Woy and a subtle reminder of how good we've got it now.

Amazing to think we had to listen to these pearls of wisdom for what felt like a lifetime but like that nightmare of an Ex partner they're a joy to look back and laugh at now.

It was all just a dream.

Roy Hodgson argues for change of boss at Liverpool FC

OF all the voices who have argued for a change of management at Anfield this season one man  has  consistently made the most compelling case – Roy Hodgson.

There has  never have been a Liverpool   boss as universally disliked by supporters  as the Londoner.
But it’s not just the regressive tactics, awful signings (Christian Poulsen and Paul Konchesky)  and  pitiful away form (six defeats in nine games with a goal difference of -10) that has turned the Kop against him.

Liverpool supporters  have become accustomed to their managers being equally skilled   as orators, a trend begun by  the great Bill Shankly. Even the quieter men among the club’s roll call of bosses like Bob Paisley could be relied upon for cutting sound bites.
Not Hodgson. Barely a  press conference goes by without the former UAE coach   embarrassing himself and the club,  alienating a player or enraging fans.

Here is a collection of the worst efforts of his first  – and hopefully only – six months in charge:

I  preferred to put my weight behind David Ngog and Ryan Babel, who's never really been given a proper chance at centre-forward at the club.  I'm hoping that between now and Christmas we'll have ample quality to see us through that period.

On not buying another striker

A club like Liverpool shouldn't have to rely on non-specialists like Dirk Kuyt or Ryan Babel ‘doing a job’ up front when they are primarily wide players.

Hodgson changes his mind a month later.

They'll be a formidable challenge – there's no question about that.

On Carling Cup opponents, struggling League Two side Northampton

I thought we did quite well when  (Northampton) they took the lead in the extra time and we threw caution to the wind it gave us the equaliser.

Hodgson uses the words ‘threw caution to the wind’ about playing a League Two side. At Anfield.

That was as good as we have played all season.....  To get a result here – against Everton – would have been Utopia.

After the wretched loss to Everton

I know Sir Alex (Ferguson)  is not really a Liverpool man   so I’m a bit  concerned about my excellent relationship with him.
I sincerely hope he forgives me for moving north and hopefully we can have a glass of wine together, maybe in secret.

Hodgson endears himself to Liverpool fans everywhere

I prefer to talk about the game and talk about issues that interest me.  Mr Ferguson is entitled to any opinion he wants to have but I'm not going to come here and say I agree or disagree.

Hodgson refuses to defend Fernando Torres against  accusations  of  cheating

I understand (Frank)  Rijkaard has just been sacked from Galatasaray – he must be a great manager to have been sacked by Galatasaray.

'Nice guy' Roy on the Champions League and La Liga winning manager

You  would have to ask (Glen Johnson)  'do you think you're playing at top form and are you playing like the best right-back in the country for your club?' If he says yes, obviously we will have to agree to differ and if he says no, then you'd have to ask the question 'why not?

Showing  his man-management skills

The protest does not help but it is something I have had to live with since I came to the club.

Criticising the fans’ protest against the club’s former owners

I was disappointed –  and I've told him this – that he –  Dalglish – applied for the job in the summer because I don't think that was ever really going to happen for him.

Putting Liverpool legend Dalglish in his place, a man who has won more trophies than Hodgson has Premier League away  games in his entire time in England

 I've been involved in some big derbies in my career and you know how much they mean to the fans.... I didn't like losing in those games, which I did quite often. I did poorly so it would be nice to change that.
 
Hodgson shows he’s the man for the big occasion before losing 3-2 to Manchester United.

He’s a quality player and we will be working hard on our tactics to make sure he doesn’t dominate the game.

No, not Lionel Messi, rather Fulham’s  Danny Murphy, who was sent packing by Liverpool six years ago.

I think it would be a sad day for football and for Liverpool if someone who had been brought in with the pomp and circumstance, and the money it took them to release me from my previous contract, and being feted as one of England's best managers – if after eight games people are deciding this guy has got to go

Showing his modest side.

Are you from Denmark? (No, Norway  replied the journalist) Ah, two countries I never want to work in again.
 
Insulting a Norweigian journalist and a large part of Liverpool’s fan base.

We have got a lot more expensive failures on our list than good players that we have brought in for next to nothing.
Having a dig at Champions League winning former Reds boss Rafa Benitez and his transfer record

What do you mean do my methods translate? They have translated from Halmstad to Malmo to Orebo to Neuchatel Xamax to the Swiss national team. So I find the question insulting. To suggest that, because I have moved from one club to another, that the methods which have stood me in good stead for 35 years and made me one of the most respected coaches in Europe don’t suddenly work, is very hard to believe.

