Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Start of a New Era


I must admit that I was very disappointed when I heard Rafael Benitez was let go. In my opinion, Rafa was a legend and did real good for the club. But our new chairman, Martin Broughton, thought otherwise and decided it was time to say goodbye to Rafa. It all seemed gloomy.

It was a tense period in Liverpool FC when many of our star players were linked to other clubs and we were without a manager for few weeks. Many of them refused to comment on their contracts until the World Cup was over. Fans were also not pleased with the massive debt of the club thanks to the Yanks.

But a ray of light emerged with the announcement that Roy Hodgson was going to be the new Liverpool manager. It was just the kind of news everyone related to and concerned about the club was looking for.

There were quite a few people linked with the job, but Roy had to be the man to manage Liverpool FC. Hodgson has managed the national team of Switzerland and Finland and the clubs Inter Milan and Fulham. I’ll be honest that I really didn’t know how well he performed with Switzerland and Finland, but the man is experienced and respected by many. I believe that no one would have anything against Roy, except for Mohamed Al-Fayed, the owner of Fulham. Roy can speak eight languages apparently, despite being English. Quite an achievement in itself.

Roy Hodgson has started off on a positive note. He knows how to deal with the press and has all the right things to say about the club. Roy along with Christian Mark Cecil Purslow, managing director of LFC, have managed to keep the star players like Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard, Dirk Kuyt, Daniel Agger and Pepe Reina at the club in spite of being linked to other big clubs.

Talking about signings, within a month or two, Roy has shown that he is pretty good. Rafa Benitez had confirmed the signing of Milan Jovanovic in January 2010. Good news is that the new player is adjusting well to life under the new manager. Signing Danny Wilson, who managed to find a spot into the defense of Rangers at the age of 19, is one good investment for the future. Re-signing a classy left back in Aurelio, when we were falling short in that department, was also a classic move. But the icing on the cake was signing Joe Cole. It has lifted the mood altogether. With a few more days remaining in the transfer window, I expect Roy to make a few more additions to the squad.

It all seemed to be going downhill for the club. But things do look positive for Liverpool Football Club. It’s a start of a new era for Liverpool FC. We have a new manager, promising new signings and current players staying loyal to the club. It’s all over the news that Americans are willing to sell the club with Kenny Huang and Yahya Kirdi being the frontrunners for the takeover. They both have enough money to buy new players, clear the debts and build the new stadium.

At the end of a storm, there’s a golden sky.

--Manas Singh