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Kenny Dalglish’s Hatred Of Newcastle Has Impaired His Liverpool Career
His tenure at Newcastle was a disaster, selling great players and replacing them with his past it mates. Is King Kenny's grudge blighting his return to Liverpool?
His tenure at Newcastle was a disaster, selling great players and replacing them with his past it mates. Is King Kenny’s grudge blighting his return to Liverpool?
It’s no secret that Kenny Dalglish is enjoying mixed fortunes at Liverpool. Rightly revered as a god by the fans because of his ability on the pitch, it’s a hard spot to be in for most Liverpool fans. Sure, he’s brought them a taste of silverware again. Alas, it was the League Cup… If you think it truly means anything in the grand scheme of things, if you think the trophy hasn’t been devalued, I suggest you speak to some Birmingham fans. Celebrations lasted about as long as it took for them to realise they were getting relegated and now it seems a distant memory.
On the flip side he has spent the sort of money that is more in keeping with the second coming of the Galacticos that Man City was supposed to be. Yet there are no international superstars in this Liverpool team. In place of YaYa Toure there’s Charlie Adam. Stewart Downing isn’t quite Sami Nasri and Luis Suarez isn’t Sergio Aguero. These comparisons all come with similar price tags yet there is one bone of contention that is a weight around Dalglish’s neck and indeed could be the downward force that’s enough to hang him come the end of the season – the massively inflated fee of Andy Carroll.
No manager in their right mind would of insisted on paying it, would have pushed so vehemently to “get their man” in the face of all logic. When it comes to all matters Newcastle though Kenny Dalglish has always had a little bit of a clouded view, something that makes the upcoming fixture perhaps third on his list of ones to win, behind the Merseyside derby and resuming hostilities with the old enemy of Manchester United.
The fans wanted Bobby Robson. Instead, they got Kenny Dalglish
If this seems odd you’d have to go back in time to 1997. Kevin Keegan had walked out on the club after a 7-1 win against Tottenham Hotspur. His reasons weren’t clear but he had the presence of mind to mumble some gibberish about the look in Gerry Francis’s eyes, how he couldn’t believe he’d done that to another human being. It was like the recanting of a child’s first hunting trip story, the time they shot that helpless deer, haunting them forever as they progress to the point of manhood.
In truth he had probably taken the club as far as it could go, which wasn’t bad given that they were second in the league. Second of course would always send a shudder down Keegan’s spine after throwing away THAT twelve point lead and having a meltdown on Sky TV, the replays of which Alex Ferguson probably watches one a month to keep youthful.
The fans wanted Bobby Robson. Instead, they got Kenny Dalglish. In echoes of their playing careers many wondered if Dalglish could be the better man, capable of greater things than Keegan as he was on the pitch. After all, he had won a title with Blackburn after similar bank-rolling and Newcastle, as they had proven, were not short of money.
What came next is perhaps the most inexplicable and grotesque mismanagement of a club that has occurred in the modern game
With Keegan’s team intact Dalglish guided them to another second place in the league, a two spot improvement on where they were when Keegan left. It was guaranteed Champions Leagues football and it seemed as if we might progress. What came next is perhaps the most inexplicable and grotesque mismanagement of a club that has occurred in the modern game.
Under no prompting from the board it seemed that we had become a selling club in the 1997 – 1998 season. The glittering array of stars were pawned off like cheap jewellery. David Ginola and Les Ferdinand to Spurs, the talismanic Peter Beardsley sold to Bolton, local lads Lee Clark and Robbie Elliot also allowed to go, the former to Newcastle’s hated rivals Sunderland. Finally Faustino Asprilla, a mercurial talent and one that the media blamed for costing his team the title in that fated run-in with Manchester United, a player with unfinished business in the premier league as a result, was sold back to Parma at a loss. On his touchdown back on Italian soil – and consider the impact of this statement given that the player was never quite the full shilling himself, the proto-Ballotelli if you will – he declared that Dalglish was out of his mind.
And indeed it was hard to disagree. With the players who had guided the team to second mostly asset stripped, Alan Shearer was injured in a pre-season game and would miss the whole season. This meant reinvestment was crucial and it’d be one sided to say that there weren’t some great additions. Shay Given and the late Gary Speed came to the club under Dalglish and they will always be part of Geordie history. Temuri Ketsbaia was also a stand out acquisition, Stuart Pearce surprisingly good despite his age.
