Do Liverpool really need a new director of football?

Liverpool parted company with director of football Damien Comolli last week, as he was used as a scapegoat for Liverpool’s poor Premier League campaign and questionable buys.

He may have done the deals but Kenny Dalglish chose the players.

Linked

I’ve heard Dutch legend Johan Cruyff has been linked with the post but I don’t think he would have considered the role in a million years.

He is currently in the midst of a power struggle at his beloved Ajax and I don’t think anything is going to distract him from that.

Cruyff has also denied there being any truth in the story by writing in his column in Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf: “ I see my name is being mentioned in connection with Liverpool,”

“I don’t know where that has come from because I have not heard anything from them. There has been no contact whatsoever. If you just read speculation like this, without any substance to it, there is no point taking it seriously. It is just talk.”

Needed?

The Director of football has only really recently came into English football. Its a role that has been at foreign clubs for a long time. I don’t really think it works in British football though. Chief executives and chairman tend to be the people who broker deals in English football.

The wave of foreign owners though mean that English clubs are trying to adapt to foreign ways of brokering deals. In Liverpool’s case the owners don’t have a big involvement of the day to day running of the club that’s why they feel they need a director of football.

Directors of football don’t tend to hang around at English clubs very often either, as in Comolli’s case they are used as scapegoats for the managers mistakes. Which is just ridiculous.

Difficult

Kenny Dalglish is a big figure at Liverpool and no matter who comes into the role formerly vacated by Comolli will always have to bow to Dalglish’s decisions. In a way the Fenway Park Group have put themselves in a difficult position by giving Dalglish the job on a permanent basis.

Dalglish has his own ideas about whom he wants to bring in and he will have the final say. The director of football is just a person that brokers the deals. He is usually more of a businessman than a football man.

Liverpool have had in the past the likes of Peter Robinson who did a superb job at the club in a chief executive role I believe. Robinson was always more in the background. Whereas Comolli had a very high-profile and always seemed to be in the limelight.

Overvalued

Damien Comolli has been criticised for overspending on British players last summer, and in Andy Carroll’s case the previous January. However Dalglish wanted to buy British players and he knew that they are vastly overpriced.

Had he set his sights on targets farther a field he would have spent far less money, probably on far better players. The likes of Charlie Adam, Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson have yet to prove they are Liverpool players.

Club record signing Andy Carroll was also a victim of his price tag. Had he arrived for a fee of say £15million he wouldn’t have had so much pressure on his shoulders to perform.

I don’t think anybody can doubt his talent but he is still a young lad. Yet he has received fierce criticism from all corners of football.

It looks like he could finally have found his confidence in front of goal. What I respect about Andy Carroll is the fact that he has worked so hard in recent months to regain his form and he has never hidden. I hope he gets his rewards for that hard work next season.

I think the price tag of £35million was unfair on him though and at such a young age he was always going to struggle to live up to it. His price tag wasn’t his fault it was the fault of Dalglish and Comolli, who both had a hand in the deal.

Boss

In English football a lot of the time managers have a lot of power, unlike in some foreign countries. Kenny Dalglish is a football man and has a lot of power at Liverpool.

Granted the Scot has made some poor decisions in the transfer market but its now time to back him or sack him. I think Kenny Dalglish needs help in turning the clubs Premier League fortunes around, I’m just not so sure a new Director of Football is what’s needed.

Liverpool could still end up with two trophies in their cabinet this season but unfortunately it doesn’t paper over the cracks of the what has been a woeful Premier League campaign. The director of football wasn’t the problem, its the players that are the problem.

If Liverpool are to progress in the league next season Dalglish needs to think more careful about his transfer dealing, because if he doesn’t legend or not he will be following Comolli through the Anfield exit door.

Do Liverpool need a new Director of Football?