Liverpool’s pursuit of a new manager has now reached that stage in the film where the protagonist has been stringing along two different people for a while now, accidentally arranging dinner dates with them both at the SAME time, mixing up the gifts he was meant to send so that the kooky, experimental vegan gets a “1001 things you can do with beef” cookbook and the slightly uptight office worker gets some saucy underwear and other hilarious escapades.
But now, as Martin Lawrence might say in a different kind of film entirely, this faecal matter just got real with Liverpool not holding advanced talks with Wigan boss Roberto Martinez yesterday (as Wigan chairman, and source of many newspaper inches in recent weeks, Dave Whelan indicated would happen) and rumours emerging that Brendan Rodgers is the man wanted by the Anfield hierarchy.
John W Henry has reportedly flown into Merseyside (not literally) to chair the recruitment process with the American thought to have been impressed by Martinez when he met with him in Miami last week, which makes Liverpool’s reported decision not to speak to Martinez yesterday rather odd although it is speculated they were delayed until today.
Whelan has himself imposed a deadline of tomorrow for the Spaniard to sort out his future while Liverpool themselves want to have their new man in by Friday in time for the club’s annual senior club official’s bake sale and egg and spoon race, possibly.
Rodgers initially turned down the chance to speak to Liverpool about concerns he would not be towards the top of the club’s shortlist, this back when the club used a scattergun approach to their recruitment policy with Louis Van Gaal, Andre Villas-Boas, Frank de Boer, Rodgers, Martinez, Rafael Benitez and others all seriously linked with the Reds.
Rodgers and Martinez are now both clear favourites with the bookies for the Liverpool job, although SkyBet, as of 12.00pm, still have newly-installed Monaco gaffer and excitable Italian stereotype Claudio Ranieri at 80-1, presumably hoping he’ll do what is probably referred to in the industry as “a Coppell”.
As a result, Fenway Sports Group (owners of Liverpool) are thought to believe that Rodgers will be more eager to accept their offer now that the shortlist has been narrowed down to two names but issues regarding compensation and the uncertainty over Liverpool’s new management structure (with van Gaal widely tipped to take on a Director of Football role) may yet mean this particular rom-com drags on for a while late, much to Whelan and his Swansea counterpart Huw Jenkins’ chagrin one would expect.
On a lighter note, here is Martinez planning his perfect dinner party where himself, Salvador Dali and Johan Cruyff munch on fudge cake with Jessie J blaring out on the iPod deck.
Post note; Reports suggesting that Rodgers will be named as Liverpool manager within the next 48 hours thus making most of the above pretty much obsolete. Yeah, sorry about that. But the whimsy of the opening paragraph was fun right? …Right?
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