Martin O’Neill does not have rocks in his head.

I’ll be brief. The inevitable is finally happening and Rafa is being shoved out the Anfield door, it’s just a matter of negotiating how big his golden parachute will be. I hear that he’s currently holidaying in Sardinia and it’s down to the lawyers to sort this mess out.

Whether a pro or anti-Rafa Liverpool fan, now can’t be much fun to be a Red and they have as much sympathy as my schadenfreude will allow me to muster. Sorry guys, it really isn’t much, but I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes, I will say that.

I won’t go over events from 2008 again – I recapped the end of the 2007/08 season and specifically included the beginning of Barrygate at the bottom of this post so I wouldn’t have to – but I recall Martin O’Neill saying on several occasions that Liverpool’s actions were not the Liverpool of old and he was right. I’m not naive about how these things work, but there was an unjustifiably brazen arrogance to Liverpool’s behaviour during the Spring and Summer of 2008 that must have left a bad taste in any reasonable person’s mouth. It did in mine.

But look, I said I’d be brief, so here’s the bottom line for me in relation to any nonsense about Martin O’Neill replacing Rafa…

The answer is simple and obvious. Anfield is toxic right now, I wouldn’t want to be in the same telephone area code. Unless Martin O’Neill has rocks in his head, neither will he. Why on earth would he abandon what he’s spent 4 years building at Aston Villa to jump into that mess? I’ve heard of enjoying a challenge, but that would be nothing short of self flagellation.

I’ve no idea why Ladbrokes et al. have apparently installed our manager as favourite, but I doubt it’s based on anything beyond the economics of operating a gambling enterprise. Pro Tip: the house always wins.

I’m no expert on Liverpool, but it seems to me that whoever takes over will likely have the same owners and lack of money to work with. The club is up for sale, but who knows when a genuine buyer can be found? (By ‘genuine’ I mean they’re not going to make the same mistake twice!) I would imagine that whoever takes over will more than likely have a strong and passionate connection to the club and be doing so for the greater good, to keep the ship steady and see it through to calmer waters. For that reason, I can’t see past the next captain of the good ship Liverpool being anyone but Kenny Dalglish.

Despite my obvious disdain for the Reds right now, I really do hope they get themselves off the rocks in good order…

…just not with Martin O’Neill at the helm.

EDIT: Rafa has now gone and it seems that Kenny Dalglish will be involved in the successor selection process. It’s not impossible that he’ll pick himself, but it would seem unlikely. There goes my theory then!