When it turned into “jobs for the boys FC”, that’s when we all realised just how little Dalglish thought of the club.
The trouble was the rest of them. There was no big marquee signing to replace the talent that had been lost. Wasting money on unproven garbage such as Andreas Andersson (how he got to AC Milan I’ll never know) and Nikos Dabizas (his ineptitude encapsulated forever in that Bergkamp goal that made the Dutch master look as if he had meant it all to be that perfect) wasn’t the worst of it – when it turned into “jobs for the boys FC” that’s when we all realised just how little Dalglish thought of the club.
How else could you explain Ian Rush who had scored just three times for Leeds in nearly forty appearances suddenly turning up at the club and being expected to fill the shoes of Alan Shearer? Why did an aging and overweight John Barnes materialise as the person we would be looking to beat players in midfield in place of the Gallic genius of Ginola? Why was Kenny’s son Paul on our payroll, suddenly deemed good enough for a senior club and one that had finished second in the Premier League?
If it had been a company he’d have been fired and possibly sued for malfeasance but this is football where ineptitude comes with a golden handshake and the promise of future work for similar rates. The fans were ecstatic when he was fired. Towards the end of his tenure he was resoundingly booed at every match, chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” ringing in his ears.
Dalglish is not a man used to failure, not a man used to being anything other than worshipped
He might have forgiven that but what allegedly came next probably was the nail in the coffin of any hope of a respectful relationship with the club and fans. This is a well known story on Tyneside and whether it’s true or simply footballing folklore you’ll have to decide for yourself. However, after being sacked and Ruud Gullit installed it is said that Kenny returned to watch his son play in a reserve game. After the match his vehicle was surrounded by angry fans who made their views clear that they never wanted him to return. The player was loaned out shortly after the incident is said to have taken place.
Dalglish is not a man used to failure, not a man used to being anything other than worshipped. He learned that things in Newcastle are very different, that all his achievements and success meant nothing to a fanbase that desperately wanted success by any means possible. I think it’s safe to say it has stayed with the man all these years.
I imagine there’ll be plenty of you reading this that won’t buy it
This is why I’d say he was so eager to land Andy Carroll. The player many saw as the successor to Shearer was already a club legend. Was he worth £35 million? Not even the most rabid of Geordie would have said that. But the fee doesn’t just represent the acquisition of a decent striker for Liverpool. The extra was about getting one over on a club that was finding legends hard to come by.
The same transfer policy had been employed with the acquisition of Luis Enrique. It is no coincidence that every player who has performed well this season for Newcastle has suddenly been linked with Liverpool. Demba Ba has a release clause that Liverpool would simply love to trigger. Fabricio Collocini has been talked about as a potential signing on more than one occasion. Check Tiote is supposedly a “long term” target… Why do these stories keep manifesting themselves?
Of course now the reality about Andy Carroll has dawned on Liverpool fans and Dalglish alike the manager, always happy to support him verbally, is further ramming his confidence into the ground by attempting to offload him, even it means bringing in the blight that is Carlos Tevez. This time his attempt to get one over his former employers has backfired spectacularly.
I imagine there’ll be plenty of you reading this that won’t buy it, frothing Liverpool fans that won’t enjoy having the great ones professionalism called into question. Much like the detective at the end of a drama where the crime goes unsolved all I can offer is the hunch that some, if not all of this, is true.
Whether you believe it or not to Newcastle fans winning the match will be sweet, a small piece of revenge for the harm done to our club under Dalglish’s tenure. A victory should just assure us of finishing above Liverpool in the table and securing European football. We can do that knowing we took a third of all the money they spent to achieve relative mediocrity. Perhaps it will serve as a reminder for future seasons that Dalglish really needs to start looking to his own club.
Liverpool 4-3 Newcastle: A Beer-Soaked Memory Of The Best Night Of My Life
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COMMENTS
bitter much?
kenny is past it....not sure if hes ever had it as a manager.....bad signings,bad tactics .....hes deluded if he thinks where improving...
