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Chapter 1: What are the initial thoughts on Liverpool's current managerial situation?
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Hello and welcome to the award-winning gutter. I've got Mark making his debut, Mark Henry Davis. I like saying the full double barrel name, Mark Henry Davis, so I'm going to keep saying it, okay? You don't want me to, I'm going to keep doing it. Mark Henry Davis, what do you think about transfers? That sort of thing might happen. Go with it. Joshie Sexton. Famously.
I know what you think about transfers. And about my double-barrel name, Joshy Sexton. Joshy Sexton. Bethy Lindup is here in the house as well, who's really pleased because on my agenda it says we're going to talk about the manager's job again. She loves it when we talk about the manager's job. Can't wait to talk about it.
I've not said enough about it, quite frankly.
You've not said enough, so I'm going to let you say more. But first, we're going to talk a little bit about our lovely sponsors, our good friends at NordVPN. Ray.
Ray.
You can get on NordVPN. I'm going early with this. We're going to nordvpn.com forward slash t-a-w. You, Beth, will get a great, you specifically, will get a great deal exclusive to you and those like you and like Josh and like Mark. Josh, do you like extra internet security and peace of mind? It's my favorite. Is it? Yeah. You want to get on NordVPN, mate. Oh, well.
Mark, do you like having the ability to change your virtual location with a click of a button? More than anything in the world, Rob. Gosh, golly, I think you should get on NordVPN as well. And I bet you're the sort of guy that definitely likes a 30-day money-back guarantee, yeah? Read me like a book. Read him like a book. But not a cheap book either, an expensive book. Expensive book of quality.
And there's some sort of percentage saving you get if you do it through nordvpn.com forward slash t-a-w. I think it's pretty good, like a real...
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Chapter 2: How do recent performances impact the manager's future?
And I think West Ham beat us 3-0 or something like that. And it was like, ah. A downfield, yeah. You're right. But in October 2026, I don't think there's going to be a world-class manager who is on a sabbatical waiting for a job because...
And even if you do get one, he's going to say, rightly so, the minute things don't go perfectly, well, of course, this is a sort of, what's the word, fact-finding season for me. He's entitled. Even if you do get Xabi Alonso, if you get him in October, November, he'll be the first to sort of imply that he gets a pass, whatever happens.
You know what I mean? Yeah. And this is a squad that needs a lot more work doing to it. And if I'm an agent or a young, excited footballer, I'm like... Well, what's the cracker? I mean, is he going to be here? You know, am I signing for him? Am I signing for somebody else? Where if you do make the change, then everyone's like, right, it's a new, fresh project.
We're coming in to play under this person. And it's going to be a long old summer if it's confirmed at the end of the season that it is going to be slot. And I feel bad saying that because of what he gave us 12 months ago. And that can't be forgotten. But this is much more than just a wobble now.
The Brendan Rodgers comparisons are very pertinent, I think, because even though Brendan Rodgers wasn't a title-winning Liverpool manager, he bloody well nearly was. And it's a very similar trajectory in a sense, Beth.
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Chapter 3: What groundswell of opinion exists among Liverpool fans regarding the manager?
Whether it's a cautionary tale or not, whether the powers that be at Liverpool see it as a cautionary tale, because if you... Although they got it very right in that they got Jurgen Klopp in, there's a sense to which I think they were a little bit lucky that he was available at that particular moment in time. Now, we spoke off air beforehand.
You said, well, I've said, and I think you'd agree with me, that they're not going to make a decision to bullet or unlikely to make a decision to axe the manager based on the next two results or the last five results. They will either have made the decision to firmly commit or to firmly move on a while back.
Now, if they did make the decision to move on, they're doing a bloody good job at keeping that quiet. And I can have two dialogues in my own mind about this one. One, well, they would do, wouldn't they? Do you know what I mean?
Because one thing I think you would say if you were the higher-ups at Liverpool is, if you did want to have made the decision to change the manager two months ago, but you knew you couldn't physically make that change until the summer, You'd say, well, what becomes of the rest of the season?
I think you'd say to each other, well, what we definitely mustn't endanger is qualifying for the Champions League. Because the worst thing to happen would be to hand a new manager a non-Champions League team. That would be awful. And also, obviously, for the finances of the club and the prospects of the transfer market.
So I think, although you said the journalists are hearing nothing but the likelihood that Liverpool will not make the change... I think Liverpool would do everything in their power to make sure they didn't give any vibes that they'd make the change, wouldn't they?
yeah i mean i can only you know speak it from from what i've from her from what i've heard from conversations i've had and there has been no glaring indications that they are going to change whether and that's not me saying i agree with that or i don't agree with that it's just that's the facts and like you say you know you can you can make i mean i've seen quite a few people say and even going back sort of a month or so people saying
It should be announced before the end of the season that they're going to shake hands and walk away and then slot would get a send-off on the final day. To me, it is so naive to think like that because that's just not how it works.
I think it would be incredibly disrespectful for any club to say to any title-winning manager, we don't believe you're the man to take us forward, but we do want you to qualify for the Champions League. But we're going to announce it now.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of keeping or replacing the manager?
