Heroes & Villains – Liverpool
Hero – Kenny Dalglish
Brought in from Celtic to replace Kevin Keegan, Dalglish took on the responsibility with relish and quickly became an Anfield legend.
The Scot took Keegan’s famous number 7 shirt and was at the club during their most successful period in their history. He scored three debut goals for the club, scoring in his first game for the club, in his league debut and one in his first match at Anfield.
He won six League titles, three European Cups, four League Cups and an FA Cup in his time as a player, which included a League and FA Cup Double in 1986. Dalglish also won two league titles and an FA Cup as manager, playing several games before hanging up his boots in 1990.
In January 2011, Dalglish made an emotional return to the club as manager. Despite lifting the League Cup in the 2011/12 season, it wasn’t enough for the Liverpool board and he was dismissed at the end of that season.
Dalglish scored 169 goals in 502 games for Liverpool. Despite being fired in his last spell at the club, he remains one of the club’s most legendary figures.
Villain – El-Hadji Diouf
El-Hadji Diouf made a career out of playing the villain and he must surely be considered one at Anfield.
Referred to as a “turkey” by Jamie Carragher, who also pointed out that Diouf was also the only number 9 in Liverpool’s history to go a whole season (2003/04) without once finding the back of the net!
The Senegalese striker was disliked by most of his team mates because of his poor attitude and well, because he just wasn’t a very good player! Carragher admitted that Diouf was always the last to be selected in five-a-side matches because of his lack of talent and apparent lack of interest.
One incident that disgraced the former Liverpool front man and more importantly, the reputation of the club was an unsavoury incident in the 2002/03 UEFA Cup tie at Celtic. Diouf spat at a Celtic fan, causing crowd disturbances and was interviewed by police after the game regarding the incident. He was later fined two weeks wages and given a two match ban.
About Author
