Roy Hodgson will never understand the Liverpool fans - we need a manager who can and will
Liverpool’s results this season are now so bad that they’re being compared to the days before Bill Shankly arrived and revolutionised the club. There’s no passion from the players, but it’s hardly surprising when the manager rarely seems too concerned by defeat.
By Jim Boardman, Editor, anfieldroad.com 11:00PM GMT 31 Dec 2010
That manager, Roy Hodgson, was hardly a popular appointment, even among those supporters who wanted a change. But fans were willing to give him some time, to try and help him be a success in the job. But Roy never once tried to engage with the fans – now it seems he’s attacking them.
He acts like he’s not here for our benefit. His comments about fans not being supporters were hardly a surprise. All he seemed to do was put into words what we’d already worked out his opinion of us must be.
Compare that to Shankly, who once said: “I'd played at Anfield and I knew the crowd were fantastic. I knew there was a public just waiting. So I fought the battles inside and outside. I was interested in only one thing, success for the club. And that meant success for the people. I wanted results for the club, for the love of the game, to make the people happy.”
And it goes without saying - he made the people happy. Not only that, but his successors were in the job for the same reasons. Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Kenny Dalglish continued the success that Shankly had begun. It got to a point where fans expected at least a league title or a European Cup at the end of every season. For a long time they got exactly that.
But deep down it wasn’t the silverware that really mattered. It was the fact they were doing all they could to make us happy. And in return we did all we could to help them do that. They didn’t see themselves as better than any single fan. And they were fans like the rest of us, there’s no doubt about that. They’d never dream of dismissing our concerns or talking like our support should be something they could take for granted.
In 1989 Kenny Dalglish was there for the families, the survivors and the fans in the awful aftermath of Hillsborough. He went to funerals, he took far too much on his own shoulders until in the end he had to step down. He needed a break; he deserved some time to do his own grieving about what had happened.
Graeme Souness harmed his relationship with fans when he made a decision to sell his story to the paper we don’t buy. Roy Evans succeeded him and never once could anyone question his motives – but as a son of the bootroom that was hardly a surprise. He did all he could, and he did it for us. It just wasn’t quite enough, but he never once suggested we were wrong and he was right.
Even Gerard Houllier understood how important and integral to Liverpool FC the fans really are.
When thousands of fans marched in support of Rafael Benítez, angered by stories that the previous owners were about to sack him, the bond was perhaps more visible than it had been since Dalglish left.
We support the club, not the manager. But the manager will get support by default if we feel he’s fighting for the good of the club, that he’s giving his all.
There’s never once been that feeling about Roy Hodgson. From day one he seems to have been more focussed on blowing his own trumpet and blaming others than on fighting for the club the supporters hold so dear.
He doesn’t get us, he never will. We need someone who can, someone who will.
JimBoardman
Liverpool’s results this season are now so bad that they’re being compared to the days before Bill Shankly arrived and revolutionised the club. There’s no passion from the players, but it’s hardly surprising when the manager rarely seems too concerned by defeat.
By Jim Boardman, Editor, anfieldroad.com 11:00PM GMT 31 Dec 2010
That manager, Roy Hodgson, was hardly a popular appointment, even among those supporters who wanted a change. But fans were willing to give him some time, to try and help him be a success in the job. But Roy never once tried to engage with the fans – now it seems he’s attacking them.
He acts like he’s not here for our benefit. His comments about fans not being supporters were hardly a surprise. All he seemed to do was put into words what we’d already worked out his opinion of us must be.
Compare that to Shankly, who once said: “I'd played at Anfield and I knew the crowd were fantastic. I knew there was a public just waiting. So I fought the battles inside and outside. I was interested in only one thing, success for the club. And that meant success for the people. I wanted results for the club, for the love of the game, to make the people happy.”
And it goes without saying - he made the people happy. Not only that, but his successors were in the job for the same reasons. Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Kenny Dalglish continued the success that Shankly had begun. It got to a point where fans expected at least a league title or a European Cup at the end of every season. For a long time they got exactly that.
But deep down it wasn’t the silverware that really mattered. It was the fact they were doing all they could to make us happy. And in return we did all we could to help them do that. They didn’t see themselves as better than any single fan. And they were fans like the rest of us, there’s no doubt about that. They’d never dream of dismissing our concerns or talking like our support should be something they could take for granted.
In 1989 Kenny Dalglish was there for the families, the survivors and the fans in the awful aftermath of Hillsborough. He went to funerals, he took far too much on his own shoulders until in the end he had to step down. He needed a break; he deserved some time to do his own grieving about what had happened.
Graeme Souness harmed his relationship with fans when he made a decision to sell his story to the paper we don’t buy. Roy Evans succeeded him and never once could anyone question his motives – but as a son of the bootroom that was hardly a surprise. He did all he could, and he did it for us. It just wasn’t quite enough, but he never once suggested we were wrong and he was right.
Even Gerard Houllier understood how important and integral to Liverpool FC the fans really are.
When thousands of fans marched in support of Rafael Benítez, angered by stories that the previous owners were about to sack him, the bond was perhaps more visible than it had been since Dalglish left.
We support the club, not the manager. But the manager will get support by default if we feel he’s fighting for the good of the club, that he’s giving his all.
There’s never once been that feeling about Roy Hodgson. From day one he seems to have been more focussed on blowing his own trumpet and blaming others than on fighting for the club the supporters hold so dear.
He doesn’t get us, he never will. We need someone who can, someone who will.
JimBoardman
from now on I will skip talking about our finances. That is a promise and will save myself from looking like a 
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