Vangelis Mitsis
As grand European footballing institutions go, Bayern Munich and Liverpool are mightily similar. Both established footballing dynasties which dominated their respective nations so completely it seemed as if they would never end. Each also tasted European Cup success in the 1970s and became the benchmark against which all were judged. And an in-house culture was nurtured to keep the clubs at the top. Fast forward to 2012 though, and only one side keeps the flame of past glories alive.
While this year has seen Bayern Munich in the Champions League final, Liverpool find themselves mired in mediocrity, their league championship record surpassed, their club passed from American owners to American owners and their traditions seemingly stomped upon. Yet for all this, the most craven sin is that Liverpool, as in the men in suits who own and direct the club from offices in Boston, appear to have no idea just where they are going.
The recent sacking of Kenny Dalglish as manager, a man who has forgotten more about the Anfield institution that the club’s American owners, Fenway Sports Group, will ever know, was understandable from a results and transfer outlay point of view. What however was not apparent is just why Fenway dispensed with Dalglish without a successor earmarked. The last appointment made by the long Liverpool Moores dynasty, in 2004, was Spanish boss Rafael Benitez. The tactician had just led Valencia to La Liga, but had been lined up for the Anfield hot seat, and so when Liverpool parted company with Gerard Houllier, Benitez was swiftly unveiled. Even before Houllier’s predecessor Roy Evans, Liverpool had known they wanted Graeme Souness after Kenny Dalglish’s shock departure in 1991. And the former Liverpool captain was pursued and secured. Indeed, in every Liverpool appointment since Bill Shankly, the club’s succession plan was apparent and their shortlist was the shortest of lists.
Now however, Liverpool are adrift. Previous owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks had no need to really enter the managerial arena – Benitez did the job. And when the Spaniard did depart, a lack of footballing know-how in the upper reaches was revealed with the appointment of Roy Hodgson, a flavour of the month style candidate having just led Fulham to the Europa League final and won the League Managers’ Association Manager of the Year award. Once again, with links to the past and club stalwarts gone, following Dalglish’s departure, the club is a mess. All footballing knowledge, gained from years inside the game and at its upper echelons, is gone. The Reds have been linked with a disparate group of managers to succeed Dalglish, with widely differing styles, experience and philosophies. Managers are being approached to attend interviews by managing director Ian Ayre, a man appointed commercial director for his deal-making skills by Hicks and Gillett, in the most public of selection processes. And each is entitled to ask, ‘if Liverpool do not know who or what they want, do they really want me?’
Indeed, picture the scene in the manager’s office of a world class coach. Liverpool ring, seeking permission to speak hold talks and an expression of interest. The coach in question has already read that the Reds are looking to speak to up to a dozen managers, some have agreed to talk, others have knocked them back. While the manager might quite fancy the job, thoughts wander to reality of the situation. Why attend an interview when the fact will surely become public knowledge soon. Players and club could become jumpy, spy disloyalty; or even if not, the humiliation of not finishing top of the beauty parade is not worth contemplating; it is damaging to a reputation and any boss worth their salt is expected to believe they are beyond competing with a wide array of names for a top job. In football, managers need to feel faith, especially at the top end, the feeling of genuine backing for a project and a plan. Interviewing a dozen candidates does not in any way suggest Liverpool’s eyes focused on one manager and their potential – merely that the successful candidate turned an impressive trick in an hour-long chat. Already Liverpool have been knocked back by Brendan Rodgers (Swansea) and Jurgen Klopp (Dortmund); more will follow – a free agent appointment is likely.
All this is in stark contrast to the way Bayern Munich, a club Liverpool should be more than comparable to, operate. In 1976, the German giants won the last of their three European Cups, beating Saint-Etienne 1-0 in Glasgow. These were golden years in Europe, of the kind Liverpool experienced in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Bavarians rightly gloried in the success and, as the years ticked by, transferred that dynasty which had been built on the pitch, off it, all the more that the club’s philosophy and history would permeate into its very soul. Photos of teams from days gone by holding up trophies are only inspiring with flesh on their bones. Knowledge and experience matters. That is why of Bayern Munich’s 1976 European Cup winning side, there are still men who were involved stalking the corridors of power at the Allianz Arena. Franz Beckenbauer is honourary president, Gerd Muller works as a coach with the club’s second string, Uli Hoeness is president, while Karl-Heinz Rummenigge serves as chairman. The goalkeeper on that day, Sepp Maier, only retired as Bayern Munich goalkeeping coach in 2008. And while general manager Christian Nerlinger is far too young to have been involved, he too played for the team, brought up through the club’s youth ranks. Bayern Munich value experience and those who are the blood which runs through the institution’s veins.
And Liverpool? The final European Cup hurrah for the club in the 1980s glory years came in 1984, with victory over Roma on penalties. Kenny Dalglish played that day; yet of the rest, not a single one is employed in a senior capacity at the club. Winding the clock back even further to Liverpool’s first European Cup in 1977 does not help, although Steve Heighway had a spell as academy director which only ended in 2007. Yet the fact remains that the club which launched the likes of John Toshack, Graeme Souness, Kevin Keegan, Phil Neal, John Barnes, Ian Rush, Alan Hansen, Bruce Grobbelaar, Steve Nicol and Ronnie Whelan, to name just a few, has promoted none to senior positions. Sacking Dalglish is perhaps the ultimate demonstration of the de-Liverpoolisation of Liverpool. Dalglish as chairman, club president or director, a man who breathes Liverpool, is a no-brainer. But now the man who won European Cups and league titles in the famous red shirt will be left to fill his time playing golf, alongside friends and former team-mates Rush, Barnes and Hansen. At Bayern Munich that would be criminal. At Liverpool it is acceptable.
Throughout the club Fenway have set in train an earthquake in recent months, firing the club’s director of communications Ian Cotton, director of football Damien Comolli – a man brought in by the Americans and ordered to bring long term thinking to a muddled transfer plan; he lasted 17 months – and head of sports science Peter Brukner. With Dalglish’s departure too, it has left Liverpool bereft of direction and, perhaps, in the severing of the Scot’s link with the club, it’s very soul. For Wigan Athletic owner Dave Whelan, who took his side to Anfield in March, Liverpool was already at that point a club which had lost its identity. "When we went there, there was Alan Hansen welcoming people, it was a bit embarrassing to be honest, although he was doing his best", said the Wigan supremo, pointing out the lack of leadership at the club. Liverpool are now, for Whelan, a club without a soul and a heart. "They have great supporters, but the place is a morgue, a desolate place without heart; all I can say is what a shame for their supporters."
What the future holds for Liverpool is hard to say. The club’s American owners appear to know little to nothing about football and, crucially, no footballing experience, let alone insider Liverpool experience, is in place to advise them. There is little doubt Liverpool will fill the manager’s post, perhaps even with a big name appointment. But that will not matter. A club needs direction in the boardroom, experience and to be staffed by football people, even if that is balanced with real business know-how. It is also a family, and two successive sales to American owners have seen Anfield’s spawn all but banished. Reds’ supporters have reason to look enviously at Bayern Munich and wonder, Keegan as president, Dalglish as chairman, Toshack as director of football, Keegan’s infectious enthusiasm at the academy, and Hansen, Rush and Barnes all in senior slots. But were Liverpool a little more like Bavaria’s powerhouses.
