At over 100,000 words, The Return of King Kenny (ISBN 9781908375094) is the most comprehensive guide yet published to Liverpool Football Club’s 2010-2011 season, arguably the most tumultuous of any in the club’s history. The previous lacklustre year had ended with the sacking of Rafael Benitez, which led the author of this book to believe that things could only get worse.
Of course, Benitez was replaced by Roy Hodgson, who had achieved the phenomenal feat of getting Fulham to the 2010 UEFA Europa League final. To his credit, Oliver had doubts from the start that Roy Hodgson could successfully make the step up to a bigger club such as Liverpool FC, and Oliver’s ideal appointment at this time would have been a certain ‘King Kenny’.
Yet Liverpool were still owned by Tom Hicks and George Gillett, who were certainly not a “safe pair of hands”, as under their stewardship, Liverpool FC came dangerously close to the brink of administration… Oliver Smith cuts through the broken promises, the bluster, and the red tape to provide a scintillating account of the events that could have wrecked Liverpool FC forever.
With the stunning purchase of Liverpool FC by John W. Henry’s New England Sports Ventures (NESV), Oliver was finally able to detect a little bit of that “golden sky’ so promised by the Kop’s famous anthem. However, with Liverpool FC having the worst start to the season since the 50s, with an accompanying drop into the Premier League relegation zone, more drama was to come, culminating in the crowning of a legendary Anfield hero as King. Visit our Oliver Smith page
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