Reeling off some of the massive clubs he’s managed. Not so much a who’s who of European football as a who are they?

Today was a famous victory

No, not Liverpool’s win in Istanbul but a 1-0 triumph over  Bolton at the Reebok.


There aren't many quality left-backs around in the world, never mind in England – so to find an English one ( Paul Konchesky)  who can go straight into the team without any adjustment problems is a big advantage.

Hodgson, who sold Roberto Carlos to Real Madrid while manager of Inter Milan, knows a good left back when he sees one.


Christian (Poulsen)  is an all-round player. He is capable of scoring goals, a good passer of the ball and a good defender.

After paying £4.5m on the  30-year-old plodder.

He's not that bad on the ball.

After seeing him play.

It is very early for me to make very strong judgements about where his best position is.

Hodgson shows the depth of his research on £11.5m signing Raul Meireles, who has played his entire career in central midfield. Until he came to Anfield.

 I don't understand questions about Liverpool and Fulham players being different types
 
Who said Hodgson doesn’t grasp how big a club Liverpool is?

I've had several bad experiences. Even at Halmstad in the 70s, in the year we won our second championship, it took until the second half of the season to win our first game away and that broke a record going back two seasons. We went over two seasons without winning an away game.

On his wretched away form throughout his career.

Fans make their frustrations felt every time we lose, but unfortunately they may have to do that a few more times, because I can't see us going through a season winning every game.

Roy promises the good times are going to roll again after the 2-0 defeat to Stoke

I don't know where the stories came from that Gerrard would be fit for Newcastle.

From your Head of Sports Medicine Dr Peter Brukner, Roy.

It's not as if he'll be playing with a bunch of also-rans. I'm not asking him to play in the reserves.

Asking Torres to play against Utrecht while also motivating his reserves

I thought it would be a nice game for him (Torres) and a chance for him to get his confidence back. But I also had a talk to our fitness people and they made me see sense that it wasn't the wisest thing to do.

Revealing who picks the team.

I think we will cross that bridge when we come to it... I am not naive to believe there won’t be any danger and we will never lose a player like Torres, I understand these things can happen

Issuing a stern hands-off Torres warning to pal Ferguson. Well, kind of.

When it was mooted the club wanted me for the job I made it clear to Kenny I wanted him on board and it wouldn’t be like it was with Benitez where he’d be here in name only. It wouldn’t be the case that Kenny would be never be allowed to step foot into Melwood.

Having another dig at the Spaniard, a claim which was exposed as a lie by the Champions League winning manager

He's not so much a player I can really take responsibility for. I'd have to share the responsibility for Joe, less so than for people like [Christian] Poulsen, [Raul] Meireles and [Paul] Konchesky, who are players I was quite happy to bring to the club.

Washing his hands of Joe Cole a week before the former Chelsea midfielder earns Liverpool a 2-1 victory over Bolton

Ever since I came here, the famous Anfield support hasn't really been there.There was the problem with the owners and Kenny being so popular and the job going to me, so I have had to live with that. I have to hope the fans will become supporters because we need support. We are not deliberately losing games.

Roy puts the final nail in his coffin

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/sport-news/liverpool-fc/2011/01/03/roy-hodgson-argues-for-change-of-boss-at-liverpool-fc-55578-27926316/

I read no further than the first sentance before I was a little sick...

'Famous Victory' (1-0 over Bolton).

Yes - it really did get that bad.

Sometimes I pretend he never actually managed us.  And the final 6 months of 2010 didn't happen.  It's better that way.

'Famous Victory' (1-0 over Bolton).

Yes - it really did get that bad.

Sometimes I pretend he never actually managed us.  And the final 6 months of 2010 didn't happen.  It's better that way.

"Famous European victory" too. Let's not forget that 'famous' night in Trabzonspur!!

Can't believe someone thought this F***ing waste of space was good enough for our club. He was never good enough, but at the time of appointment I thought "at least he's a decent fella". Proved me wrong there.

A horrible stain on our club.

Can't believe someone thought this F***ing waste of space was good enough for our club.

I can!!

I remember the pain of having here at Liverpool but it's like an old bad memory in my head, I feel like I can laugh at this already.

Thank you Kenny and FSG

Urgh.

What a c**t he is.

He has a face like my ballsack.

He has a face like my ballsack.

