A Dignified Exit?

‘THE Independent says that Kenny Dalglish could be on his way back to Liverpool.

‘The ball’s in our half of the pitch…’

The Liverpool chairman David Moores has forwarded the idea of the former Anfield hero returning as the club’s director of football.

Such a move will surely be welcomed by Liverpool fans, who would love to see the return of the icon, although the paper is right when it says the appointment would not go down well with Gerard Houllier, the current coach.

But by the time of any Dalglish return, Houllier could be long gone. According to the Guardian, the Frenchman has just seven days to save his job.

The paper says that a number of Liverpool board members favour change, and will make their plans known at a meeting scheduled for next Thursday.

Not that Houllier is looking for a new job, at least not today. “I have been holding meetings with my staff preparing for next season,” he tells the paper.

“So I am carrying on as normal and with the same dignity as normal.”

Hold on a minute there, Gerard. We like the red scarf and the long overcoat, but dignified is a word the press will only bestow on Claudio Ranieri. You, we’d suggest, are more spiky and pragmatic.

And, it might be said, the next manager at Spurs. Well, why not? Just about every other name from Mr Blobby to Delia Smith has been put forward as the one who will coach the Lily Whites back to glory.

But the Sun says the job of finding the new Spurs manager will no longer be done by pure guesswork and default since the Tottenham board will allow their new director of football Frank Arnesen to hand-pick his man.

So, eeenie, meenie, minie, mo, how many people at the station…?

The answer is, as the Sun says, “lots”. But it narrows the list down to four, with the top job going to one of Martin O’Neill, Claudio Ranieri, Carlos Queiroz or Peter Taylor.

And that would make O’Neill a busy man, since one page previously he’s been tipped to be the new Liverpool manager, alongside Alan Curbishley, Rafael Benitez and Sam Allardyce.

But we’re sure the affable Irishman can handle the challenge with his usual mix of euphoria and boyish excitement.

Just as we are certain that Seb Coe will bring the Olympics to London in 2012.

The Telegraph says that the former Olympic champion and current Tory MP has swapped jobs with Barbara Cassani, making him the face of the British Olympic bid and she his deputy.

And Coe does not rule out the baton changing hands once more. “If at any stage I felt it was time to hand on to somebody else throughout this process, I would do so on the same terms.”

Meanwhile, Cassani forgets the baton and says that it’s more like a football match, where the new “captain” has to “get the team back on the pitch and go for goal”.

Coe agrees, but he thinks it‘s also like an athletics race, and that he knows the front-runners (Paris and Madrid) do not always win.

But Coe has a good engine and has every intention of making sure “we are in pole position when it matters”.

The ball is well and truly in our court…’

Posted: 20th, May 2004 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink