Roy Of The Roving

Thanks to the wonders of Twitter, I was prompted to look at the Beeb website earlier today after a fruitless excursion to the Royal Mail collection office to try and find where all the missing post is going (answer: not where it should be). And it did not take too much scanning of the front page to see that Liverpool FC and under-fire manager Roy Hodgson had parted company.

So far, so predictable: recent results had been between average and dire, Hodgson had never formed that bond with the fans that has been the hallmark of LFC managers from Bill Shankly to Rafa Benítez, and the club’s new owners are driven by an ambition to do a lot better. But what of the managerial succession?

Equally predictable is that Kenny Dalglish will stand in until the end of the season, but he is not going to be a long term choice. The club, in making its decision, has sent out a message: they have looked at the potential candidates available right now, and don’t like the look of any of them. The LFC board are willing to wait to get the right man.

When Hodgson was appointed to succeed Benítez last year, the impression was given that this was a move made in haste. Now there can be a period of repenting at leisure. So who is on the shortlist? Think of those most likely to get the sack at season’s end, and the exercise should not prove a difficult one.

And don’t confine the guesses to the UK.