Twenty four hours before their FA Cup tie with Manchester United Liverpool have sacked Roy Hodgson and put Kenny Dalglish in charge of the club.
The news has been expected ever since Wednesday’s 3-1 defeat at Blackburn with Hodgson’s pre-match media conference cancelled yesterday.
Dalglish goes back in at the deep end more than a decade after leaving Celtic where he was caretaker after the sacking of John Barnes.
The move will make the atmosphere at Old Trafford even more electric with 10,000 fans inside the ground due to FA Cup ticket regulations.
It also pits Dalglish up against Sir Alex Ferguson again with no love lost between the two Glaswegians.
Announcing the decision a statement on the club website read: “Liverpool Football Club have confirmed the appointment of Kenny Dalglish as the club’s manager until the end of the season.
“The Kop legend returns to the Anfield helm in a temporary capacity following the departure of Roy Hodgson.
“Dalglish is revered on the Kop having represented the club as both a player and manager with great distinction.”
Hodgson’s time was up at Liverpool last week when he criticised the fans for the lack of support that he’d been given following the home defeat from Wolves.
Announcing his departure the club site stated: “Liverpool FC confirmed today that manager Roy Hodgson has left the club by mutual consent.
Principal Owner John Henry commented: “We are grateful for Roy’s efforts over the past six months, but both parties thought it in the best interests of the club that he stand down from his position as team manager.
We wish him all the best for the future.”
Roy Hodgson said:Â “Being asked to manage Liverpool Football Club was a great privilege. Any manager would be honoured to manage a club with such an incredible history, such embedded tradition and such an amazing set of fans. Liverpool is one of the great clubs in world football.
“I have, however, found the last few months some of the most challenging of my career. I am very sad not to have been able to put my stamp on the squad, to be given the time to bring new players into the club in this transfer window and to have been able to be part of the rebuilding process at Liverpool.
“The club has some great, world-class players, with whom it has been a pleasure to work and I wish the entire squad well for the rest of the season.
“I thank those with whom I have built up a close working relationship at the club for their loyalty and support during very testing times, and finally of course to the Liverpool fans, your passion and dedication to the club will see Liverpool at the top of the game once more.”
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Kenny went from my absolute hero..to something a lot less shall we say…’nuff said about that….
Hodgson, and I said it at the time, was a fool to leave Fulham IMO….he had built up a good, if not great, team and everything seemed to be in place….he was on a hiding to nothing going to Liverpool….vanity is a terrible thing…