And it's just a harsh fact of the job. And it's going to take time for people to look back and go, he actually won us the league and I was horrible about him. So I sort of do and don't blame people for behaving like that. But at the moment, my mind is, I'm all business. I want to see what happens next. Let's turn to the name of Xabi Alonso.
Because at the end of the day, it's his specter that makes this such an essential conversation. If he wasn't there and we were just talking about Glasner or Iriola or, I don't know, bloody Nagelsmann. I would be less convinced that we had to make a change for change's sake.
And Xabi Alonso exists because he demonstrates some quality clearly, but he's able to project the mythology I was talking about at the beginning of this long-winded point.
Looks great in a cashmere jumper.
Looks great in a cashmere jumper. Looks great in anything.
He does. He does. You know, central casting of the manager that takes you off into the next phase. It's shabby. I find it interesting that a manager who will clearly be in demand to all clubs who haven't got managers or are dissatisfied with their managers hasn't been firmly linked with anyone other than us really yet. And even us, only so much. But definitely there's no firm links anywhere else.
I saw some tentative ones to Chelsea, but...
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Chapter 5: How does the manager's past success influence current opinions?
Nowhere else. That's the thing, I think every other link feels tentative because there's someone who you sort of assume is a better candidate for that job. And when I say better, I don't mean like more suited or anything like that.
I just mean like, you know, with City, a lot of people think that the reason Maresca was sacked by Chelsea was almost out of spite because he was talking to City and because that seems like a natural sort of almost boot room-like succession for City is to hire a fella who was in Pep's backroom staff once.
With Chelsea, it feels like it's been Iriola until it wasn't recently, with Iriola now being reported to be going to Crystal Palace. Chelsea, the ones who I'm kind of suddenly worried about have come on the scene.
I think one of the comparisons that's been made over and over again with the sort of back end of slot, if we're calling it this now, at least sort of presumptively, if nothing else, is the Brendan Rodgers comparison. I think what ends up happening in quite a nice, sort of succinct way is that
assuming Jürgen Klopp was the number one target to replace Brendan Rodgers even from the point of the end of the 14-15 season Klopp was on his sabbatical so he wasn't ready to take that job at that stage and keeping Brendan on actually ends up being the sliding doors moment that leads to you to get Jürgen Klopp in October or November whenever it was that Jürgen eventually took over it
feels like it's actually the opposite way around with this where the guy who at least we're all assuming is the number one candidate for the job and who feels in our hearts like he should be the number one candidate for the job is possibly only available in the summer I think hanging on until like you know as Mark said before like if you go and do it in October or November instead in the way to how you did it with Brendan it opens up the World Cup managers a little bit more maybe because
The reason they wouldn't be able to take over in pre-season is because they'd be away with their World Cup teams. But then it means you've lost pre-season as well. So you've lost that ability to... And never waste a season. Exactly. It's etting to their time of how much they can change things and have the summer to change things.
it obviously worked for us with Klopp to still, you know, get a new manager in, you know, partway into the season. But it's because Jurgen was such a spiritual leader. I think why, you know, with Brendan, why he lost a bit of faith is that, like, it just felt like every press conference he lent back on cliches and things that just didn't inspire the fans at all.
And when that's your only window into...
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Chapter 6: What managerial options are being discussed for Liverpool?
Liverpool possibly, can they solve this in the transfer market this summer? Can they buy those kind of footballers or is it about coaching?
I think it's a mixture of both because the changes that were made were on his watch. I'm not saying that he is sort of this godlike figure that makes all the decisions. We know that there is, you know, we've got Richard Hughes in place who's probably been working behind the scenes. And I think FSG are trying to get to a model where the way that the club operates is like,
very much you know they are the head coach not the manager and not that they want to you know change manager every six months like chelsea do but that like well the model is always going to be the same and similar and then we'll always get a type of head coach that can suit it it's like minimize the impact of managerial change because obviously you should suck more
It does. Look what Real Madrid do. Sorry to cut across your vote, but look what Real Madrid do. They've so devalued the status of the manager. They're virtually treating him like the cricket teams or the rugby teams do. The senior players and the higher-ups, the director of football, decide how this broadly goes. And the coach is literally there to do something.
If they go for Mourinho, it's literally roll on, roll off.
They'll have Ancelotti again soon, then it'll be Zidane again soon. And quietly, there'll be some murmurs. They'll win a couple of La Ligas and a few European Cups. You know? Chelsea, for a while, has sort of did that as well with their quickness of changing management. This is almost a test of the new model. I'm going to come to you on it, Beth.
If you are going to have a strong, higher-up structure with the director of football and devalue the manager to call him a coach, I think you've also got to be prepared to make the change when things aren't ideal and future-twisting.
Yeah, I think... I think that's why almost the head coach model at Liverpool isn't a universally popular thing because I think Liverpool historically are a club that has revered their manager as the man and certainly the last manager was the man in a way that a lot of the managers that had come before him in the last 25 years weren't really. Obviously Rafa was but again in a different way. So
Yes, I agree with you in one sense. It should maybe make clubs more sanguine about making managerial changes if they don't think things are going to change a lot. But equally, then it begs the question of how much responsibility do you put on the coach if things start to go wrong? Because then surely it's your own failings in terms of... It's a paradox of sorts, isn't it? So it is hard.
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