Soccer:Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre insists they had to sack Kenny Dalglish because results did not match up to longer-term expectations.

The Scot won the Carling Cup, the club’s first trophy for six years, and reached the FA Cup final but an eighth-place league finish resulted in Fenway Sports Group dismissing him after 16 months in charge. Ayre said no matter how much work had been done off the pitch in terms of the structure and business of the club if results did not match up then change was inevitable.

“The most important element which isn’t quite there is the football,” said the managing director, who admitted they had already had numerous expressions of interest in the vacant manager’s position but stressed their search had not yet properly begun.

“If you don’t believe the results are right and feel 37 points off the champions and 17 points off Champions League pace is a long distance you have to make a change. You believe you have to improve that part because without it things begin to fall away. We have to get the football right.

"Should Kenny have been given longer? People will always have a different view. We had to make a decision as a board and we have to stand by it and move forward.

“The history the club was built on was about success and that means success in the league, which leads to Champions League football, and also winning trophies.

"No one is saying we didn’t enjoy winning the Carling Cup and getting to the FA Cup final but ultimately the backbone of football now is the Premier League and European football at the highest level. It was important we moved forward in that direction and results are what mattered this year.”

Ayre insisted with strong foundations now laid by FSG the focus could be about football.

“We set on a path here just over a year ago with new ownership to try to restore the club to a position it expects to be in English and European football. Part of that process was building a foundation on which we could compete financially and therefore invest in our team to compete on the pitch.

"We have made big strides as a business, our revenues are as high as they have ever been and you take those revenues and then invest those into the team to invest on the pitch.”

Dalglish himself has given his backing to Fenway Sports Group. Despite many fans’ unhappiness at the removal of the club’s iconic figure, the 61-year-old urged supporters to get behind principal owner John Henry and chairman Tom Werner.

“I would hope nobody would prejudge things now,” he told the Liverpool Echo. “The owners have their own reasons for doing what they have done. They came in to help the club at a time when it wasn’t in a great condition. They have improved it, taken it forward and are doing the best they can.

"Liverpool is still a great football club, still a club they should believe in whoever is going to come in after myself. The supporters, not just for myself but for everyone else, have always been fantastically supportive of the team and that should not change.”

Former Chelsea boss Andre-Villas Boas, Borussia Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp and Wigan Athletic’s Roberto Martinez are believed to be among the early favourites to succeed Dalglish.