Kenny Dalglish will win some, lose some and hand Liverpool another crisis: Martin Samuel

There really was no alternative. John Henry and New England Sports Ventures were painted into a corner by making such a show of their status as the people's owners and, with Roy Hodgson isolated and failing and Kenny Dalglish bathed in a golden glow from heaven above, his dismissal and Dalglish's appointment until the end of the season were inevitable.Bringing in Dalglish and scratching that itch really was the only solution, but it is not necessarily the end of the crisis at Liverpool. There is no problem if Dalglish is good and it is not even a complete disaster if he is bad, providing the club are not sucked towards relegation, which seems unlikely; but what if he is just OK? What if, come May, Dalglish has done a reasonable holding job without taking the club on greatly? What if his mark is not A plus or F but C or C minus? What then? Hot seat: Kenny Dalglish has long wanted to return to the Liverpool dug outHis status is such that thesupporters will want him to be given the role permanently, but NESV mayconsider there to be better options without. To bring in a new manager,however, would risk alienating the Anfield crowd once more and whowould want the job with the spectre of Dalglish on his shoulder?In the summer, the moment Dalglishlet it be known he wanted to manage Liverpool again, Hodgson wasdoomed. Dalglish kept quiet, bided his time and got his way in the end.It has already been made plain he covets the job full-time and wouldlike a four-year contract not a six-month shift.   More from Martin Samuel. Martin Samuel: Happy and glorious, but this is only the beginning.07/01/11 Martin Samuel: Next time, England will know they are facing men, not gods07/01/11 MARTIN SAMUEL: Smoke-free? It's a Spanish imposition!06/01/11 Martin Samuel: Final flourish? 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If Dalglish dramatically outstripsperformances under Hodgson and some might argue it would be hard notto then he deserves to get the job full-time.Indeed, that Dalglish has spent solong disparaged or out of work remains one of football's greatestmysteries. He was an excellent Liverpool manager and his achievement inwinning the Premier League with Blackburn is unsurpassed. It is a myththat Blackburn bought the trophy the way Manchester City wish to. Citywill blow every rival out of the water financially in a bid to win theprize.When Dalglish was in charge,Blackburn were still losing out to elite clubs in the transfer market,including Liverpool. In 1995, when they were both chasing Republic ofIreland international Jason McAteer, then with Bolton Wanderers,Liverpool beat Blackburn conclusively on wages.Ray Harford, Blackburn assistantmanager at the time, said that Dalglish contacted McAteer in adesperate last attempt to turn events in his favour. 'Phone Roy Evans now and ask where he is going to play you,' he said. 'He doesn't know. We do. We know where you fit in.'It fell on deaf ears. McAteer tookLiverpool's superior offer and over four years was shuffled around thefirst team, across the midfield and even played at right back. He dideventually move to Ewood Park in 1999, but Dalglish was long gone andBlackburn were relegated that season.To win the League at Blackburn, asDalglish did in 1994-95, therefore, was one of the great feats of themodern era. He was poorly treated at Newcastle United, too. The clubwanted Ruud Gullit and sexy football and, over time, this appraisal ofDalglish producing unadventurous teams has stuck. When Sven Goran Eriksson was madeEngland manager, we were required to swoon and gasp at the bald factsof his record, having had little first-hand experience of his ratherconservative style. Dalglish's record knocks it into a cocked hat. Success: To dismiss Blackburn's title in 1995 as bought would do a disservice to Dalglish and his staffTaken the same way, as a collectionof facts on a page, it is one of the greatest curricula vitae inEnglish football, comprising four League titles (won with two Englishclubs and no other Premier League manager can claim that) and two FACups. So there is no reason why Dalglish cannot succeed, despite histime away from the game.He has remained close to footballand is not returning from the wilderness, as Kevin Keegan was when hewent back to Newcastle. Keegan made little impression on Tyneside but,if Fernando Torres is sincere in his love for Liverpool, he will knowwhat Dalglish means to the club and will seize on his arrival as aninspirational moment. Dalglish should bring a presence tothe dressing room that was beyond Hodgson. If he improves Liverpoolsignificantly, he will deserve the endorsement of a long contract.If he fails? In a way that is aresolution, too. Providing Liverpool's decline is limited and does notsend them hurtling towards the Ws (West Ham United, Wigan Athletic andWolverhampton Wanderers, the 23rd letter of the alphabet could belosing some serious representation in the Premier League this season)then even a continuance of the current malaise could have a positiveaspect. If the fans get what they want andwhat they want turns out to be a busted flush, NESV have every right tomake the next choice of manager alone and the new arrival starts with aclean slate and public support. Legend: Dalglish (centre) was the fans choice. If he fails there can be more calls for a saviourThere can be no further calls forDalglish if Dalglish proved no saviour. Relegation was painful forNewcastle, but it did at least stop future managers having to deal withsentimental cries for Alan Shearer.Shearer came, saw and did nothing toarrest a slide. If that now happens to Dalglish, while excuses will beadvanced more readily than they were for Hodgson, the pressure on hissuccessor will not be as intense. Dalglish can be thanked for steppingin at a difficult time and the NESV era begins in earnest next season.As long as the first match in August is not against Brighton and HoveAlbion, the club can start afresh.And then there is the dreaded thirdway, in which Liverpool consolidate under Dalglish, win some, losesome, make relatively good progress in the Europa League, and generallydo all right. In other words, the so-so success of yesterday's defeatat Manchester United is repeated through the season.Liverpool lost, but their fans wenthome