LIVERPOOL HOPE to make rapid progress in their efforts to install a successor to Rafael Benitez, with Roy Hodgson the leading candidate following further talks among the Anfield hierarchy.
Having finalised the terms of Benitez’s exit swiftly with his representatives on Thursday, Liverpool directors met again yesterday to discuss his possible replacements. Both Hodgson and his Aston Villa counterpart, Martin O’Neill, have supporters inside the Anfield boardroom but the Fulham manager is expected to receive the first approach as Liverpool seek a steadying influence with a European pedigree.
The process of identifying and appointing the new manager is being led by Liverpool’s managing director, Christian Purslow, and Kenny Dalglish. Despite being installed as the early favourite for the vacancy by bookmakers and seeing his cause championed by former Liverpool team-mates including Bruce Grobbelaar and Mark Lawrenson, Dalglish is not expected to return to the role he quit in 1991.
Dalglish, who won three league titles and two FA Cups during his six years at the helm, is employed as the club’s ambassador and has been touted as the man to convince Steven Gerrard and possibly Fernando Torres to remain at Liverpool this summer.
The next Liverpool manager will have limited funds to revitalise a squad that finished seventh in the Premier League last season and it is the future direction of the club, not Benitez’s departure, that will have a greater bearing on players’ decisions.
Javier Mascherano, who has not put pen to paper on a contract extension, is another whose Anfield future is in serious doubt.
Real Madrid are confident of capitalising on the problems at Liverpool with a move for Gerrard after the World Cup and a move from Chelsea or Barcelona for Torres could be difficult for the Spain international to resist in the current climate.
“I think there is only one man for the job and that is Kenny Dalglish,” said Grobbelaar yesterday. “I think maybe now is the time he can turn the tide and take the club, stabilise it, with the fans, make sure everything gets on track and take the club where it should be.”
Liverpool are under no pressure to install an interim appointment or rush the managerial search. However, Anfield officials are confident of securing their first choice.
No formal approach has been made to Fulham for Hodgson as yet and the Europa League finalists would not welcome a move for their manager, who has a €3 million release clause in his contract at Craven Cottage.
Fulham would fight hard to keep Hodgson, who is on holiday and whose wife is from Liverpool.
Guardian Service
