Liverpool FC sacking Kenny Dalglish was right move to let owners realise vision for club, says Ian Ayre
IAN AYRE insists the sacking of Kenny Dalglish was necessary to enable Fenway Sports Group to realise their vision for Liverpool FC. The Reds’ managing director has leapt to the owners’ defence in the face of criticism from supporters following the end of Dalglish’s 16-month reign on Wednesday.
Ayre revealed not even winning the FA Cup would have saved the Anfield legend as the club’s lowly eighth-placed finish in the Premier League ultimately made terminating his contract “a very simple decision” by FSG, who had targeted Champions League qualification.
He also dismissed talk of a crisis following the recent departure of so many high-profile officials which has left Liverpool with no manager, no director of football, no head of sports science, no commercial director and no head of communications.
Ayre, whose own future is secure after recently penning a new contract, says the cull is over and plans are well advanced to install a new structure at Anfield.
The search for the Reds’ fourth manager in two years is gathering pace and various other appointments will be confirmed by the end of the month.
“There are no plans to fire anyone else,” Ayre confirmed. “It was just part of a process. It is all part of wanting to get it right. The natural break point is at the end of a season. That is the time when you take stock of what people have achieved or what they haven’t achieved within a period.
“This view that there is a crisis and everyone is leaving is wrong, it’s just a time based thing. When anyone leaves you have to go through the process of finding a replacement and moving forward.
“It’s fair to say we are fairly imminent on a lot of positions that have exited. What you will see over the next two weeks is those new people arriving and a momentum of going forward.
“There will be new people arriving with new energy and new initiatives. For all the negativity that has existed in the last six to eight weeks, you will see a lot of positivity around the new appointments with their experience and what they will deliver.”
Director of football Damien Comolli, who was dismissed last month, won’t be directly replaced. FSG have come to the conclusion that his job, overseeing travel, medical care, scouting, player analysis and recruitment, was too wide-ranging. Instead those duties will be spread out and a number of new roles created.
Internal candidates are also being considered and could lead to more senior positions for highly-respected Academy duo Pep Segura and Rodolfo Borrell.
“The idea is rather than one person being responsible for all the elements Damien’s role took on, we will divide up the responsibilities,” Ayre said. “We will have a slightly different structure so there will be two or three positions within that. Running a big football club is a big challenge. It’s evident we need to focus on each area with a specialist who will deliver value in each area.”
The manager’s role will also change. FSG want Dalglish’s successor to be devoted solely to coaching, although he will still have the final say on signings. That kind of model rules out any possible return to the Anfield hot-seat for former manager Rafa Benitez.
Ayre says lessons have been learned from the damaging Luis Suarez-Patrice Evra race row which Dalglish was left to deal with publicly. The Scot was heavily criticised for his fierce defence of the striker in the wake of the FA’s guilty verdict.
“The model has always been developing and the plan has evolved,” Ayre said.
“As is always the case when you have a difficult situation, it highlights the shortcomings and issues around certain areas. Did we learn from the Suarez thing? Did we get some things wrong? Of course.
“But you move on. The important thing is you take the things that you get wrong and build to not get those things wrong again.
“I wouldn’t go as far as to say the manager’s job will only be a training ground role but absolutely the idea is to create a structure so that the manager doesn’t need to focus on too much else.
“You want the manager to be focused on getting the best out of his team. But what it absolutely isn’t about is bringing players in without the manager’s input.
“In the past a manager would be going to look at 20 or 30 different games just to find one player. Whereas with the right structure someone lines all of that up and the manager is just going to the final interview.
“We are trying to create as much resource and expertise in all the areas that serve the manager and the team rather than having one or two people trying to achieve everything. We not looking to copy any other club. It will have Liverpool’s own stamp and structure on it.”
Ayre will be handed more responsibility himself running the club on a day to day basis, while a new commercial chief, replacing Graham Bartlett who left in March, will be brought in to assist the MD.
“I’m the person here responsible for running the football club. I welcome that challenge and I’ll do the best job I can do,” Ayre said.
“What’s important is we’ve got the right structure to run the club in the right way. One of the announcements we will make in the next week or so will be about someone working with me to continue delivering the important revenue streams.
“We’ve done very well in growing our revenue in the last four or five years but it’s important to keep building on it.”
It was revenue streams which ultimately proved Dalglish’s undoing. Despite winning the Carling Cup and reaching the FA Cup final, the Reds’ failure to finish in the top four in the Premier League meant the club missed out on a potential windfall of around £40million from Champions League qualification.
“It was a very simple decision based on results and did we believe that was going to change,” Ayre said. “To be 37 points off the winner, 17 points off fourth, 14 losses…..
“Winning the FA Cup wouldn’t have made any difference – it was never about an individual result. It was always about taking a review of the season in full.
“The Carling Cup and The FA Cup don’t generate the revenue and the success that is needed to keep investing. If you want to be successful, you have got to keep investing. People don’t want to hear that football is a business. They want to see us put lots of money into the football team and win lots of trophies and games.
“But you have got to have both. You have got to have continued progress in the league. If you don’t do well in the league and you don’t get into the Champions League, you are writing cheques from your own pocket, aren’t you? That is not a sustainable way going forward.
“Kenny said publicly he thought it had been handled with dignity. Nobody was treated badly in this process.
“I agree you can’t keep changing (managers) and as long as what you expect in terms of moving forwards is achieved, of course you give that person the time and support they need. But there is a difference between that and failure.
If you massively get it wrong then of course you have to make that change. You expect targets to be achieved.
“For the owners it’s been a process of bedding in, understanding and reviewing the entire structure of the
business. We hope the people who come in as part of this new plan are there for the long term. What’s coming together now we believe is the way forward.”
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