Liverpool's owners seek replacement for Roy Hodgson

Posted Saturday, January 01, 2011 by

As the manager expressed his hurt and loneliness in the club's predicament his masters were searching for a successor

Liverpool's owners seek replacement for Roy Hodgson
The Liverpool manager, Roy Hodgson, says it has been an 'uphill struggle' at Anfield.

Roy Hodgson became manager of Liverpool 183 days ago. On the day he got the job he said: 'I always knew Liverpool fans were special. The motto "You'll never walk alone" is really lived by the fans. It's a club where you feel you're not alone.' Today those words came back to haunt him.

Roy Hodgson's days at Liverpool appear to be numbered after it emerged last night the club's American owners are ready to replace him midway through the season, if the right candidate becomes available.

As the manager made an emotional plea to fans to get behind him and apologised for his perceived criticism of them after Wednesday's defeat by Wolverhampton Wanderers, Fenway Sports Group, which bought the club in October, had reportedly decided to start looking for his successor after six months at the helm. The former Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard has been linked with the job, as have Didier Deschamps, Porto's André Villas Boas and Bolton's Owen Coyle.

While one poll suggested that more than nine in 10 Liverpool fans wanted Hodgson sacked, the manager yesterday gave vent to his feelings.

"After the defeat by Wolves I thought I did quite a good job to disguise the hurt, the sadness and, to some extent, the anger that I was feeling. To take stick from the crowd and then to stand up in a press conference and say I understood and sympathised with them ... It is always going to be the case as a manager that when things are going wrong you are going to get that flak, that stick. It is unfortunate for me that fans should think I went into a press conference with a view to attacking them because nothing could be further from the truth.

"Two or three weeks ago we were on a good roll and playing some good football and everything looked so bright and positive. A very good performance at Tottenham, which should have encouraged people, has now become just another defeat. Then we had the last two defeats, against Newcastle and Wolves, which have hurt us very badly and hurt me very badly. It has swung things round enormously and put us in the situation where we find ourselves today. I cannot emphasise enough that it hurts me deeply. It hurts my professional pride. It hurts all the things I believe in to find myself in the situation I am in but I have to accept it. I feel very bad and very down.

"I have the experience but it has been an uphill struggle since I came here. Maybe that was the point I was trying to make [about the famous Anfield support] which has been interpreted as a crack against the fans. I have had a lot of situations to deal with and worked very hard to put together a team that knows what it is doing and can produce winning football. Along the way there have been some very big setbacks which have thrown me into the limelight and the firing line. I accept it as part of taking a job of this stature.

"Last night I saw a quote from Benjamin Disraeli when he became prime minster: 'I have achieved my goal and climbed to the top of the greasy pole.' That is really what we do. That is how I feel. Coming to Liverpool for me was a pinnacle; to some extent it was a reward for the work I had put in, not just at Fulham but in the years before. It was a recognition of my competence. You come here hoping you will keep flying forward but, yes, I did know it would be difficult. If we can between now and the end of the season get the results everybody wants, people will respect us more for the hardship we have gone through. It is a cliché but we coaches do need time, patience and support. Support at this club is of vital importance because that is what has made it great through the years – the feeling that Liverpool is a bit special and that people get together when things are not going well.

"It would be nice to have people around you who could help you a bit more but it doesn't really work that way. It is a lonely job being the manager of a top club. You can't expect people to help you too much. The staff are very good and supportive – and so too are the players – but your family is the most important during these times. They try to encourage you that life isn't all doom and gloom and there might be a bright spot somewhere along the way. That is what you have to cling on to.

"Two defeats in a row – and one of them at home against a team you are expected to beat – that is a time when you are going to be very hurt and upset about everything. Lonely is not the wrong word to use because, to be quite honest, you don't want company anyway. You want to be left alone with your thoughts. They are not pleasant thoughts but you don't have the desire to do anything other than sit around with them."