King Kenny

I was just finishing up with Kenny Dalglish's autobiography this afternoon after getting off work. When I was done, I put the book down and took a nap. Wrong thing to do! I woke up a few hours later and checked my Twitter timeline. Turned out my timeline was full with welcoming messages to King Kenny! I was thinking, "What the hell happened??"

Congratulations King Kenny, a man considered to be the greatest ever Liverpool player, the player placed first in the '100 players who shook the Kop' list. This is the man who won three European Cup. This is the man who held Liverpool together through two tragedies; Heysel in 1985 and Hillsborough in 1989.

The Kop's adoration for King Kenny has never gone. Every game, they chant his name. They will never forget that it was Kenny who held Liverpool together during the two tragedies. In fact, the whole Hillsborough chapter is extremely emotional. I'm not ashamed to admit that I managed to shed a few tears reading that chapter.

Eventually, for the sake of his health and his family, he resigned mid-season in 1991. Liverpool were top of the league. Liverpool have also never won the league since. After more than five years managing Liverpool, he went on to manage Blackburn Rovers, turning a second division club into Premier League winners. However, when Rovers chairman at that time, Jack Walkers questioned his judgement about a player he wanted the club to buy, he knew it was time to leave. All these while, all of these 20 years, he has been wanting to come back home. His Liverpool home. He was disappointed when the club appointed Gerrard Houllier to work with Roy Evans. He put up his name for the job when Rafa Benitez left but was told by Broughton and Purslow that they had bigger, long-term plan for him.

So here I thought I'd compile some nice quotes from his autobiography. Hope you enjoy.

• Being black, John Barnes used to get racial abuses from many people. "In one team meeting at Melwood, I explained a certain tactical shape I wanted by moving figures around a magnetic board. Ten of them were red and one was black. 'That one's you, Barnsey.' Everybody laughed. Digger (Barnes) certainly did."

• 1985/86 season when he scored what was considered as one of his greatest goal at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea to win the league title in his first season as a player-manager. He was interviewed by TV reporters afterward.

" 'How did you score that?' asked some TV reporter.

'I closed my eyes and hit it.'

'You closed your eyes and hit it?'

'Is there an echo in here?' I laughed and walked off."

• 1985/86 season. en route to winning the league and FA Cup double in his first season in charge. On the eve of the Cup final game vs Everton at Wembley, he was asked by some reporters about his prediction for the game.

"It will be hot and sunny." he replied.

Before the game, another reporter cornered him.

" 'Mr. Dalglish, people call you monosyllabic.'

'What?' I replied and walked off again."

• Kelvin MacKenzie, The S*n columnist wrote what was allegedly "THE TRUTH" about Hillsborough. As a result, the people of Liverpool ran amok against the paper, burning the papers in the news stands. MacKenzie called Kenny to ask how to resolve the problem. Kenny's answer was, "See that headline you put in, 'THE TRUTH'? Just have another one, as big: WE LIED, SORRY."

• Before signing for Liverpool, Kenny once nutmegged Clemence, the Liverpool keeper at the time and scored. When he came to Melwood, the players kept asking him to wind Clemence up about that goal.

" 'Don't worry about that goal, Clem,' I told him. 'You've always been weak between your

legs!' "

• On Ferguson in 1988: "You'd get more sense out of my two-year old." Brilliant.

To be honest, I don't think it would have done much difference to Liverpool. Getting into top 4 is virtually impossible. I genuinely hope that the appointment of Kenny as a caretaker manager will unite Liverpool and give the players motivation and confidence. Whether our bad results were down to tactics or the players' lack of confidence, I hope it will all soon go away.

Good luck against Manchester United tomorrow, lads. We fans are hoping that you'll play your hearts out. For the Red shirts, for Liverpool, for us, for yourselves. YNWA.