By Andrew Tidswell
Elite Sports Academy MD and Holbeach Utd player/coach
After the results last weekend, both Dick Advocaat and Brendan Rodgers left their posts at respected Premier League clubs Sunderland and Liverpool.
Both of these departures aren’t really a surprise – but for different reasons.
Advocaat shouldn’t have taken the job at Sunderland after keeping them up last season then openly admitting he didn’t want the job in the summer, only to then take it.
Back then, that would have set alarm bells in my head if I was a Sunderland fan. Now I don’t know who would want that job? Sean Dyche, the Burnley manager, has been rumoured. But I question why would he want it? Personally, I think he has more chance of being a manager in the Premier League next season if he stays.
As for Rodgers, with all the building pressure from outside the club such as tabloids, internet rumours and the fans, it is no surprise we learned of his sacking.
He leaves Anfield with the second best Premier League win percentage of any Liverpool manager –behind only Rafael Benitez – and is the only Liverpool manager who has come close to winning the title in the modern era.
Having said that, a club like Liverpool should be competing for major honours on a regular basis. But is Rodgers solely to blame?
I believe the Liverpool owners need to take a look at themselves too. The club’s transfer policy really isn’t working – but again is it Rodgers picking these players or is it their transfer committee?
Another thing that really bugs me is clubs with a Director of Football – and Liverpool were another club that appointed one.
What do they do? Apart from undermine the manager and get in the way, that is. Surely the manager brought in should be backed to run the club and have final decisions on all football-related decisions.
Rodgers is a fantastic football coach – and anyone who has any football knowledge will know that. Football coaches, however, don’t always make fantastic managers.
Who knows, if Liverpool had won the league a couple of seasons ago this column may not have been written.
Instead, he would be a Liverpool legend.
