path they think is the right.
From what I could understand Ian Ayre saying, they want a Director in the mould of Galiani at Milan which doesn't really have a good technical background but when it comes to getting ppl in he is a specialist. Just see the number of players Milan have brought on free or low transfers. And how he is handling the Aquilani situation. He got him for free for a year and now he wants Liverpool to release him before he snaps him up. This Director will probably handle all players transactions, contracts and player disputes while he liase with manager and Technical Director
Then there will be the Technical Director wich will handle Scouts, youth setup and improving the infrastructer and related staff to the footballing side of it. While also determining the footballing philosophy of the club. And in the future probably determining together with Ian Ayre and the other Director which Manager we should get.
Then there will obviously be the Manager / Coach which will handle all the issues of first team tactical choices, formations, training etc.. .
Will this system work? I don't know but Liverpool was very creative in the past so why not back this plan and see where it takes us! If it works Liverpool would be the example to follow if not they will scrap it and move on to plan B.
Dave Whelan is a media whore and lives with whiskey nose
ReplyDeleteIt's their money, if Liverpool fails, they fail, read up a little about John Henry...He doesn't seem to fail.
ReplyDeleteAs for the way the whole process is being done, I think it's great, no one has a clue, which means they are doing everything behind closed doors. Why not interview 6 people and see who best fits the 'project' seems more sensible than saying 'he did alright last month, sign him.'
Have some faith lads, who knows, they might come good.
you really think Marinez would disclose the content of the meeting with Whelan? Come on, stop writing pathetic articles for 12year olds from the other side of the world. Go on concrete evidence and not tabloid splashes and gain the notoriety of an idiot.
ReplyDeleteAny fans that leave the club in the upcoming months are probably not the type of fans, please notice I'm not saying "real fans", that make any kind of financial contribution to the club; going to games, buying shirts and other merchandise etc etc.
ReplyDeleteIn my mind, the kind of fan that would leave the club probably only contributes loosely through a Sky subscription and I doubt they'd cancel that over Martinez.
I've been fickle, I'll admit, over Kenny's season and sacking, but I'll support Martinez or whoever once they've been appointed.
Whelan is trying jeopardise the process for his club's interest. Stupid Whelan needs to realise that he is going to loose Martinez one way or another.
ReplyDeleteThere are 2 more clubs, Aston Villa and West Brom, waiting for the news on Liverpool manager to snap up Martinez (in case he is not appointed Liverpool manager).
speculation and hearsay
ReplyDeleteMartinez came on the cheap with 70% discount says it all of the cheapskate and clueless Yanks.
ReplyDeleteThe media is blowing things way out of proportion and big mouth Whelan is enjoying is time in the spot light way to much. FSG have a plan and strategy in mind and they're going to take their time to make sure they get it right and will not be bothered by who says what about what there diong
ReplyDeleteAgreed, i like what their doing and hope it will work out, Here in America, all sport teams are run by the General Manager, with the Coach responsible for getting the players to play and win games
ReplyDeleteYes if you believe rummors and the "sh*t" media empire. The decisions that have been made so far were done behind closed doors and that's the way it should be. There has been no surprise based on what FSG have said in the past. So please explain what is the "no class" FSG conduct? Lobbing insults is easy but it does not help your cause.
ReplyDeleteWell said. I am glad the owners are taking the effort and time to go through the process. Can't understand why some fans feels that this is farcical. It is the correct way. We should support the club including the manager whoever he is.
ReplyDeleteFor all we know, Martinez could turn out to be a gem. Whelan sounds like a sour grape and totally unprofessional by constantly passing info and commenting on the recruitment into public space.
and whelan has always said that he would never hold him back if a big club came in for him.
ReplyDeleteI like the way FSG are handling this process and it seems a modern and wise way of conducting things, why not interview a number of candidates and see who's the best fit?
ReplyDeleteThe coach/managers primary task is to find a successful playing system for the squad, it stands to reason that there would be some collaboration regarding transfers with other departments within the club but there is really no need for the coach to be involved in the financial dealings of the club...a wise coach would realise that the structure being proposed here allows him to concentrate solely on getting his primary role right, not the cost of paper clips a'la Arsene Wenger.
I can understand managers distancing themselves from this process so as to not rock their current boat, but I believe any manager who is prepared to embrace this process shows forward thinking as I can see this becoming the norm in the future.
Who ever gets the job will have my support and best wishes for success and why not go for an up and coming manager? Who knows, they may find a diamond.
Hodgson's results were better than KK? KK had 1 trophy and one final in his second stint. Roy's boys were near relegation. Kenny did a good job rescuing the team as an interim manager. He brought in some players in an attempt to build for the future. It didn't work out, due to some of his mistakes.
ReplyDeleteI think firing Kenny had to be done, since 8th place is not acceptable for any Liverpool manager. If KK got 6th, was close to the champion's league spots, and got a trophy, I think he stays and rebuilds.
My one wish would have been that they got rid of Kenny sooner after the FA cup loss so they could have a new manager in place now. Transfers need to be made. They need a manager now.
The types of fans that would stop supporting a team because of who they appointed as manager have already bought their new Chelsea shirt and blue plastic flag
ReplyDeleteWell at least it is nice to see some fans realize that this process needs time. Let the owners do their job and in another season or two we will be able to see if the right decisions have been made.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of a new structure. I like having a limited role of a manager during the season. One where he concentrates on the games ahead and not who is likely to sign in january.
Whelan can blow smoke all he wants. But if liverpool need to pay 3M for martinez then it is easy to see why dave is in such a hurry for liverpool to do their job. It is payday for him! He wants the money and hasn't shut up since liverpool contacted him. Next time maybe FSG should go behind his back then maybe he will have a reason to open his mouth!