Kenny to return? Be careful what you wish for

The following story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club:

IT was the saddest sporting spectacle of my entire youth. The greatest sportsman who ever strode this planet, my all-time sporting hero, a 20th century icon, slumped in the corner of a Nassau boxing ring while a tinny cow bell - the bungling promoters had forgotten to provide a proper timekeeper's instrument - signalled the end of the most remarkable boxing career in history.

Muhammad Ali, of course, was the victim.

The last rites to his charismatic career had just been read by an ordinary scuffler called Trevor Berbick. And the world seemed a less magical place.

But it isn't just boxers who don't know when to bow out, although that profession is greater than any other for self-delusion.

Football folk are more than capable of becoming the right people at the wrong time.

Kevin Keegan was once a Geordie Messiah. But after his second coming he was labelled just a naughty boy.

Fabio Capello won four Serie A titles in five seasons, routed Barcelona 4-0 in a Champions League final and enjoyed a 58-game unbeaten run in charge of AC Milan.

After a spell in Madrid he went back there and finished 10th.

Even the most successful manager in Everton's history couldn't resist a third bite of the apple, but came worryingly close to becoming only the third manager to take Everton down.

Now we have a campaign gathering pace to return Kenny Dalglish to his Anfield throne.

I have to hold my hand up and admit some culpability here.

Last Friday, 24 hours after Rafael Benitez was mutually consented, I suggested Kenny and Sammy Lee was the only game in town to steer Liverpool through murky waters.

I haven't changed my mind. I haven't had a Damascene conversion.

I still think Kenny and Sammy would be the safest pair of hands to guide Liverpool through the turbulent waters of a takeover.

But short term. In an interim capacity. Until the American owners have stopped darkening the doorstep of L4.

But Kenny Dalglish back as full-time Liverpool manager? Ten years after he last managed a football club? Exposed in an age of the instant idiot where message-boards, phone texters and tweeters pass instant judgement on football managers on a hourly basis?

That leaves me uneasy.

Dalglish's legacy as the greatest footballer ever to pull on a Liverpool shirt is safe, secure, unchallengeable.

His position as a triple-title winning manager who created the most thrilling, free-flowing, electrifying Liverpool team in living memory is also safe.

But those memories can be tarnished.

Dalglish last enjoyed an active role in top flight football more than a decade ago.

There's an entire generation of Liverpool fans now who know of him only from video tape and misty-eyed reminscences from dads.

Without first-hand knowledge of what this remarkable man achieved, those fans would have no compunction at issuing knee-jerk reactions to a third round FA Cup exit to Championship opposition.

Some sporting icons do come back.

If we'd listened to Sir Steven Redgrave's appeal in 1996 to "shoot me if anyone sees me anywhere near a boat" we'd have been denied his historic fifth Olympic gold.

If George Foreman had carried on selling grill pans we'd never have seen a 45-year-old winning a version of the world boxing title.

And if George Best hadn't returned with his old pal Rodney for an Indian summer in West London the only thing Fulham would have been remembered for in the 1970s was Tommy Trinder's hat.

But the odds are stacked against King Kenny.

The club doesn't have the financial muscle any more to lure players like Barnes and Beardsley.

The boardroom is clearly still riven by internal politics.

And of the club's triumvirate of world class players - one is clearly hell-bent on following Benitez to Milan, while Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres are far from committing their futures to the club.

Two-and-a-half years ago Dalglish said: "We are the ones who carry out the dream. The dream that the supporters will never achieve because they can't play. So they live through us."

Those dreams are rich, colourful, life enhancing.

Do we want to see them shattered by the cold, harsh reality of modern football?

Kenny Dalglish wants the job and is an overwhelming favourite amongst Liverpool fans to reclaim his managerial crown.

The emotional pull is clear. He would bring dignity, a sense of order, a link with the club's glorious past.

But sometimes in life we should be very careful what we wish for.

Ali was a king who was carried out on a dustcart - I'd hate to see King Kenny go the same way.

This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club.