By Martin Lipton
Well, they got what they wanted, no question about
that.
Not even Howard Webb's controversial handling of the FA Cup
defeat at Old Trafford could take the smiles off the faces of those
Liverpool fans who had made their desire for the end of Roy
Hodgson's reign so abundantly clear.
That was always going to be the case, especially once the dream
scenario of an emotional return for King Kenny came to pass.
But while Ryan Babel's photoshopped
Twitter attack on Webb saw the heavy hand of the FA called
in - for goodness sake, it was a joke - the serious
issues have not gone away no matter who is in charge.
Dalglish is scheduled to explain why he took on the chains of
office again when he gives a press conference at Anfield this
afternoon.
It cannot be a case of unfinished business. After all, it was
Dalglish who walked out on Liverpool, not the other way round,
almost 19 years ago.
Nor, somehow, is it a case of a debt to the fans and the club,
even if Dalglish may choose to depict things in those terms.
Dalglish's sympathetic words over Hodgson's departure cannot
hide the fact that the Scot has fuelled the fire that burned the
former Fulham boss out of Anfield.
Remember last summer, on the eve of the World Cup, when
Dalglish's response to Hodgson's imminent appointment was to let
the world and its mother know he had put his own name forward to
the board for consideration.
Despite being out of the Premier League for 13 years and out of
football completely for a decade - and that is not accepting the
argument, voiced by many, that Scottish football doesn't actually
count as football - Dalglish believed he was the right man six
months ago.
Nothing he has witnessed since will have altered that feeling in
his mind and you can bet your bottom dollar that Dalglish himself
does not accept the idea that he represents a temporary solution to
the problems facing the club, ready to hand over the the Chosen One
in the summer.
Neither, as the frequently taciturn tactician knows, would the
Liverpool fans who have greeted his second coming as being akin to
that of a Messiah who will indeed take them back to the Promised
Land.
Dalglish was, of course, the last Liverpool manager to win the
league. But that was 20 years ago. Before Sky, before the Premier
League, before United's era of dominance, Arsene Wenger, Roman
Abramovich, before Abu Dhabi's oil resources bankrolled Manchester
City.
As Kevin Keegan, Dalglish's predecessor in that famous No 7
shirt, pointed out last week: "You can't blame Roy for the lack of
talent coming through, for the fact that they're playing in a
stadium that I played in and that has hardly changed since before I
arrived 40 years ago."
Liverpool, scandalously, have stood still while the world has
moved on and Dalglish is taking a major risk by accepting the
challenge.
He knows it, too. This may be partially a vanity project but
Dalglish truly cares about the club and feels affected by its
decline.
Being able to do something about that, though, is far from easy
and while Liverpool were better than they had been at Old Trafford,
that doesn't actually mean they were any good.
Webb was slated for the two big decisions but Daniel Agger did
clip Dimitar Berbatov's heel - I'm not having supporters of any of
the big clubs telling me it's outrageous when a soft penalty is
given against them - and Steven Gerrard, not for the first time in
his career, left the ground with both feet showing as he caught
Michael Carrick.
Both decisions could have gone the other way but - and I am not
Webb's biggest fan - neither was wrong.
In truth, the stand-out game of the third round was only so
because of the external factors. On the pitch it was far from a
great game and there were some real matches to stir the blood that
will have been overlooked this morning.
Stevenage battered Newcastle - as Alan Pardew conceded -
Blackpool got what they were set to get by sending a shadow side to
Southampton, Leeds were so close to pulling off a second stunning
upset in as many years at Arsenal and Burton did superbly against
Middlesbrough.
Performance of the weekend, though, may have come on Wearside,
with Paul Ince and Notts County getting a terrific and genuinely
unexpected win at Sunderland.
Crawley get the chance to round things off in the grand manner
against Derby this evening but the Dalgish factor will take all the
attention tomorrow morning as well.
Understandably and rightly so. But the right work - and he could
do without missing Gerrard for three games when his side are four
points off the drop zone and Fernando Torres still doesn't look
right - starts from here.
The fields, of Anfield Road, where first we saw the King, Kenny
play....but now he can't play. Just inspire players who have
suggested they can't.