Chapter 36 The Farewell Match

In the thirty-sixth round of the league, Liverpool faced Chelsea at home. This was Liverpool's last home game of the season, and also Dalglish's farewell to Anfield.

The Liverpool team attached great importance to this game. The players had privately reached a consensus to send off the head coach with a victory. Although Liverpool's performance wasn't great when Dalglish was the head coach, he was, after all, a legendary figure for Liverpool, and his status in the players' hearts was still very lofty. In their opinion, Dalglish's poor coaching performance was not necessarily due to his level of skill, but rather to many objective factors. For example, Liverpool had too many injuries this season, especially serious ones. Gerrard basically didn't play much this season, and it was understandable that Liverpool's combat effectiveness declined without their captain.

There was also the reason that the higher-ups didn't support Dalglish's work. Dalglish wanted to buy Downing, but Niang just wouldn't buy him, and in the end, he brought Dalglish an Adam Johnson. Although Adam Johnson had also proven his strength, Niang was always wrong to not cooperate with Dalglish. What level of skill can you expect a head coach to display when the higher-ups don't cooperate?

Players always tend to favor the head coach and feel that the higher-ups are inherently against the team. This simple idea is easy to understand. After all, the head coach is the one who is with them all day long, and it is easiest to instill various ideas in them. Not to mention that Dalglish was quite decent in treating the players, always taking the responsibility on himself when they lost the ball. Such a head coach left the pressure to himself, but gave the players a very relaxed environment.

Therefore, in order to thank Dalglish, all Liverpool players decided to give him a home victory as a gift.

However, this game was not easy to play, because Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur were tied in points, and both sides were competing for the Champions League qualification for next season. Currently, Tottenham is ranked fourth and Chelsea is ranked fifth.

If Chelsea wants to squeeze out Tottenham and get the Champions League qualification for next season, they must defeat Liverpool in this game and wait for Tottenham to lose. If they lose to Liverpool, and Tottenham beats Aston Villa away, Chelsea will have no chance—unless they win against Blackburn by more than five goals in the last round of the league... This situation is too unlikely to happen.

Dalglish also wanted to use a victory to bid farewell to his Anfield years and his Liverpool years, so he sent out the strongest lineup he could.

This game was not going to be easy for Chelsea.

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This was Liverpool's last home game of the season, and many Liverpool fans brought their families to the scene to watch the game and send off the club's "King."

Liverpool fans were conflicted. They all liked Dalglish and looked forward to the club's legendary figure leading the club back to its peak and creating a new legend. But the reality is cruel. Legendary figures can't necessarily write legends again.

Dalglish once saved Liverpool once, but could not save Liverpool a second time.

The future key to this team is not in Dalglish's hands.

So for Liverpool's poor performance this season, it must be counted in Dalglish's account. But they can't directly scold the club's legendary figure—Dalglish's prestige in the hearts of the fans is too high...

With hope shattered, but unwilling to scold, Liverpool fans were tortured for a season, and now they can only bid farewell to the legend with a normal heart.

In any case, the legend is still better than Hodgson. At the very least, he brought the team a League Cup title, giving the team a chance to participate in European competitions next season.

As long as they can continue to participate in the Champions League, Liverpool's glory as a giant will one day reappear.

The only question is, who is Dalglish's successor?

The media had many speculations about this matter, but none of them had been confirmed by the club. The club seemed to be very low-key and did not reveal any news.

This made the English media scoff—could it be that you are going to dig up Mourinho? So mysterious, for fear that the news will leak.

It is not that no media speculated that Liverpool would bring Mourinho under its command. Especially some time ago, the relationship between Mourinho and Real Madrid suddenly became unstable. Many media frantically spread that Mourinho would not renew his contract with Real Madrid after his contract expired this summer, and it was also rumored that he ran back to London to buy a house. A series of actions all showed that his future seemed to be in England.

At that time, Liverpool, who had fired Dalglish, was also rumored to have an affair with Mourinho.

However, it was quickly denied by both Mourinho and Liverpool Football Club.

Then, not long after, news came that Mourinho and Real Madrid had successfully renewed their contract—Mourinho's future was still in Real Madrid, and all rumors about him going to coach other teams disappeared.

Liverpool fans were very anxious. Seeing that the season was about to end, the new head coach had not yet been decided. How could the team's preparations for the new season begin? Could it be that the head coach would not be announced until half of the summer transfer period had passed, and then they would find players and build a team in a hurry... Isn't this a rip-off?

At this time in the transfer market, good players have long been snatched away, and all that is left are leftovers that everyone doesn't want. Since others don't want them, why should we, Liverpool, want them? We're not garbage collectors...

In this way, the team's preparations will definitely be affected. Could it be that the first year the new head coach comes up is to get familiar with the team and integrate the team? Another whole season has to be spent adapting to the new environment and letting the team adapt to him. Isn't this going to waste another season? When will Liverpool's revival be seen?

What if it proves after a season that the new head coach is not good either, and then he is kicked out and replaced... How long will it take to repeat this?

