Liverpool FC Forum

by JBG » Fri Sep 10, 2004 11:48 am

I agree with your point about Hillsborough Daglish and I remember that I deliberately failed to mention Hillsborough in my original thread as I was worried at the time of posting that some might see me saying Hillsborough as having a negative effect on the playing side (which it ultimately did as Hillsborough took its toll on Kenny Daglish and many senior players) as perhaps being in bad taste.

Then some idiot who I don't need to mention came on here a few months ago and started a thread about Hillsborough which offended everyone so I guess I needn't have worried! 

by Scottbot » Fri Sep 10, 2004 12:07 pm

I think Kenny would have stayed on for many more years were it not for Hillsborough. I remember the look on his face following a 4-4 draw in the derby (just before he quit - i think) The guy had nothing left to give, he looked old. Great shame

by stmichael » Fri Sep 10, 2004 12:28 pm

it was a strange time to quit. i was at the 4-4 game and we were currently sitting at the top of the league. however the team was showing signs of decline and we ended up losing the replay and conceding the league to arsenal. souness was thrown in and like jbg said, dismantled the core of the side dalglish had built. the rest they say, is history.

by JBG » Fri Sep 10, 2004 1:52 pm

If I remember correctly in Daglish's last season we made an incredible start, winning something like our first 8 games. There then may have been a disapointing 0-0 draw to someone like Norwich before Arsenal (who were incredibly strong that year) beat us 0-3, and the cracks in Daglish started to show.

I think Hillsboro took a lot out of him and he was also facing up to the problem of getting long term replacements for Hansen, Whelan and McMahon.

The problem with Souness was that he acknowledged that the team needed some new blood, but he wanted to do things entirely his own way and instead of getting another year out of McMahon and another couple of years from the likes of Houghtan and Beardley, he wanted to rip everything up and start again.

The team he inherited was aging with some cracks beginning to show but even as it was it was still capable of challenging for the title, and with the likes of Fowler, Redknapp and MCMannaman coming through the future looked great.

Maybe if Souness kept the bones of the Daglish side and maybe signed Mark Wright, a top central midfielder and a long term replacement for John Barnes we could have won a few Premierships, but then, its easy to say that in hindsight, isn't it?