Where to go from here : Liverpool F.C.

Former Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish

Sometime between Liverpool's FA cup final loss to Chelsea and a low profile defeat in south Wales on Sunday John Henry and his Fenway Sports Group decided a change was needed at Anfield. Despite significant investment, a good age profile and a healthy portion of British players Liverpool's squad had failed to achieve the seasons primary goal, Champions League qualification. In fact they'd come up well short.

Their manager a legendary player for the club in a previous generation had failed in the transfer market , failed in the league and reduced the goodwill available to the club in the media and general population through short post match interviews and mishandling the Luis Suarez racism charge. The League Cup the clubs first trophy in five years being the one glimmer of hope available. 

      Looking to the future Liverpool need a fresh start. This fresh start will revolve around a new manager as changes to playing personnel will be limited due to budgetary constraints. In my view the next manager should have a strong coaching profile and league success in a top ten European league.  Euro 2012 provides several managers who will be looking for a new challenge. My gut tells my that looking at managers who solely have experience in England will not be enough to take the Anfield club where they need to go. Liverpool need to be realistic Jose Mourinho or Pep Guardiola will not be interested in this job and there will be several other coaches with smaller profiles who won't be interested either.  Fans who think they might are delusional. All hope is not lost though. There are several managers who have experienced winning a league while not turning their squads upside down. Liverpool have a decent squad. The centre halves they have available to them are among the best in the league. Martin Skrtel has the ability and positional sense to be a rock for quite a number of years. Daniel Agger has both the good and bad characteristics of a younger Rio Ferdinand but is in essence a quality player. There are others Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard are world class players while Andy Carroll under the right tutelage can still develop into a 20 goal a season striker. But this appointment is crucial, there are coaches who have won leagues and performed consistently. Some of these coaches have shown themselves to be excellent man managers with a technical understanding of how to best use a teams footballing abilities. These are some of the men I would be looking to interview. Without being disrespectful I would be steering well clear of Roberto Martinez.

1. Marcelo Bielsa
2. Didier Deschamps
4. Slaven Bilic
5. Andres Villas Boas
6. Ronald Koeman
7.Rafael Benitez