Just like Hodgson... After Benitez left, Liverpool's two head coaches didn't last long. Frequent changes of head coaches also made the team's tactics vague and changeable, making the players at a loss. That's why Liverpool's tactics this season seem so chaotic. Even the players themselves can't say what their tactics are.

Dalglish did not complete the work of stabilizing Liverpool. Who can? In their spare time, Liverpool fans like to guess who will be Liverpool's new head coach. In today's English football, or even European football, there are not many head coaches who are unemployed at home, capable, and may join Liverpool. As for those who are in office but whose positions are unstable and may be dismissed at any time, there are actually not many. This choice is really hard to guess.

Doing so seems a bit ridiculous—the current head coach's butt is still sitting on the chair of the coaching bench, but the fans are starting to guess who their next head coach will be.

It's not that they don't respect Dalglish enough. If they didn't respect him, the team's performance would be so poor that the scene would have been booed long ago, and it would be even more impossible to come to send off Dalglish in this last home game.

However, after this season's games, many fans have to admit that Dalglish's coaching level is really limited, and many of his ideas are outdated. So Liverpool has no future under him, and they will only waste more time like this season.

I have to say that Niang's decision was brilliant. He did not immediately fire Dalglish, but gave him plenty of time. It seems that he wants to give Dalglish a decent farewell. In fact, this is a gamble. Niang is betting on his understanding of Dalglish's level. He believes that even if he gives Dalglish a complete season, the old Scottish man will not be able to lead Liverpool to complete its revival, because he has fallen far behind this era.

So he spent a whole season letting Dalglish play to his heart's content, so that fans and public opinion could fully realize that Dalglish's level was only limited to this.

You must know how many fans and local public opinion opposed and protested when the club officially announced the end of its contract with Dalglish. They all believed that the club's higher-ups were ungrateful and that driving away a club legend was simply a great shame. During that time, he and Chen Xing were under great pressure.

But now, there are almost no voices criticizing them, and everyone is enthusiastically discussing who Dalglish's successor is. Because everyone can see that Dalglish is really not suitable to continue leading this team...

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Liverpool's opponent Chelsea also experienced a change of coach this season. Before the season, Boas, the young coach who came to Chelsea from Porto with the title of "Mourinho II," eventually failed at Stamford Bridge. His failure proved from the side that Mourinho is really the most special one, and no one can be his second generation.

The current Chelsea is performing strongly under the leadership of the acting head coach, the original assistant coach Di Matteo. Not only did they enter the Champions League quarter-finals, but they also closely followed Tottenham in the league, with a great momentum to overthrow Tottenham.

It's true that changing coaches is like changing knives.

If Liverpool had decisively dismissed Dalglish and replaced him with someone else, would it have been better?

Of course, no one knows the answer to this question.

Before the game, the two head coaches shook hands on the sidelines. The candidates for the head coaches of the two teams next season have not yet been determined, but the fates of the two people are very different. If Di Matteo performs well, he may be promoted to become the official head coach next season—although such hope is slim, there is always a future. And Dalglish will definitely be dismissed, no matter what the team's performance is.

These two head coaches with completely different situations separated after shaking hands with each other. Then they sat on the coaching bench and waited for the game to start.

Although it is a bit heartless to start discussing Dalglish's successor now, Liverpool fans are actually seriously bidding farewell to Dalglish.

Various flags and banners were flying on the stands of Anfield Stadium, filled with words to send off Dalglish.

When Dalglish appeared, there was a huge cheer from the scene.

They shouted Dalglish's name.

"Kenny! Thank you!"

The fans really want to thank Dalglish. Although Dalglish did not bring any substantial changes to the team, he stood up and took over the coaching baton again when the team faced the difficult situation of changing owners and changing coaches last season, helping the team to successfully relegate and win the League Cup this season.

Overall, Dalglish is worthy of Liverpool and deserves the fans' love for him.

Dalglish sat on the coaching bench, looking at the flags and banners on the opposite stand, feeling a little emotional.

But on the surface, he still made a calm and composed appearance.

His task is not over yet, now is not the time to reveal his true feelings.

His Liverpool has two last wars.

He has completed the team's task, and he has a personal task, which is to send Chen Hero to the throne of top scorer.

He wants Liverpool to have a top scorer, and use this honor and emotion to influence him in Chen Hero's heart. Maybe all his efforts this season will reflect their value in the future.

For Liverpool, he has really exhausted his efforts.

He moved his gaze from the banners of farewell and thanks to himself to Chen Hero.

In order for this person to stay in Liverpool for a few more years, he has done everything he can.

He doesn't know whether everything he has done will achieve Liverpool's future glory, or will eventually become a joke.

But some things always have to be done by someone.

If no one else does it, then I will. Anyway, I am an old man who is about to retire, and there is nothing to be afraid of.

Being ridiculed? Have I been ridiculed less this season?

As long as it is for the good of Liverpool, what is a little ridicule?

Maybe I really did something wrong in the early part of the season, but fortunately I still have a chance to make up for it all now...