Kenny Dalglish: I Was Waiting To Be Asked Back To Liverpool

Kenny Dalglish has spoken this week of the FA Cup derby which forced his shock leaving of Liverpool.

And he admitted he is disappointed he was never asked back.

Dalglish's decision to resign just 48 hours after the incredible 4-4 draw in 1991 was one of the most sensational stories in Anfield history.

Rumours and wild speculation spiralled around the city - but the truth was that the intense pressures of management left him in a position where he felt his head "was going to explode."

He quit on February 22, 1991.

Seven weeks later Graeme Souness was appointed manager.

But Dalglish admits he had regrets within weeks of standing down.

"Aye, I regretted leaving," he said.

"This game against Everton for Rafa and the boys has brought back to me a time, probably for the first time in my career, when things weren't the happiest for me.

"I needed the break, I needed the rest. After two weeks I got what I needed and I'd have been ready to go back, but the phone never rang.

"No-one ever asked me how I was doing or whether I'd reconsider returning and the club went on and appointed Graeme.

"I went on the Friday after the 4-4 draw and then Alan Hansen went the week after me.

"But two weeks later I was ready to get back to it. I needed the break, though.

"This is the first FA Cup game against Everton since 1991 and my resignation, so there's all sorts of memories and feelings floating to the surface."

Kenny admits that it was the 4-4 draw with Everton which convinced him he needed a break.

"I knew that night I had to go," he explained. "After we took the lead for the final time I was standing on the touchline and I knew that I had to make a change to shore things up at the back.

"I could see what had to be done and what would happen if I didn't do it, but I didn't act on what I knew I had to do. That was the moment I knew.

"The wife was busy planning my 40th birthday and I just came in that night and told her I was done. I needed the break. I was shattered and Marina was stunned.

"I never fell out of love with the game, even now I still love it and you get those pangs of regret and thoughts of what might have been.

"I just needed to get away from the pressure. The club did offer some sort of extended break, but I didn't know when we had that conversation how long I needed.

"If I'd asked for a week, then needed another, and another after that then how were the club going to contend with that?

"Who was going to take over for that time and what was going to happen to results with uncertainty hanging over the whole of Anfield?

"That's why I felt it was better to resign while I got my head together. Big Alan Hansen went the week after me, going because of an injury.

"I suppose that it was an injury that finished my own Liverpool career in the end.

"Big Al's injury was a physical one and mine was more of a mental injury. Mine was something that healed.

"Leaving Liverpool was the first decision I'd made in my life, in more than 20 years. That was for the good of Kenny Dalglish and the Dalglish family and not the football club.

"That's how momentous it was for me.

"I took the break and felt refreshed and more like my old self after just a couple of weeks. But no-one from Liverpool called.

"I thought, maybe, considering what I'd been through and what I'd given to the club - with the success we had enjoyed - that someone might have called to see how I was and whether a return might be possible.

"But the club had other ideas, clearly, and went in another direction.

"I understood, but Liverpool had been my life and parting was one of the hardest things I did."

"I ended up at Blackburn feeling maybe like I had a point to prove - to myself as much as anything."