Liverpool Eye Up Johan Cruyff For ‘Director Of Football’ Role

Chris Wright

13th, April 2012

14 Comments

By Chris Wright

“Liverwho?’

The BBC read somewhere understands that, after surgically removing Damien Comolli from their staff yesterday for fluffing all their dollars on snakeoil and unicorn teeth, Liverpool owners FSG are eyeing up none other than Johan Cruyff (who, it says here, used to be a footballer of some distinction but is perhaps better known as the man from the asteroid) to step into the breach at Anfield.

Indeed, several of this morning’s newspapers also think that Cruyff and Liverpool are sitting in a tree, N-E-G-O-T-I-A-T-I-N-G.

‘Director of football’ just conjures visions of a man – Cruyff in this instance – sat alone in an office at the very top of a spiral staircase, his breath visible in the cold, dank air as he searches Football Manager for ‘players between 18-23 with a potential rating between 15-20’ then forlornly starts to type out emails to agents.

Anywho, Cruyff has resigned from a supervisory role on the Ajax board after an prolonged period of legal wrangling with the Dutch club’s directors over the appointment of Aloysius Paulus Maria van Gaal (‘Louis’ to you and I) as a director at the Amsterdam Arena.

Strangley, Van Gaal’s (who has been unemployed since being sacked by Bayern Munich last April) name is also being mentioned in passing with Liverpool – with the Beeb hinting that he has ‘indicated he would consider the position’ were an offer formally presented to him – like he once formally presented his scrotum to Luca Toni.

It all has the kind of faint air of ‘Comolli sacked > Google ‘directors of football’ and see who’s out of work’ about it, but apparently Cruyff in particular has impressed Liverpool owner John W Henry in his advisory roles with Ajax and with Chivas Guadalajara in Mexico.

Sounds fishy to me, but if the rumours come to bear fruit, I’d wager that Cruyff would be presumably charged with assisting Kenny Dalglish – y’know, in much the same way that Gerard Houllier was bought in to ‘assist’ Roy Evans.

Will it happen? Won’t it? Anyone care?

Sorry, I got next to no sleep last night. I’m a little narky.

Posted in Liverpool, Transfers & Rumours

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14 Comments

  1. Milkchew says:

    Do clubs really need Directors of Football? What happened to a manager saying `I want this player and think hes worth this much` and getting a lacky to start the ball rolling i.e. Not so ex professional.

  2. Tosser says:

    Daniel Craig is looking a little worse for wear if you ask me.

  3. Al says:

    Cruyff is known to be an utter c”nt and impossible to work with, Daglish’s attitude with the media this year also puts him in the c”nt bracket so if he gets the job I can see a lot of tears and hair pulling which will be great fund for everyone else but not for us liverpool fans, another disaster looming

  4. C says:

    @Tosser
    Nice spot, that’s scary!

  5. Mr. T says:

    @Al – Wouldnt go so far as to call him a cunt. Though I agree with the point you are making. Comolli had a miniscule ego as compared to Cryuff – so it is entirely probable that there would be a lot of friction between the two. Sigh. Why do we need a director of football again? Unless pies is right…and he is being brought in to potentially replace Kenny?

  6. Mr. Sparkle says:

    Agree with the consensus, Croyff is a dong. Seems like Liverpool is reaching for some miracle.

  7. lfc_man says:

    Cruyff criticized LFC when they beat Barca a few years ago. If it has nothing to do with Barca or Netherlands he usually doesnt have anything good to say. Everyone else plays “anti-football” you know.

  8. Al says:

    @ Mr T – being brought in to replace Kenny sounds like the most plausible explanation, not sure how I feel about that yet, smacks a bit of the Klinsman situation a few years ago. Kind of secretly hoping Mancini keeps his job and we get Mourinho but thats wishful thinking.

  9. Mr Sensible says:

    Why would he go to Liverpool? He has history with both Barca and Ajax which is why he has been back to help as manager/DoF or whatever.

    He might be a ‘cunt’ but I’m sure that’s down to him being a genius with a clear idea on how a team should play and be run. He is pretty much the main reason Barca are the team they are today, he laid down the foudations with his philosophy and the ‘Dream Team’. I doubt he has much love for Liverpool like he does for Ajax and Barca/Catalunya, ain’t he still the manager of the Catalan national team too?

    Also, like other have said, do Liverpool even need a DoF? It clearly didn’t work with Comolli so why should it work with anyone else?

  10. Anabelle says:

    Director of Football, my a$$. The title means flunkie, and Johan’s ego is too big to be 2nd in command. If he’s coming to Liverpool, it will be as Manager.

    If this rumor is truthful, Kenny’s days as Manager are coming to an end.

  11. Nienke says:

    @Anabelle: No he won’t be manager. This guy has been running away for every responsibility over the last ten years. He likes to be the advisor of a club, shouting a lot, telling people what to do, and if his plans don’t work, he blames other people ’cause they didn’t understand him properly. He did this to the Dutch squad from… I guess World Cup 1998 ’till the European Championship in 2008, and started a big chaos at Ajax a year and a half ago. And a lot of people worship him ’cause hey, it’s Cruijff. The best Dutch footballer ever. Still he only has something to say about Ajax when things are shit. When we win against another title opponent with nine players of the Ajax Youth in the squad, he doesn’t say a thing.

    Johan Cruijff. Master of turning things in his own favour. His biggest mistake: thinking every good footballer is a good manager too.

  12. Andy Carroll's Ponytail says:

    @Nienke: “Johan Cruijff. Master of turning things in his own favour…”

    Well, he did invent the CRUIJFF Turn..

  13. Nienke says:

    @Andy Carroll’s Ponytail: Ha ha, nice one!

  14. Julio Doubleglasias says:

    He wont come,the price of fags are double here.

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