Comolli sacked

I seen Van Gaal linked now

more shit in the papers for the next few weeks so

I'll ring you and wake you up, like you did me this morning

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17698239

No direct quotes or anything.......sigh

I think they should of had a replacement ready if I'm honest.

do we need one ?

south wrote:do we need one ?

Indeed

I don't think so imo.
Need more pr staff, stadium staff.
Not sure of the fancy names you call them

what a load of crap from the BBC

Like that wasn't mentioned yesterday already

Cruyff resigs from Ajax.......

Werner and Henry gone back to Boston

Yeah heard that apparently they are going to watch baseball

Duncan Castles

The Sunday Times

Published: 15 April 2012



Liverpool's new director of football can expect to work on a summer transfer budget of between £20 and £30million with recruitment primarily focused on players under the age of 21. The club's American owners, unhappy with spending under the joint stewardship of Kenny Dalglish and Damien Comolli, believe that limited, targeted investment will be sufficient to re-establish Liverpool in the Champions League.

After aggressively dispensing with Comolli's services last week, the Fenway Sports Group consortium is understood to have approached Johan Cruyff to discuss replacments, receiving a recommendation that they appoint Txiki Begiristain, a former Barcelona sporting director. Bergiristain - previously interviewed by Roman Abramovich for a similar position at Chelsea - left Camp Nou when Joan Laporta stepped down as president in 2010.

Cruyff is said to have no interest in taking on a full-time appointment at Liverpool. Since ending his elite-level coaching career at Barcelona in 1996, the 64-year-old has typically limited his direct involvement in football to advisory roles at Barca, Ajax and, more recently, Mexican club Chivas.

His protege Bergiristain had been optimistic of being offered employment at Manchester City if another ex-Barcelona executive, Ferran Soriano, was made the club's new CEO, but has been recently attempting to establish a fund investing in South American footballers. An alternative option for FSG is Louis van Gaal, the former Ajax, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Netherlands coach, who has been pushing his own credentials to restructure Liverpool.

Though Dalglish guided Liverpool to their first trophy in six seasons by winning the League Cup, FSG have expressed their dissatisfaction with Premier League performances far distant from the group's stated aim “to be perceived as the strongest club in football”. Amidst discontent from the broader consortium, John W Henry and Tom Werner decided to sack Comolli after less than 18 months at the club.

Comolli, who'd overhauled Liverpool's scouting staff following his recommendation to Henry by 'Moneyball' baseball general manager Billy Beane, was caught unawares when told on Wednesday he was leaving the club. In late March, the Frenchman had travelled to the United States to discuss transfer strategy with his employers and was fully engaged in scouting duties in the preceding days, watching Crewe's England youth midfielder Nick Powell among others.

Unhappy with the overall quality of senior academy players, Liverpool have begun to implement what chairman Tom Werner describes as strategy “to build a strong system under the first team”. In addition to young foreign imports, the club hopes to exploit the opportunity afforded by incoming Elite Player Performance Plan regulations to recruit uncontracted teenage scholars from Football League academies at low-cost fixed transfer fees. The limited recruitment budget had also seen Comolli's staff to assess top-end Championship players as potential first-team reinforcements.

Liverpool initially presented Comolli's departure as consensual, releasing a statement in which the Frenchman said "I am happy to move on from the club and go back to France for family reasons”. Later on Thursday, however, Werner critiqued his work in an interview with the club's television channel.

While Comolli sanctioned a combined gross spend on transfer fees of over £110m. He was instrumental in the £22.8m purchase of Luis Suarez from Ajax, initially lauded as a significant success. Dalglish's strong preference for domestic talent led to the signings of Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson for combined guaranteed transfer fees of £71m, the manager pushing particularly hard for the latter two players.

Before leading his team to a 2-1 FA Cup semi-final win over Everton yesterday, Dalglish admitted he had made mistakes — particularly over the racism row between Suarez and Manchester United captain Patrice Evra. Suarez was banned for eight matches and Dalglish said: “It would be done completely differently if it ever happened again — and I hope it never does.”

20-30 isn't a lot is it