Good article. Also, the comment by "Ranald - bitter much?" just serves to emphasise your point.
Love this article. Hardly anyone seems to remember these days how the sour faced little scot destroyed Newcastle back then. Not fit to lace Bobby's boots. The fact he still tries to buy every half decent player from us is no coincidence.
never had it as a manager...erm you dont know what you are talking about, dalglish has been a manager for a total of ten years and has won four titles been to four fa cup finals(one for newcastle which seems to have been forgotten )and two league cups ....
Bitter? There is very good cause to be.
Well said. Dalglish destroyed NUFC
Flippin' great article to think on... Look on Nufc.com for the 'Enrique quote' after he left... Makes me smile... I hold no malice over Liverpool - the manager on the other hand - he makes Alex ferguson look like a nice guy! Such an arrogant, clueless and out of touch manager...
Dalglish put us back at least 5 years, gullit probably put us back another 2 years, and we have been trying to get back ever since and failing. But now we seem to be on the right track and could take our rightful place back. Now we can't let our hatred of that man, cloud our fantastic achievements. Wether he has a personal vendeta against us or not, we need to let the football and the league table at the end of the season do the talking, starting today!!!
Daglish is the worst Manager in NUFC`s History considering what he inherited. Absolute Joke of a Man!
Very well written and very acurate, agree with most of the points made.
To suggest Kenny's buys from Newcastle were for non-footballing reasons is absurd. So absurd, it makes me question what might otherwise be a fair assessment of his tenure as Newcastle manager.
kenny is a liverpool man, like fergie is a man u man. both belong to those clubs some managers can only manage one club kenny is one of those nufc have had good players but what manager as ever won you lots of titles? none european cups none, whens the last time you won somethink? lots of surrport yes but you never had a great team in 74 big mac or big mouth thompson had him in his pocket score 3,0 keegans days 4,3 to us twice...yes this year j has been poor for LFC and your doing well well ok anyway but be honest you,ll never be as big as liverpool you never have been you can dream but thats it... next season were will you be half way.. when you lose even more players... kenny won stuff pardew lol is average at best... good luck you will need it..
Good article, although the Carroll aquisition has to be looked that in tandem with receiving £50 million for Torres. Doesn't seem quite so ludicrous in that context.
I agree with Ranald. It seems irrelevant to be harping on about this now, so many years later.
KKK Dalglish will be hitting the bottle later.
I totally agree - Dalglish was a disaster - useless judgement - impossible to understand -a bitter twisted man - he made a complete mess of the Stevenage episode - when interviewed he made and still does make insulting remarks to media interviewers. In a period of 12 months he turned Newcastle from a fine entertaining goalscoring team into an insipid square passing, half way line bunch of robots who posed no threat whatsoever to opposing teams. Good riddance to Dalglish.- Just stay away you plonker.
The King has no clothes. Kenny will be sacked in the morning. P.S: It's not just Carroll. It' easy to blame an overpriced striker who's not scoring. The whole Liverpool team is shite. P.P.S: May I humbly suggest that Dalglish take the England job? If Dalglish loves to acquire English players so much, I say we make it easy for him and present him with an entire squad. Forget about the Liver bird, Three Lions is your true destiny, Uncle Kenny!
Go on and keep boasting of your Mickey Mouse Cup triumph and your 'rich legacy'. You'll Never Win Anything (Again). Even Swansea, which lost to Tottenham today, would have easily thrashed the woeful Liverpool. Yes, thrash. At Anfield. Try and finish in the top half of the table... if you can.
Great article. As a Celtic fan i can tell you Dalglish (who was idolised at Celtic as a young player), arrived as Director of Football & installed JOHN BARNES(!) as our Manager. Barnes had no managerial experience!! Dalglish was a PR disaster & a nightmare in his new job at Celtic Park. Barnes was in charge when Inverness (part-timers) beat Celtic in the cup. 48hrs later Barnes was sacked. There was a media scrum at Glasgow Airport as the tanned Dalglish returned from a golfing trip to Spain & on facing a throng of press microphones a journalist asked Dalglish's feelings on the collapse at Celtic. The arrogant figure of Dalglish paused & said only "Do ye like ma' tan?". He installed HIMSELF as caretaker-boss till end of season. His first Friday press conference he held in Bairds Bar in Glasgow!! Not a place you'd venture into if you get my drift, rough place. He had such disdain for the media that he wanted them to feel uncomfortable in a spit & sawdust boozer & also look lika a man of the people, his own egotistical agaenda. He dragged our club into the gutter, his paranoid ramblings at press conferences were horrible to watch. He was crap at Celtic, crap at Newcastle. His only success was a title win with Blackburn but only because Blackburn were the first club, in this new Premiership, to get the chequebook out & herald a new era of spending. Dalglish, like Souness was truly world class as a player. A legend. But as a manager he is absolutely clueless.
