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In the last few years of his playing career, Jamie Carragher spent timing earning his various UEFA coaching badges in hopes that he might one day get into management after retiring. Instead, he made a beeline for the pundit's chair, joining forces with Gary Neville to bring the masses surprisingly reasonable assessments of football matches.
Carragher's reasoning was simple: the managerial merry-go-round in English football was too ridiculous to become a part of. Managers don't get a chance to truly build something with their clubs, and a run of bad results could easily see you get sacked in the morning; fans literally have a song about the revolving door of football management.
This weekend saw some ill-advised season ticket holders pony up for a rental plane that would drag behind it a RODGERS OUT RAFA IN banner, letting the world know on global television that they're fiscally irresponsible they have some strongly worded feelings on the current management situation. It's a far cry from just one short year ago when that same manager had Liverpool in the midst of a very heated title race against Manchester City, but memories in football are short.
"Modern football now is very harsh and is very much short-termism," said Brendan Rodgers when pressed about the importance of organizational consistency in football. "But it has shown that over the years the majority of the teams that have that stability, and if the owners and players have that belief, then it will come good.
"What we have seen here over the last couple of years is that we are definitely on the right path. This year it’s been pretty clear that it has been disappointing but I think the opportunity arises for us again next season. There is some exciting talents coming in. The players that have come in, it’s been a difficult year for them but they will be better for it. All the new players are gaining experience about the pressures of Liverpool and, again, myself will be a better manager because of it."
A segment of fans may not share that belief in the slightest, and another segment is still on board but with reservations given a variety of legitimate concerns about how this season has played out, but it's hard to see how canning Rodgers at this point in time would dramatically alter Liverpool's fortunes next season. For his part, Rodgers is always cognisant of the pressure that comes with holding his post, and it's something he seems to take in stride.
"Because of the club that Liverpool is, there will always be an expectancy because of the great history," Rodgers explained. "But you always have to have a sense of perspective and the reality of where we are at. We are in fifth position, having got to two cup semi-finals in which we were disappointed not to have reached the finals in but, hopefully, we can use that and those disappointments to make us manage better in the future."
So maybe no more banners for a while, eh?
