WELL RED INDEPENDENT LFC SUPPORTERS’ MAGAZINE No.6 FEB/MAR 2011

CONTENTS3Editorial4Redroundup6TonyBarrett,The Times 8 Return of the King 22 Torres: Kenny fix him? 26 Spion Kop 31 Retro Reds (1979-80) 34 Roy had to go 44 Paul Tomkins 46 Kenny & the kids 48 Why we still need SOS 50 Worst-ever squad? 54 Pulling the Leivas 56 It’s about character... 58 Stats why he’s King 60 Shankly’s socialism 62 Life in Liverpool matches

Clap, clap...clap, clapclap...clap, clap, clap, clap - DALGLISH! RETURN OF THE KING 8

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EVERY LIVERPOOL MANAGER SINCE

1959 HAS WON

A TROPHY (No pressure then, Mr Hodgson)

INSIDE

ROB JONES INTERVIEW TONY EVANS'S FAR FOREIGN LAND

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Twitter: twitter.com/wellredmagazine They all laughed at us, they all mocked at us

IT’S only Wolves, they laughed. The euphoria that met Kenny’s first win on his return to the Reds was mocked by the outsiders.

They laughed when we wanted him restored as manager, too. It’s a romantic ideal, a desperate attempt to cling to the past, they said.

Now he’s back they say Kenny can do no wrong in our eyes. That we’ll blindly follow no matter what.

As usual the outsiders have missed the point. Outsiders that included the board members that brushed aside a bona-fide legend in favour of a flavour-of-the-month.

That mistake has been rectified but it cost time and money. Neither of which Liverpool could afford.

Totting up pay offs for Rafa Benitez and his backroom staff, Fulham in compensation for Roy Hodgson, Hodgson for his mutual consenting and for his assistant Mike Kelly is a scary task.

Add the money paid out in transfers for two players unlikely to have a long-term future at Liverpool in Paul Konchesky and Christian Poulsen, and we’re looking at what, the thick end of £20million? More? Whatever the final figure, it would have gone a long way to adding another much-needed world-class player to the squad.

So take a bow Christian Purslow for a cracking set of decisions all round.

But we can’t turn back the clock, much as the critics claim that is what we are trying to do with Kenny.

There’s no denying there is romance surrounding Dalglish’s return, of course there is – he’s the best player ever to have pulled on the red shirt and three league titles at Anfield show he wasn’t a bad manager either. Which is exactly the point. Romance aside, the appointment of Dalglish as caretaker manager made perfect sense on every level. Just as it did six months ago.

Now Kenny’s here, he’s doing just what we said he would do. He’s made Liverpool feel like a club again. He’s made the reserves feel wanted and put an arm around the academy lads. And instead of talking about the failings and shortcomings of the squad, he’s talking about the positives. He’s fighting the corner.

Dalglish personally drove Suso and Conor Coady from Kirkby to Melwood to give the promising pair a taste of training with the first team. Would Hodgson have done that? Did he ever go near the academy?

Dalglish gets the club. He loves Liverpool, the city and the team. He gets the fans. And in the week leading up to his first victory in his second spell as manager he did EVERYTHING right.

The critics were quick to point fingers when there wasn’t an instant turnaround in results, but how fair was that? And how ironic from some journalists who had been claiming Hodgson needed time.

Old Trafford was too soon. Kenny

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Editorial had barely stepped off a plane when he was leading out the team.

Even so, with ten men, and down to a dodgy penalty awarded by the ever-unreliable Howard Webb, there were still signs of a revival.

Ditto at Blackpool. Again Kenny had had little chance to stamp his mark on the team but Torres looked invigorated and that proved the case in the derby, a game which Liverpool did more than enough to win. Which brings us to Wolves. Finally Kenny had a run at it. A chance to influence the training, to utilise the skills of Steve Clarke (an excellent addition to the backroom staff).

Not only that he found time to boost the kids’ confidence with his academy visit and show Joe Cole he was still in his thoughts by fielding him in the reserves and travelling to the other side of Manchester to watch him play against Man City at Hyde. If Kenny can’t spark a revival it won’t be for the want of trying.

At Molineux, Wolves’ plan was clear. They were spoiling for a fight on a pudding of a pitch and they thought Liverpool wouldn’t fancy it.

Liverpool under Hodgson probably wouldn’t have. Liverpool under Dalglish was a different prospect.

As pleasing as it was to see the Reds playing football how it should be (31 passes leading up to the third goal saying it all) it was just as uplifting to see spirit and fight in evidence from a side that looked like it had forgotten how to enjoy playing football.

Martin Skrtel and Torres both got stuck into early spats with the opposition and, rather than being born of frustration, the clashes looked more a sign of the will to win.

After winning the battle, Liverpool turned on the style, capped by a brilliant performance (and superb goal) by Raul Meireles.

Kenny iced the cake when faced with Andy Burton, the Sky Sports reporter, after the game:

AB: “Kenny just a final thought, allow me to ask if I can about transfers which may be coming up this week. Are you aware of what might be happening in the next few days particularly with Charlie Adam? A lot of the fans watching the show today will want to know if that is getting closer.”

KD (unimpressed): “Well it’s a bit sad when you spin it onto the fans. We know more about our fans than what yourselves do. So we know how they want to be treated and they know what we want.

“They want us to treat them with respect and they want us to treat them the way Liverpool fans have always been treated by the club.

“And that’s if we’ve got business to do we’ll do it behind closed doors and once we’ve got a story to tell about anybody then we’ll let you know. But we’ve no stories to tell about anything.”

Kenny gets it, he just gets it.

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