@mike excuse me but when in last 10 years has Dalglish won 4 titles?????
@redman your comment is completely besides the point, this article is not about past successes (or lack of them) of Newcastle and Liverpool. Get off your soap box and stop trolling.
You're right about Luis Suarez. He isn't Sergio Aguero... He's better!!
S Taylor I believe the point was that in a TOTAL of ten years as a manager, he has won 4 titles. I don't know whether this is true (ie that he has only spent 10 years as a manager in total). But regardless, the point being made was quite clearly not about the last 10 years.
Interesting article. I would love to know what happened at Blackburn with the odd decision to resign as manager and step into some daft director of football position. Why would you not fancy a go at managing a champions league campaign?
the past 5 weeks have been hell. this entire season has been "lets select a squad and hope for the best" approach by KD and SC. i have decided to measure each section. We have a world class keeper in Reina but no decent back up. we should go for a young agile promising keeper. Sell Doni. I have one problem with our defence, Caragher. Time is up and Coates should replace him if eitehr Skrtel or Agger are unavailable. Midfield is our problem. I have said it many times but Spearing is not starting 11 material. We need a hard tackling midfield with a sweet pass on him. Spearing does not possess this. Gerrard needs to find a reason to WANT to play. he was non existent against Newcastle. Shelvey will come good. i like him because he wants to attack and is not shy of the wanting the ball. Carroll needs better service. He needs about 10 to 15 crosses each match for him to get at the end of 5 and at least convert 1 or 2 each match. Suarez needs to be supported up front. we cannot play the style of football that hinges on a fast CF like the 2009 Torres. Adam, Henderson, Downing need to improve. forgte about fitting into this system or finding your feet at a bigger club syndrome. they are professionals and need to adjust their minds, body and emotions to be able to thrive at LFC. Adam is always looking for this hollywood pass. Downing confuses the hell out of Enrique and NEVER runs into space or off the ball. Henderson is really just a waste. does not possess a special pass or pace. Now to KD and SC. ENOUGH now. as a coach, you cannot be 2-0 down with 15 min to go and have no plans to sub someone. and when the subs do come, you take off the players who have performed the best duting the game. and, their pre-assessment of the Newcastle game should have gone something like this, " Newcastle are above for a reason. they are consistent. we are playing them at home and they have established themselves as a team that is hard to break down. lets leave Carroll on the bench and give Saurez, Kuyt and Bellamy a go at their defence. but NO, KD is TOO proud and his God Like status has gone to his head. its too late now, so lets salvage some pride and get Rafa back who is the best scientist of the football game LFC has ever had in their coaching ranks. KD hs shown that the feel good factor lasts for a few months and then COACHING starts. tell me KD & SC, what do you do for a whole to come up with a result like that against Newcastle. before the owners invest, think twice.
Do you play Football Manager, Robert?
"King Kenny winning four titles in 10 years as a manager" He took over the most successful team of the 70s and 80s and won a couple of titles, my gran could have done that. He then ruined that team, walked away due to "stress". He then went to Blackburn and broke the British transfer record on 6 occasions and bought the title. Went to Newcastle and ruined one of the most entertaining teams ever. Went to Celtic and made them a laughing stock. Has went back to Liverpool and is in the process of making them a laughing stock, yeah thats right Kenny is a grrreeeeeatt manager hahahaha don't make me laugh
Don't forget his first signing as Newcastle manager.....Des Hamilton. Says it all. There are just two words for his Newcastle tenure - Criminal negligence.
armykev, I wish Liverpool had appointed your nan and not Graeme Souness as Kenny Dalglish's successor.
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