Your ballsack looks like an owl?

As much as he was a plonker of the worst kind, we needed Woy at that particular time in our club's history. It made it easier for us to discard the entire festering mess that had engulfed our club, from owners down to certain players to the manager.

It gave us the sense that we've been burnt badly and allowed us to rise again from the ashes of horror inflicted by the likes of Hodgson, Gillet and Hicks.

Hodgson was THE worst manager we've had since the Shankly era. He was a vindictive little man with little grace and full of pretensions.

It was the most difficult six months I faced as a Liverpool fan in over twenty years of supporting the club. I could handle bad results, defeats, disappointment - but what I could never handle was lack of grace from the manager. We are Liverpool dammit - we set the standards, be it in sportsmanship, heart or respect. Form will always be temporary, class permanent. And Hodgson with his lack of class, his crass accusations and his pandering to Ferguson meant we risked losing the class that we'd built up over all these years. So good riddance to bad rubbish.

Onward and forward my beloved Liverpool!

Far enough in the past to be funny!

As much as he was a plonker of the worst kind, we needed Woy at that particular time in our club's history.

No we F***ing never, should of stuck with rafa, there was no F***ing need for Purslow to get shut, other than the fact rafa had made him look like a clueless, lying F***ing tit.

Project Owl should never have been near our club, never mind manage it!

He has a face like my ballsack.

Your ballsack looks like an owl?

 

Back on topic.

I think the perspective of then and now is excellent. From the wa**s & woy to NESV & Kenny. From the pissing down rain to a Golden Sky. From The words of an idiot to the words of proper man and Manager.

I know some still aren't happy but personally I like where we are now.

Your ballsack looks like an owl?

By all accounts, a hairless one.

Back on topic.

Sorry.

The only good thing about Roy is that it gave Kenny the chance takeover other than that I prefer to forget it ever happend.

By all accounts, a hairless one.

Sorry.

God no, no apologies please. Continue on that merry road as is your want.

Its actually hard to read through that article only got half way. Its beyond me how he is still in a job

That photo looks just like Woy , I like that a lot.

Just glad we've gotten out of that sh*t hole to be honest, and we are in a far stronger position for the coming season. We should use last years position to find positives even in the darkest of times.

WBA already in trouble near the bottom of the table under Woy!

A further subtle reminder:

Roy Hodgson: I'd like England job but it's important everyone looks at the big picture

Nothing much surprises Roy Hodgson. "I am fatalistic," he says. "So many things happen in football that, if you have a long career like I have, they are going to happen to you sometime."

The West Brom manager takes another sip of beer when we meet in the Park Lane hotel, where his team stayed for last weekend's game at Chelsea. But, for all his acceptance of football fate, he is surprised by how things have turned out since he was sacked by Liverpool. "I'm back at a club similar to the one I left for Liverpool: Fulham."

As with Fulham, he was called in to save the Baggies from relegation. Last season's rescue lacked the drama of keeping Fulham up in 2008 when the winner against Portsmouth came in the 76th minute of their last match but, says Hodgson: "It still was a close escape. We weren't fooled that we finished mid-table [11th]. I was no more confident than we were at Fulham."

What has changed for the 64-year-old is that, this time, he did not react to the Liverpool debacle by leaving England in a huff, unlike when Blackburn got rid of him. Lured from Inter Milan in 1997, two years after Jack Walker's millions had helped Rovers win the Premier League, he was sacked 17 months later and admits: "I did a very foolish, bit of an arrogant thing: I went back to Inter. What happened at Blackburn was not because I was no good."

It was another decade before Hodgson returned to England with Fulham. This time he remained at home and, one month after leaving Anfield, he was at the Hawthorns.

He is very philosophical about his unhappy seven months on Merseyside. "I do not regret taking the job. It is a big job. But I went there at the wrong time. I was not the right man at that particular time in the club's history."

He admits that, even as he accepted the job, he had misgivings. "I was a bit concerned and I went in with my eyes open, knowing this could be problematic," he says. "I was fully aware Martin Broughton and Christian Purslow [then chairman and managing director] were trying to sell the club. There would be new owners and they might want to make a change. I am not certain the new American owners were determined to do that but they wanted to listen to the fans. That is the way American clubs operate."

And Hodgson was left in no doubt who the Kop wanted. "Kenny [Dalglish] had said he wanted the job and a lot of fans made it pretty clear they did not want me, they wanted Kenny," he says. "My situation was not strong anyway from the first moment and the results were not good."

