Stan Collymore · @StanCollymore
7th Oct 2015 from TwitLonger
#LFC . Back to basics, set the tone, not copy others!
I read a really well thought out piece in the Telegraph this morning which extolled the virtues of a broad committee based system being the modern, well thought out way of running a football club, and its recruitment of players and managers. The suggestion being that its not the transfer committee principle that is wrong but making sure the personnel in that system are the right people.
On the face of it, simple logic, and for the reader there are several examples, most notably Swansea and Southampton who have robust, well thought out chains of command which has brought them both relative success.
I'm a fan of both.
But that is where the the piece is too simplistic, doesn't recognize the difference between development clubs and elite level clubs, and the very different beasts that they are.
Southampton and Swansea have systems in place simply to withstand the inevitable losses that come their way on an annual basis. Players taken by "bigger" clubs, managers likewise. It makes absolute sense therefore for these, and many other clubs that have to withstand annual losses of talent to have a system that can replace, replenish and maintain stability or lets be blunt, a very lucrative Premier League place.
Liverpool Football Club however, do not, with respect, fall into this category of club.
Manchester United gave SAF absolute responsibility to turn a club around. Why? Because he was a genius, a winner, a man that could see the bigger picture ahead of 20, 30 , 40 men with laptops offering up their sage advice based on computer software, limited football knowledge and more often than not cv's that scream "average". He didn't do average, he didn't do player by committee , he used a lifetime of honed skills to make sure every youth player, every target, every character which walked into Carrington was someone he personally could rely on.
This is where the modern system fails big clubs which need a quick turnaround, a shot in the arm and a firm direction.
The Liverpool committee has failed, all of them, so why didn't they go with Brendan?
Was their recruitment good? No, 5 out of ten at best, so sack the head of recruitment.
Was there the ability to sign grade A talent, persuading and cajoling the next big thing to come to Anfield? No, remember Konoplyanka farce in Ukraine? So sack Ian Ayre, that's HIS job.
Consistency of performance over the last 3 years? No? 7th, 2nd, 6th. So head of performance can go too!
Back to Fergie, and Clough, and Stein, and Shanks.
When you have these men at your club ( and Liverpool should be doing EVERYTHING to make sure they source this type of man, dictator, omnipresent at every level of the club), you don't need a Les Reed, you don't need the average man in his Melwood office telling you FIFA 16-esque stats and spreadsheets. These men already know, they are elite people, they are like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, they are the driver, with the passengers firmly in the backseat or the boot! And that is where Liverpool failed.
Brendan was the cookie cutter modern manager who'd worked in a cookie cutter system at previous clubs. Not his fault but the fault of a modern football world where everyone tries to reinvent the game, reinvent the role of a manager, in my view to simply create more roles for more people as the money flies in. And are the results proven to be better? No, we are currently presiding over one of the worst defensive pools the Premier League has seen, and a League that is threatening to become 4th best in Europe from THE best decades ago at a time when there wasn't any of the modern day waste we now see at clubs.
Liverpool right now in 2015 need to source a benign dictator, someone with the remit to shake the whole damn club up, down and around, kicking and screaming until it performs. Someone who has the intuition, character, knowledge and understanding of players, great clubs and fans expectations . It's not rocket science, it doesn't need 5 people to do the job of one great man, it needs FSG to understand the club they own, and where it needs to be positioned today, tomorrow and 5 years down the line.
Southampton and Swansea have arguably better teams than Liverpool currently, but to implement and copy their structure based on today's league table is like suggesting The Stig should drive for McLaren Mercedes because he does a great lap around an airfield!
Sometimes big clubs need big people to sweep the stench of mediocrity away. For me, that would be Jurgen Klopp, a big man in every sense. Les Reed is great at Southampton and long may he continue but the suggestion he and his likes are suitable to slay the ghosts of Dalglish, Rush, Souness and Gerrard is nonsense.
Brendan couldn't succeed at Liverpool because he was one part of 5 who simply don't think or act big enough for LFC.They didn't have the genius required.Average men making average decisions because the system which provides their jobs by it's collective nature allows only average thinkers, not great men prepared to stand alone, to walk alone for a while, through that storm!
Now is the time to employ that man to slay some ghosts and for Liverpool Football Club to change to a simpler system that will address its history, its present and its past rather than aping clubs which have a completely different reason for being.
Liverpool Football Club is about winning, so get a winner, not an average, faceless committee man.
Sometime simplicity is everything.
Stan