Already In?

While FSG may say there's no rush, their actions say something else. Roberto Martinez has already been approached, and has been granted permission by Wigan chairman Dave Whelan. Combine this with the buzz last week, well before Dalglish was punted to the curb, that Martinez was being looked at as a replacement and it's hard to see that he isn't FSG's leading choice at this point.

Whether he should be or not is up for debate. What's encouraging to me is that he's had success, relative to those clubs, at two different places. I always get urpy when the name of a manager who brought one club to over achievement is mentioned to take over. Maybe their success was built on simply being in the right place at the right time with the right players, and he wouldn't be able to duplicate that.

Martinez has. He brought Swansea from the relegation zone in League 1 to a near miss in the Championship playoffs. He's kept Wigan in the Premier League three straight years with barely any recognizable talent and in a style that would sit well with Liverpool fans. I'm already sort of dreaming about Agger-Skrtel-Kelly and Suarez-Carroll-whoever in Martinez's preferred 3-4-3.

But obviously, there are questions. You never know if a manager can transition from a small club with limited expectations and resources to one with true ambition and money to play with. You can't play the low-expectations card at Anfield. He has no European pedigree. He has as much to prove as some of the players he would be taking over. It's no guarantee.

We don't know how long the process will take. I'd like to see Villas-Boas get an interview as well, because we know he has something to prove. He also instills a style that would sit well with the Liverpool Way, and more specifically a formation and style that seems to fit well with the personnel already on hand (generally going with a 4-3-3, though with genuine wingers which Liverpool don't have a lot of).

It's gotten to be a much more interesting summer, hasn't it?