Dalglish admits regret at ban

Kenny Dalglish manages Liverpool for the first time in Europe this evening admitting his only regret is the cause of his near 26-year wait.

Some 9,394 days after initially taking over the manager's job from Joe Fagan in the immediate aftermath of the Heysel disaster, Dalglish will take charge in tonight's Europa League round of 16 first leg tie at Sparta Prague.

The tragedy in Brussels, which claimed the lives of 39 supporters in May 1985, resulted in a five-year ban for English clubs from European competition that was extended a further year for the Anfield outfit. Dalglish resigned as manager seven months before Liverpool returned to Europe under the guidance of successor Graeme Souness.

And the Scot, who returned as temporary manager last month, believes he is fortunate to be given a second chance of leading the team on the Continent.

"Heysel was a terrible tragedy," said Dalglish.

"For so many people to lose their lives at a football game was appalling and it was right that somebody was punished.

"We just wish the ban had never happened, because that would have meant Heysel had never happened, and it would have been better for everyone if it never happened, and it would have been the wishes of every single person.

"But we are where we are and that is what happened, and that is the punishment we had to take.

"I never regret that. I regret more what happened at Heysel than not managing Liverpool in Europe.

"I have the chance to come round again, there's a lot of people don't get a second chance after something like that happens."

Dalglish has long been critical of the haste at which then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher called for all English clubs to be banned from Europe in the wake of the Heysel disaster.

And the Scot still contends it was unfair on other clubs, and said: "Other people have to hold themselves accountable for how they acted back then. They did what they thought was right, I don't know that too many people will agree with what they did - it wasn't just Liverpool who suffered.

"I mean Everton won the Championship that year, but they never got to play in the European Cup.

"It wasn't just us, there were lots of people... and they were innocent, they weren't even at Heysel, so there were people with a lot greater grievance than we could have."

Liverpool's memorable team of 1987-88, often cited by supporters as the best in the club's history, was denied the chance to pits their wits against Europe's best, but Dalglish added: "There is nothing that can be done now to rewrite history.

"There is no point living in the past. There are a lot of conversations about whether we would have been good or bad or indifferent in Europe, but that is hypothetical.

"We had a fantastic team and it would have been nice to have seen them get the opportunity, but that was deprived and we just have to get on and accept that's what happened.

"I just know they were fantastic sides with fantastic players and fantastic achievements they got. It wasn't as if they didn't win titles to get themselves into European competitions, they did win titles. Maybe the fact we weren't in Europe helped us to win titles though."

Liverpool are this evening without injured quartet Steven Gerrard, Daniel Agger, Jay Spearing and Andy Carroll, although the latter travelled with Prague to help become further acquainted to his new team-mates.

With Christian Poulsen also not in the squad with his wife due to give birth, Dalglish has called up young quintet Raheem Sterling, Jack Robinson, Conor Coady, Jonathan Flanagan and Thomas Ince.

Liverpool were unbeaten in 10 Europa League games earlier this season under previous manager Roy Hodgson, and Dalglish said: "It's up to us to carry on the good work that was done by Roy and the players to get us this far. This competition is only unimportant to people who aren't involved in it.

"We'll be doing our best to get results in it. We want to keep the run going as long as we can."

Tonight's opponents Sparta have not played a competitive game since the final Europa League group game more than two months ago.

And Dalglish said: "We don't know how it will affect them not having played for too long. It may benefit them or not. But we think they will be refreshed from it."

Source: Daily Post

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