But, while Hodgson will not accept that fan power led to his Liverpool exit, he has no love for the social media outlets Anfield supporters used to make their feelings known.

"I am not convinced the internet is a true reflection of what people in general think of anything, least of all in football clubs. 'Interneters' or 'twitterters', whatever you call them, want to make themselves a bit special by getting their voices heard.

"In the past, newspapers relied on their sources within the club. Now what you read in the papers just comes from people shifting through the internet. But there is a large body of people out there who care about their club. They are much more fair-minded but their opinions don't get canvassed because they do not broadcast them."

And, for all the bruising he received at the hands of the Liverpool fans, Hodgson sees no reason to question the coaching methods he has developed over four decades, starting in 1976 in Sweden when, at 29, he managed his first club, Halmstads BK.

At Liverpool, there was criticism of what was felt to be a regimented coaching style. "Perhaps there was," he says. "I do not think the criticisms came from Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Jamie Carragher. That would bother me. I am sure there were players who did not feel they were getting a fair chance under me who had plenty to say. What Gerrard, Torres and Carragher said was very positive."

It is this certainty in his ability that would sustain him, should he get the England job. As one of only seven English managers in the Premier League, he must stand a very good chance of making any shortlist to replace Fabio Capello. In the 2009-10 season during his Fulham heyday, when Hugh Grant joked he wanted to go to bed with him, Hodgson told the Standard that only the England job would tempt him away from the club. When I remind him of this he says, "Did I say that?" as if the thought had never crossed his mind.

He goes on: "I would like the job if they thought I was the best candidate, having looked at the qualities I would bring to the job, the things they know I would be good at doing. I'm not certain that is always the case when the appointment is made - mass media have a large influence. They also have a large influence in getting the manager kicked out."

And, should he take charge of the national team post Euro 2012, he would make sure we judge English football not merely on the basis of how the national team are doing.

"What is English football? Is English football the next result when England play Bulgaria? And if it is Bulgaria 1 England 5, then English football is fantastic. But if it is Bulgaria 1 England 0, then English football is nothing at all.

"English football's health is judged on just five results a year. It has to be more important than that.

"The Football Association have to ask what we can do to push our football forward: investing in aspects of the game, having better coaching, what we are putting into our youth teams, how the academies are run. The England team winning or losing is crucial but, whether the team win or lose, the work underneath still has to go on."

For Hodgson, his work at the moment is to preserve West Brom's top-flight status and he has a points' total in mind for the team: "Forty will keep us up."

Although they are without a point from their opening two games, the fact West Brom were handed possibly the toughest start to the season - matches against Manchester United and Chelsea - means there is no reason to worry, particularly as they only lost both to a goal in the last 10 minutes.

West Brom, as their fans chant, are the "Boing, Boing club" after thrice bouncing back from relegation. But Hodgson warns that it will be particularly tough this year for any club who make the drop.

"The Championship is chock full of clubs that have been in the Premier League: Southampton, Leeds, Derby County, Leicester City," he says. "Leicester's transfer spending dwarfs ours. We have spent a net £2million. The only player we have bought is Shane Long [who has scored in both games], others are free transfers or loans.
Southampton are having a go and so are Brighton. If you go down now you will find it much harder."

What sustains Hodgson is that his new club have complete confidence in him. "I am happy at West Brom because people do believe in me and everyone gets behind me."

You can feel the relief as he says this, given what happened at Anfield.




http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-sport/football/article-23980433-the-big-interview-roy-hodgson.do

One of the most arrogant managers out there, but unlike Jose Mourinho he has F**k all to be arrogant about. The F***ing sh*t wobbly necked, fergie loving, expectation lowering, patronising dribbling old owl faced gobs***e tw*t.

I think the only good thing you can say about Roy's time here is that it allowed Kenny to come in "clean", untarnished by the two tw*ts. If Kenny had got the job in the first place when he should have, he may have been obliged to say something in support of Hicks and Gillett as their manager, the club would no doubt have been seen as more successful and the two tw*ts may have tried to use him to dilute the fans message at a vital time.

Oh dear. I knew he said some clangers in his time but reading them all in black and white has made my head sore. He was a manager who's "experience" was supposed to know the traditions and values of this club. But he didn't. It was a car crash period and I was an idiot for ever believing he could do a "solid" job as Liverpool manager. Those months were the worst I have ever experienced as a Liverpool fan. Roy was never fully culpable for it, but he transferred the jokes off field onto it.

But now I look at the club and smile again.