ROY HODGSON has delivered a stark reality check about the task facing him at Liverpool after claiming the club is totally ill-prepared for tonight’s Europa League qualifier with Macedonia minnows FK Rabotnicki.
LIVERPOOL: Roy Hodgson fears his players are unprepared
Hodgson leads Liverpool into the first competitive match of his reign here admitting he does not know if his side can begin his tenure with victory.
Hodgson hit out at the scheduling of the game after being forced to leave England World Cup quartet Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Joe Cole and Glen Johnson on Merseyside because they returned to training only last week.
“I couldn’t have envisaged a more difficult situation at the start of my time at Liverpool,” he and Kevin Hitchcock. But it remains to be seen
whether he has made concessions on the large staff that followed him
from Blackburn to City.
Hughes was offered the
same £2m salary plus bonuses Fulham had put in front of Jol and has been
promised a transfer fund of around £20m.
Aston
Villa midfielder Steve Sidwell has already been lined up and Hughes is
likely to rival Tottenham for striker Craig Bellamy. He could also try
for City midfielder Stephen Ireland and defender Nedum Onouha.
With just over two weeks until the Premier League
season, Hughes will have to work quickly in the transfer market.
He has been out of work since being sacked by City
last December and had also been tracked by West Ham before they
appointed Avram Grant.
Al Fayed was keen to
make a quick appointment after Fulham believed they had got Jol, only
for the former Spurs boss to agree to stay at Ajax.
Hughes had been on Fulham’s original shortlist but was
concerned about moving his family to London. However, Fulham’s most
recent offer represented Hughes’ last chance to return to Premier League
management before the start of the season.
There
were suggestions that Hughes and Fulham chief executive Alistair
Mackintosh did not see eye-to-eye during their time at City, but it
seems they have agreed to put any differences in the past.
The appointment of Hughes will placate some of the
senior players at Fulham, who were worried about the direction in which
the club were heading.
Invalid email
We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. Read our Privacy Policy