Friday, July 27, 2012

Cup Wouldn't Have Saved Kenny

Liverpool owner John W Henry says he would still have sacked Kenny Dalglish even if the manager had led the Reds to FA Cup success.

Anfield legend Dalglish was shown the door by the club four days after the Reds came in eighth in the Premier League - their worst finish since 1994.

Suggestions have been raised that the manager might have survived the axe had he followed up Liverpool's Carling Cup success with another Wembley triumph in the FA Cup, where they lost out to Chelsea in the final.

But Henry, frontman of Reds owners Fenway Sports Group, says the trophy would not have saved the 61-year-old Scot.

He said: "The FA Cup would not have made any difference had he won it, no, no.

"For us we were 17th over the second half of the season and Liverpool should not be in that position.

"I don't place the blame on Kenny and assistant Steve Clarke but I think it was obvious to every fan that something was wrong and something needed to be done."

Henry admits Dalglish, who was in the role for 18 months after replacing England boss Roy Hodgson at the helm and has been succeeded by Brendan Rodgers, was only ever going to be a short-term solution.

He added: "When I first discussed making a change before he took the job, we danced around it and discussed what role he would take at some point.

"He did say that if it was the manager's job, he would only do it until we had the right young man to come in for the long term. We spoke two or three times before he actually took the job.

"Kenny was always saying no one man is bigger than the club. Everyone knows what it meant when he came back, how he did right the ship and brought all the disparate elements back together.

"There were a lot of different directions and he unified the club internally and externally - he did an incredible job of getting us all on the same page."

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