relatively happy. They blamed defeat on a dodgy penalty itwasn't, and United could have had at least one more and thesending-off of Steven Gerrard.Yet their best, pretty much theironly, decent chance was from a dead ball. They created next to nothingin open play and Torres looked as lame as he became under Hodgson.Manchester United were a different class. Yet, to many eyes, this wasprogress. And if it continues this way throughout the rest of theseason the supporters will then demand Dalglish is installedpermanently, at which point the new owners have a dilemma. Say the popular view endures.Dalglish cannot remain caretaker beyond May and anything less than hisprecious four-year contract will be seen as rejection, of sorts. Bad start: Manchester United hadn't read the script for King Kenny's returnSo the clamour will be for Dalglishto have a crack at the job with his team, playing his way, rather thanwith the inherited flotsam of the Rafael Benitez-Roy Hodgson era. And if Henry and his board thinkthis is not the way forward and decide on a change, the club are backto where they started, with a rookie on the touchline, the people'schoice in the stand and 40,000 seething souls joined in communalresentment. We all know how helpful that schism has been this season.It would no longer be a case of notappointing Dalglish, NESV would have to remove him, and good luck tothe successor who did not hit the ground running in thosecircumstances. Didier Deschamps may be a legend inFrance, but he is nothing compared to Dalglish in Liverpool; and tryselling a little-known coach such as Ralf Rangnick, formerly ofHoffenheim, if Blackpool have just nicked a result at Anfield once moreand Dalglish is just a thin-lipped observer.The alternative would be to settlefor a quiet life by giving Dalglish his wish in the hope the club movein the right direction. This might make the fans happy butthe Henry era would have transmuted into the Dalglish era, and theowner into football's equivalent of John Lennon's Nowhere Man, makingall his nowhere plans for nobody. One imagines this was not what Henry had in mind when he paid around £300million to own, and run, a football club. AND WHILE WE'RE AT ITTheo Walcott admits diving to try to win a penalty against Leeds United, but says he is not that sort of player. 'It is not something I like to see in my game,' he added, surreally, as if his performances for Arsenal are a celestial version of FIFA 11, and he has no control of his actions. Someone should remind him there is no grand console at the Emirates. This is real life. If you dive, you are a player who dives, QED. Nobody pushes the buttons other than you. Watching the opening game of the 2011 Asian Cup in Qatar, I was struck by two things. Firstly that the host nation's football team are useless and full of imported ringers, secondly that FIFA president Sepp Blatter appeared to be perched on something resembling a throne. All falls into place now, doesn't it?Avram Grant is finally found outAt some point this week, it is likely Avram Grant will be sacked as manager of West Ham United and so will end one of the most puzzling careers in the history of English football.Grant had scant pedigree for the Premier League when he arrived, and will have little more when he leaves. He has been employed almost exclusively through connections, and if the owners of West Ham thought his contacts book counted for more than his managerial acumen, they have paid a heavy price for their cynicism.West Ham was always going to be the job that found out Grant. At Chelsea, he merely maintained Jose Mourinho's team John Terry says the players just continued what they had been doing under the previous manager until Luis Felipe Scolari arrived and Portsmouth were in such a state when he got there that mere maintenance was regarded as achievement. Busted: Avram Grant has endured the best part of two years at the foot of the Premier LeagueGrant would have taken Portsmouth down anyway, even without the points deduction for entering administration, but hardship acted as another smokescreen, obscuring judgment.At West Ham, however, he was exposed. The club had financial issues but had a nucleus of decent players, and did not expect to be fighting relegation. Instead, Grant has set up camp at the bottom of the League with a homing pigeon's instinct.Without the safety net of Mourinho's methods or the handy shield of destitution, he has been revealed as an over-promoted, uninspiring figure, over here for who he knows, not what he knows. His little black book, however, has only ever helped one man. On the field, where it matters, Grant is just an empty Rolodex.  When Paul Merson criticised GlenJohnson, the Liverpool defender responded by calling him an 'alcoholicdrug user, average at the best of times.' This is Paul Merson winner of twoLeague titles (37 appearances in each season and 23 goals), the FA Cup,the League Cup, the European Cup-Winners Cup, the Second Division titleand the PFA Young Player of the Year in 1989, versus Glen Johnsonwinner of one League title (13 starts), one FA Cup and one League Cup(came on as sub after 81 minutes). Johnson would love to be as average as Merson. Who you calling average? Paul Merson's trophy cabinet puts Glen Johnson's in the shade  As a result of a passing referencein the column last Wednesday, the Spirit of Shankly pressure group havebeen in touch and I am happy to clarify that they possess no designatedarea at Anfield and had no orchestrated campaign to remove manager RoyHodgson (although recent developments will no doubt be a happycoincidence for many of their members).I did not suggest otherwise,actually, so this is no skin off my nose. In the interest of goodwill,however, I will go further by volunteering not to mention SOS again, ineither positive or negative connotation.I would add that running to lawyersat the merest perceived slight is somewhat counter-productive for anorganisation with a message to get across to the widest audience, butit's your show, guys, so enjoy the silence.  Explore more:People: Alex Ferguson, John Terry, Kevin Keegan, Glen Johnson, Sepp Blatter, John Lennon, Theo Walcott, Kenny Dalglish, John Henry, Fernando Torres, Sven Goran Eriksson, Jose Mourinho, Roy Hodgson, Paul Merson, Steven Gerrard, Alan Shearer Places: Liverpool, Newcastle, Qatar

Source: Daily_Mail