The Soccer Saturday panel discuss the positive impact Kenny Dalglish will have on Liverpool.

The club have turned to former player and manager Dalglish to take up the reins for the rest of the campaign and try and rescue a wretched campaign for the Merseyside titans after Roy Hodgson left the club by mutual consent.
Dalglish, who wanted to return as manager before the appointment of Hodgson in the summer, will now take charge of the side for this weekend's FA Cup showdown with arch-rivals Manchester United at Old Trafford.
Dalglish last managed a side in 1998 but the likes of Matt le Tissier and Phil Thompson have every faith that he will unite the club after a torrid time.
"He has kept involved and been at the games and his knowledge is pretty good," said Matt le Tissier on Soccer Saturday.
"The one thing he will have in his favour is that clearly he has the instant respect of the players because of what he has achieved as a player and as a manager.
"He will also unify the club - you can guarantee that the fans will get behind a team that Kenny Dalglish will manage."
Phil Thompson agrees and says that Dalglish's main aim is to unite all the fans behind the club.
"That is the biggest thing throughout this whole affair - there has been a split in the fans," added Thompson on Soccer Saturday.
"Some fans were having a go and those fans chanting at Hodgson. Kenny has always been there and he is a student of the game he watches football constantly.
"I can take the point that he has not had the players to deal with since 1998 and things may have changed, but you still have your principles and he will unite the whole of the club.
"It is a little bit like Alan Shearer with Newcastle - the fans want Kenny there. Kenny will go in there and bring everyone together and that is important because the club has been split too much.
"Results, well we will wait and see but you can bet you life those fans going to Old Trafford on Sunday will be up for it. Will the players react? I think they will."

Ded Grimley (Liverpool fan) says...

I wish King Kenny the best, but I think that there was really only so much that could be laid on the feet of Hodgson for the problems they've had this year. And yet, I also agree with the decision. I do wish Roy the best as well, too. He seems like a great guy. Maybe Blackburn could use him? West Ham? They seem more suited to his style.

Stephen Brookes (Leeds United fan) says...

Nobody can really defend Roy Hodgson because at the end of the day, it comes down to how the players play on the pitch. Forget the off field and boardroom issues - if the manager can't get a team like theirs playing, then he is doing something wrong. Their team is a top 6 squad and they're nowhere near there right now.

Difficult challenge

It is unfortunate circumstances because a very good man, with great dignity and integrity, has lost his job."
Club legend Dalglish, who had occupied a position in Liverpool's Academy having not managed a club since leaving Celtic in 2000, is now tasked with the job of renewing fortunes.
When asked how difficult a challenge he faces, he replied: "We'll find out, I've only come off a plane."
Liverpool sit 12th in the Premier League in the wake of the wretched midweek defeat at one of Dalglish's former clubs, Blackburn, which proved to be Hodgson's last act.
The 18-time champions of England were also infamously eliminated from the Carling Cup by Northampton in September, while they will face Sparta Prague in the knockout stages of the Europa League in February.

Kenny Dalglish has described his return to the role of Liverpool manager as a 'great honour' and has also paid tribute to predecessor Roy Hodgson

It was confirmed on Saturday that Dalglish, who guided the Anfield club to three league titles in his original tenure between 1985 and 1992, will be boss until the end of the season following the sacking of Hodgson.
The decision of Liverpool's owners has meant that Dalglish has had to swiftly return to England from what was understood to be a holiday in Dubai in order to be ready for Sunday's FA Cup third-round match to arch-rivals Manchester United.
Having flown back to Manchester, the Scot has admitted his pride at returning to manage under-achieving Liverpool, but he admits his regret that Hodgson had to leave Merseyside.
"It is a great honour to be asked to come back," Dalglish told Sky Sports News at Manchester airport.

American Revolution AAA Share Cite This RSS

From Philadelphia, Samuel Adams writes to his friend Colonel James Warren that the idea of a confederation, or loose political union, among the colonies "is not dead, but sleepeth. To those who believed they would see the confederation completed long ago Adams wrote, I do not despair of it -- since our Enemies themselves are hastening it.
The following day, Samuel's cousin, John Adams, wrote Warren's wife, Mercy Otis Warren, and inquired if she would prefer an American Monarchy or Republic. While John declared his own preference for a republic, he wished it only if We must erect an independent Government in America, which you know is utterly against my Inclination. Although he regaled Mrs. Warren with the many virtues of republican government, Adams remained concerned that, there is so much Rascallity, so much Venality and Corruption, so much Avarice and Ambition, such a Rage for Profit and Commerce among all Ranks and Degrees of Men even in America, that I sometimes doubt whether there is public Virtue enough to Support a Republic.
Even among the inter-bred social elites of Massachusetts, there was no unanimity of opinion on the political course the colonies should take. Two days after John Adams equivocated over the sustainability of an American republic in his letter to Warren, Thomas Paine published Common Sense and swayed public opinion towards independence. Six months later, Congress charged Adams, by then considered an American Atlas for his passionate arguments for independence, to serve with Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin on the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence. Only his knowledge that Thomas Jefferson was the better writer kept Adams from drafting the famed document himself.

First U.S. presidential election

On this day in 1789, America's first presidential election is held. Voters cast ballots to choose state electors; only white men who owned property were allowed to vote. As expected, George Washington won the election and was sworn into office on April 30, 1789.
As it did in 1789, the United States still uses the Electoral College system, established by the U.S. Constitution, which today gives all American citizens over the age of 18 the right to vote for electors, who in turn vote for the president. The president and vice president are the only elected federal officials chosen by the Electoral College instead of by direct popular vote.
Today political parties usually nominate their slate of electors at their state conventions or by a vote of the party's central state committee, with party loyalists often being picked for the job. Members of the U.S. Congress, though, can’t be electors. Each state is allowed to choose as many electors as it has senators and representatives in Congress. The District of Columbia has 3 electors. During a presidential election year, on Election Day (the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November), the electors from the party that gets the most popular votes are elected in a winner-take-all-system, with the exception of Maine and Nebraska, which allocate electors proportionally. In order to win the presidency, a candidate needs a majority of 270 electoral votes out of a possible 538.
On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December of a presidential election year, each state's electors meet, usually in their state capitol, and simultaneously cast their ballots nationwide. This is largely ceremonial: Because electors nearly always vote with their party, presidential elections are essentially decided on Election Day. Although electors aren't constitutionally mandated to vote for the winner of the popular vote in their state, it is demanded by tradition and required by law in 26 states and the District of Columbia (in some states, violating this rule is punishable by $1,000 fine). Historically, over 99 percent of all electors have cast their ballots in line with the voters. On January 6, as a formality, the electoral votes are counted before Congress and on January 20, the commander in chief is sworn into office.
Critics of the Electoral College argue that the winner-take-all system makes it possible for a candidate to be elected president even if he gets fewer popular votes than his opponent. This happened in the elections of 1876, 1888 and 2000. However, supporters contend that if the Electoral College were done away with, heavily populated states such as California and Texas might decide every election and issues important to voters in smaller states would be ignored.