Liverpool officially announce Hodgson to take charge

I think it's a good apointment, he's a decent manager and we are in a bit of a state at the moment. Hopefully he'll get the team playing some good football and bring through some of the younger players that we have.

We were discussing this in the pub last night and we did come up with a good point, I think the club has already been/very close to being sold. Roy seems like an intelligent man, surely he wouldn't of left a stable Fulham for a club that if it was sold and the new owner didn't like him, he could be out of a job within 5-6 months?

Realistic expectations for next year, some decent cup runs and hopefully a top 6 finish.
 
All I expect from Woy is to get the club sorted at youth level, as has been mentioned the academy is poor.

Its the same situation with the other big clubs, I dont understand why the academies are being filled with loads and loads of foreign lads, surely the areas that spawned the spice boys and the Manc homo's (:p) still have that talent coming through.

But It will be nice to see him change the system a bit, Rafa lost it a bit this last season.

Its the best we could have hoped for right now, and its better than some of the people linked, Hughes,Shteve and Pelegrini filled me with dread tbh.
 
Roy Hodgson is perfect for Liverpool. He will be able to buy basement bargins and hopefully steady the ship and achieve europa league next season.

I don't think they will stop spurs or Man City this season.
 
Pigeon_Killer said:
You mean the same ones that let the standards of the youth setup nose dive and didn't bring a single half decent player through since Gerrard in 1998?

Benitez didn't have much, if any, control of the youth team setup until he signed his new contract last year. Do you know what the first thing he did when he was given control? He sacked the staff that had failed for well over a decade and brought in half of Barcelona's youth team setup and appointed Dalglish to over see them. He also pleaded with the owners to improve the training facilities and build stands so supporters could watch them develop.

We lost that when Houliier was appointed. He completely ignored the youth team and we've suffered ever since.

Quote from an article in the Mirror: 'Because of Houllier’s short-sighted ignorance, Liverpool haven’t produced a kid through their own youth system for 10 years, and something drastic was required to address that. Quite clearly, one of the avenues has to be to challenge Arsenal, United and Chelsea for the best talent, and it’s finally happened.'


Don't mean to sound offensive but I had to check who I was quoting because it's the sort of short sighted nonsense another poster usually posts about Liverpool.
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The truth is that none of the big teams in England produce enough quality through their academies, well not first team quality for themselves. Man Utd have produced Wes Brown, John O'Shea and Darren Fletcher (players that rival fans laugh their balls off at :p) in the last decade, Chelsea have brought through John Terry, Liverpool - Gerrard, Arsenal have brought through a few good youngsters but the main quality in their team was bought in. The majority of quality players in the EPL are bought in. It seems managers prefer playing average foreigners instead of average English players.

Everton and West Ham probably have the best system for bringing youth through. It could be argued that youngsters are taking their chances elsewhere because they know their options are limited at the big clubs. I've lost count of the number of youngsters than fans rant and rave about, only to see them being sold on and having an average career. The sheer level of competition now for places is at it's highest.

I can see why Benitez identified Liverpool's academy as an area that needed improvement, the way in which he did it was pretty ruthless, many of them not getting an explanation at all as to why they were suddenly fired, Carragher and Gerrard have said in the past how much Liverpool has changed, some of those fired were responsible for them and the likes of Owen, Fowler, etc progressing through the ranks from youth to senior football.

The overall point I was trying to make is that Liverpool are losing their Liverpool identity. I'm not having a pop because I'm a Man Utd, lots of clubs are losing their identity, I'd feel the same if it was Man Utd and the manager got rid of staff that had been there years and brought through quality players. Maybe it's not a indication of the staff but the quality of players they have to begin with. Maybe the scouting needs to be improved. If you took Gerrard and Carragher out of Liverpool right now, what is Liverpool about Liverpool? Bringing Dalglish back to Liverpool was a smart move, it instantly brings a bit of history back.

There's one thing I've come to appreciate about Alex Ferguson over the years and that's his ability to retain past players and employing them as coaches, it keeps the club rooted to the ground. It keeps the identity of the club. Players coming through the ranks get to train with players they watched when they were younger. Can you imagine the immediate impact if Carragher became a youth coach at Liverpool? He's currently doing his badges so it may not be long before we do see him in some sort of coaching role. If it's at Liverpool, that's a step in the right direction.

Bringing in staff that used to work in the Barcelona youth setup sounds good on paper, but am I to believe that key members of their staff suddenly upped sticks from the cosy environment at the best club in Europe to work for Liverpool in this economic climate?
 
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