Sunday, June 20, 2010

Liverpool Target Roy Hodgson Insists He’s ‘Happy At Fulham’

It would appear that all and sundry are claiming Fulham manager Roy Hodgson to be the prospective candidate that the Liverpool board would prefer to see succeed Rafa Benitez at Anfield.



However, the man himself has refused to be drawn on the mounting speculation linking him a move that would see him swapping from the last season’s remarkable over-acheivers to last season’s highest-profile under-acheivers.



Whilst running his eye over the Mexico vs France World Cup game for the BBC last night, Hodgson was asked live on air about his immediate future – to which he replied;



“I’m happy at Fulham. It is all speculation and I can’t enlighten you. I don’t know any more than you do.”



Which was apparently an answer just vague enough not to dispell the relentless conjecture surrounding the 62-year-old.



Both the Guardian and the Mirror (amongst others) are professing today that Hodgson in on the brink of being sworn in as Benitez’ successor at Liverpool with the former even going as far as to suggest that the Merseyside club will make an official approach for the Cottagers boss as early as next week.



Which is all well and good until you factor in the comments reportedly made by the agent of former Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini earlier today.



Pellegrini’s representative Marco Piccioli is quoted in The Sun today, revealing that his client has opened initial talks with Liverpool over taking over at their recently-vacant helm;



“We are evaluating the move [to Liverpool] and we will soon have a new meeting to better establish the details of this deal.”



Piccioli’s brief statement has led the Daily Telegraph to hail Pellegrini as a late contender to take over at Anfield, despite the Chilean being linked with the post since the evening following the conformation of Benitez’ departure.



True to form, the Daily Mail is still backing ‘King’ Kenny Dalglish as the man they reckon will be given the job, as they fervently believe that Liverpool are looking to appoint a British manager after spending the last twelve years with a ‘johnny-foreigner’ in the hotseat.



So, with all (or at least most) of today’s speculation and counter-speculation considered and evaluated, a clear, concise conclusion is easy to reach.



No-one’s got the slightest clue what’s going on – but at least ‘Woy’ is happy!

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