Kenny Dalglish: Great Manager or just plain lucky?

Kenny Dalglish was the last great Liverpool manager in a line that included Shankly, Paisley and Fagan. He managed to win the League Title on three occasions with the Reds. He later went onto a successful spell with Blackburn Rovers winning the Premier League with the Lancashire club. He also endured some difficult times with Newcastle and Celtic.

Last season Dalglish re-entered football management back at Liverpool. After a good end to last season, big things were expected of Liverpool this season having made some significant investment in the squad.

Kenny Dalglish had been successful in the past bringing in good players such as John Barnes to Liverpool and Alan Shearer to Blackburn, but now his ability in the transfer market is certainly questionable. The likes of Suarez, Carroll and Henderson have not set the world on fire.

Liverpool currently stand 34 points behind rivals Manchester United in the table and questions are being asked of Dalglish. But what is his true ability. He inherited a great team in 1985 and managed to build on that success with some good signings, but in those days everybody wanted to play for Liverpool.

At Blackburn he was bankrolled by Jack Walker and spent a large amount of money, for those days, on the likes of Alan Shearer, Chris Sutton etc. It may be fair to say anyone could have been successful at Blackburn in those days.

Anyone who wins the top division title at more than one club cannot be scoffed at and the likes of Arsene Wenger, Alex Ferguson or the late Bill Nicholson didn’t achieve that, although they didn’t have the chance either, but it is still a testament to his ability in the past.

Liverpool are very much a club living on past glories with over 20 years past since they last won the top division title. Perhaps Liverpool are in a decline and will be left fighting for Europa League places with past great clubs such as Everton and Aston Villa.

It is now up to Dalglish to arrest that decline.

The strange case of Alan Pardew

He played for such giants as Epsom and Ewell, Dulwich Hamlets and Corinthian Casuals, managed in League One and briefly gave up the game as a youngster. Alan Pardew has led a colourful life in football and has been the centre of controversy on a number of occasions.  There can be many opinions on Alan Pardew but there can be no denying he is a quality manager.

I don’t actually remember his playing career, although I know he playing the Cup final against Manchester United in 1990 and even went on loan to Spurs in 1995, I expect to make up the numbers for the Inter Toto cup.

My first recollection of Alan Pardew was at Reading as manager. I must say my first impression was not good, although his ability was there for all to see as he had taken Reading to near the top of the Championship and were in a position to challenge for promotion to the Premier league. Unfortunately for Reading, West Ham came calling. His club had refused West Ham permission to speak to him but Pardew saw the money and promptly resigned.

I suppose it is the mark of the man seeing a better opportunity and taking it, but I felt he should have seen out his job with Reading. It is interesting the parallels between the two clubs recently and even today only one position separates the two.

Pardew went on and had a reasonable amount of success with West Ham taking them to the FA Cup final and the most enjoyable aspect for me was that dust up with Arsene Wenger.

After his dismissal from West Ham, Pardew went on to manage Charlton and Southampton and was unfortunate in the circumstances of both his appointment and dismissals from both clubs.

Charlton was in the post Curbishly era and had experienced a successful stint in the Premier League, but a club with such small resources could not stay there forever and as had happened with other teams before it had trouble adjusting to life in the Championship after relegation. Pardew suffered abuse from the fans and was dismissed.

His time at Southampton was brief and his dismissal was more as a result of high expectations rather than unsound management, but we see this time after time so it should not come as a surprise when a manger gets dismissed.

At Newcastle United, Chris Houghton had done a great job, winning promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking. Newcastle were sitting pretty mid table the following season when Ashley in all his wisdom sacked Chris Houghton. His reasons were that he wanted a more experienced manager. This was puzzling to all concerned and the subsequent appointment of Pardew did not get the support of the football community and in particular Newcastle Fans.

Pardew’s job was not made easy with the sale of Carroll last January to Liverpool but nonetheless he carried on. In the summer Newcastle signed Demba Ba which must go down as the signing of the season.

Newcastle started the season well and were sitting in the top 4 for the first few months. Despite some heavy losses they currently sit in sixth position 11 points ahead of Liverpool and level with Champions League chasing Chelsea.

Alan Pardew must be satisfied with his time at Newcastle and he is certainly one of the English managerial stars of today. The Newcastle manager is now considered one of the front runners for the England job, which would be an amazing achievement for the former Barnet man.

Love him or loathe him, there is alot to admire about Alan Pardew.