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It is time for all manner of things at Liverpool Football Club.
Time to replace the departed Kenny Dalglish with a manager unfettered by the cloying sentiment of the club's illustrious past.
Time for Liverpool supporters to recognise that no longer do they have a divine right to dine at football's top table.
Time for a manager capable of building with vision as well as playing with style. Time to move on.
That does not mean Liverpool fans have to forget Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley and Dalglish and the famous 'Boot Room' and all those wonderful years when Liverpool were the standard-bearer for everything which was successful and honourable in the English game.
Liverpool narrowly remain the greatest club in English football history if you rank their 18 league titles and five European Cups as better than Manchester United's 19 league wins and three continental triumphs. And some do.
But that is history. Liverpool have not won the league title for 22 years. They have never won the Premier League. They had not won anything for six years until they beat Cardiff on penalties to lift the Carling Cup in February.
That win reduced Dalglish to tears and he referred to that victory in his statement following the news that he was to leave Anfield.
He said: "I would not have swapped the Carling Cup win for anything as I know how much it meant to our fans and the club to be back winning trophies."
True, the fans enjoyed their day out at Wembley but, if Dalglish really believes what he said, then truly he was out of step with the majority of the players, the fans and the club owners.
The chances are John W Henry and the Fenway Sports Group had never heard of the Carling Cup until they stepped foot inside Anfield.
Even more likely is that virtually every fan and certainly every player would have sacrificed the Carling Cup experience for fourth place in the Premier League and the chance to play in the Champions League again next season. For the chance to be back at football's top table.
It was not the only matter of judgement on which Dalglish came up short.
Dalglish's sullen and antagonistic demeanour in press interviews this past season did neither himself nor the club any favours.
His handling of the Luis Suarez affair was woeful, culminating in the crass gesture when he and his players paraded in supportive T-shirts.
Dalglish created a siege mentality at Anfield, his misplaced loyalty alarming sponsors for whom image and perception is everything.
The affair demeaned a fine club and discredited a notable manager.
All of which might have been forgiven and forgotten if Liverpool had managed to win more than six league matches at home all season and not finished in eighth place, 37 points behind champions Manchester City, after spending more than £100million on Dalglish signings, such as Andy Carroll, Charlie Adam, Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson, none of whom justified the manager's faith.
You could argue the owners were hasty. That Dalglish had laid foundations. That more reinforcements and one more season could have delivered the success they crave.
Yet you could also argue the American owners have been brave and decisive. That Liverpool are too precious to let drift in a league becoming more competitive by the season.
What happens now?
The Fenway Sports Group have a conundrum.
Go for a young, vibrant manager such as Swansea's Brendan Rodgers, Norwich's Paul Lambert or Wigan's Roberto Martinez, all of whom have proved their talent at clubs with no pressure and nil expectation. That would be a gamble.
Go for one of the bookies' favourites, a man such as Andre Villas-Boas, although his man-management was not exactly top-flight status prior to his sacking by Chelsea.
Or go for a man with vision, wisdom and experience with knowledge of what it requires to bring Champions League success.
Jose Mourinho? Pep Guardiola? The old Liverpool would have been able to lure such a manager.
Now, unless the American owners promise transfer money and wages beyond reason. it is unlikely. That is a measure of Liverpool's decline.
Whoever takes over, however, must be able to manage expectation and must not be intimidated by Liverpool's past.
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