Kenny Dalglish dashes home from holiday sun to the cauldron of Old Trafford

By Joe Bernstein for the Daily Mail Updated: 06:26 EST, 9 January 2011

When Kenny and Marina Dalglish boarded the luxury cruise liner, Silver Wind, in Dubai on Monday, they anticipated doing nothing more strenuous for the week than applying the sunscreen and knocking back a couple of cocktails as they sailed around the Arabian Gulf.

Today was meant to be the final full day of their idyllic trip around the sailing ports of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Khasab, Muscat and Bahrain.

Instead, following the most dramatic 36 hours of an already remarkable career, Dalglish will spend his Sunday lunchtime in the cauldron of Old Trafford, having to cope with all the hype and bedlam that goes with the highest-profile fixture in English football, Manchester United against Liverpool.

Relaxed times: Kenny and Marina Dalglish at a charity fundraiser

Nobody will be more surprised by the turn of events than 59-year-old Dalglish and nobody will be more aware of the responsibility of trying to turn around the fortunes of an iconic club fallen on desperately hard times.

Dalglish, considered the club's greatest-ever player and the manager when they were last champions in 1990, has heard his name chanted by a Kop disenchanted with Roy Hodgson throughout the season.

But he still believed the club's owners, The Fenway Sports Group would keep faith, until the summer at least, in the manager they inherited when they took over the club in October. Wednesday night's dismal 3-1 defeat at Blackburn Rovers changed that.

The strength of anti-Hodgson feeling had grown so large that owner John W Henry and chairman Tom Werner realised any prolonged delay in sacking Hodgson would lose them the goodwill earned when they ran unpopular owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett out of town.

Winds of change: Cruise liner Silver Wind

So, as the Silver Wind docked in Bahrain in the early hours of Saturday morning, Dalglish received the emergency calls, texts and emails to save 'his club' while 3,300 miles away a surprised Hodgson learned he was being sacked without even the chance of a last hurrah at Old Trafford.

With an apology to his wife for having to cut his holiday short, Dalglish swiftly made arrangements to leave the cruise ship in Bahrain and head home.

At just after 4am UK time on Saturday, Liverpool's new interim manager travelled to the airport and started the journey back to the north-west.

His first task this afternoon and for the rest of the season will be to reinvigorate a Liverpool squad who have endured two years of internal squabbling, an ownership change, three different managers and a virtual freeze on spending on new players.

Fortunately for Liverpool supporters, self-pity has never been a part of Dalglish's make-up and any player who continues to feel sorry for himself can expect a Glaswegian kick up the backside.

Coming home: Kenny Dalglish arrives back in England

In his column for The Mail on Sunday, he had a strong message for any Liverpool players looking to blame the Hicks-Gillett fiasco for poor results against Northampton and Blackpool.

'While you find in any walk of life people who don't need much encouragement to find excuses, we don't want them at Liverpool right now,' he said.

The message could not have been stronger. Even though the personal relationship between Dalglish and Hodgson remains strong, there is no doubt the Scotsman will do things differently to the much-travelled Englishman.

While Hodgson complained about 'expensive failures', Dalglish is more likely to point to the positive fact that 15 of the Liverpool squad were picked by their countries for the World Cup, including four by England (Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Joe Cole and Glen Johnson) and another four who featured in the final (Fernando Torres, Pepe Reina, Dirk Kuyt and Ryan Babel).

Dalglish might accept that Liverpool's squad are not good enough to win the league but he will fight anyone who does not believe they should be higher than 12th, just four points above the relegation zone.

As a member of the strikers' union, Dalglish's first job will be to resurrect the form of Torres. Privately, Dalglish has been incensed by the criticism the Spanish striker has come in for this season. He believes Torres has not been helped, particularly away from home, in a system that sometimes seemed to prioritise stopping goals at the expense of scoring them.

Liverpool fans will be hoping the support and enthusiasm of the man they call 'King Kenny' will get their No 9 back to the levels he was at when he destroyed Nemanja Vidic at Old Trafford two seasons ago.

As for Steven Gerrard, Dalglish has known Liverpool's captain since he was 14 and Dalglish's son, Paul, tipped him off that the club might have a world-beater on their hands.

It is strange that Dalglish's age is seen as a negative in his appointment. Three of the current top four managers in the country – Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Harry Redknapp – are all older.

Likewise, the length of time he has spent away from management is not as big an issue as it is being made out.

King Kenny: Dalglish in action for Liverpool

Although he has not managed in the Premier League since leaving Newcastle United in 1998, he has spent the last year based at the Liverpool Academy, mixing with all the young players coming through and even joining in practice matches, celebrating every winner as if it were a repeat of his winning goal in the 1978 European Cup final.

He has befriended and taken a close interest in a lot of the players, such as midfielder Jonjo Shelvey, on whom Liverpool's future rests.

Through scouting at home and abroad this season, he has a better working knowledge of the players' market than most other Premier League managers, vital as Liverpool cannot hope to compete with the likes of Manchester City in the transfer market.

Perhaps Dalglish's biggest achievement has been to win the trust of Henry. Dalglish had feared for his role as Academy ambassador when the new owners took over, aware that they wanted to implement a new structure at the club headed by director of football strategy Damien Comolli.

But as Hodgson floundered under the pressure of being a Liverpool manager, Henry realised the calm experience of Dalglish may not necessarily be a threat, but a potential saviour.

Ironically, the biggest problems could come if Dalglish is so successful that he pushes a group of underachievers into an unlikely challenge for the Premier League top four.

Henry and his cohorts are still keen to appoint a new long-term manager in the summer and Comolli will be keen on the club taking up one of his recommendations.

However, Dalglish, who walked away from Liverpool in 1991 suffering from the stress and trauma that followed the Hillsborough disaster, will hope that the next six months will help make him a contender to take the post permanently.

As one of his former Liverpool players, Ray Houghton, put it yesterday: 'He has unfinished business, no doubt about it.'

It may be a while before the Dalglishs can look forward to their next leisurely cruise.

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