Thursday, June 17, 2010

Liverpool Must Realise That Roy Hodgson Will Not Wait Forever

If Liverpool do want Roy Hodgson, the Fulham manager, to be the long-term replacement for Rafa Benitez, as is looking increasingly likely, then they have a strange way of showing it.

Sources at Anfield have insisted for almost a fortnight that Hodgson is the preferred candidate to succeed Benitez, who has since moved to Champions League winners Inter Milan where he was unveiled as new manager this morning.

Hodgson, so the theory went and the sources suggested, was the perfect man for the Anfield hotseat for several reasons.

Firstly, he would not interfere with Liverpool's catastrophic boardroom situation in the same way that chief agitator Benitez did and Hodgson was also deemed to be dignified and calm enough to bring an element of stability to the club.

With £350m worth of debt and with co-owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks desperate to sell up, Liverpool certainly require a figurehead who will quell the unrest among the fans as well as get Liverpool playing winning football again and Hodgson appeared to tick all those boxes.

He was still being pushed forward as the first choice even after club legend Kenny Dalglish revealed last week that he would love another go at the Liverpool managerial post, 11 years after his last day-to-day job in the game.

For Hodgson to still be ahead of King Kenny just goes to show how desired the Fulham manager is by the Liverpool hierachy.

Or is he?

Because, as of yet, Liverpool have hardly been falling over themselves to woo him.

A Fulham spokesman has confirmed that nobody from Anfield has been in touch and the man himself is currently said to be frustrated that his future remains uncertain.

Hodgson wanted any deal with Liverpool to be agreed before he left England for a spot of punditry at the World Cup but that has not happened and Liverpool's reticence may just come back to haunt them.

Why should Hodgson, at 62 and with 25-years of managerial experience behind him hang around forever for Liverpool to approach him?

Hodgson is adored by Fulham's fans, he has a chairman inMohamed Al-Fayed who has admitted he will give him "anything he wants" in order to try and keep hold of him and the job Hodgson has done at Craven Cottage has been widely saluted throughout the Premier League, indeed throughout Europe.

If Liverpool are not careful, he may just start thinking he is too happy in London, too old to be messed about and too sensible to get embroiled in the current continued drama on Merseyside.

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