Liverpool Job Linked With Andre Villas Boas and Ralf Ragnick: Expecting Magic?

Roy Hodgson has often been heard saying that he doesn't have the magic wand to change things around, and reality has been no different. He has been not been able to do even generally acceptable, let alone anything spectacular.

Liverpool FC, thus, has been in utter disarray this season overall with too many losses than acceptable. However, now unless Hodgson manages to win an inconsequential FA Cup tie and obtain more borrowed time, his end seems not very far away if reports are to be believed.

Depending on the timing of the sack though, leading the race to take the Liverpool job on a permanent basis according to the bettors are two people who both seem to have the magic wand for success in football management in some unique ways.

NESV, now called FSG and Liverpool FC's principal  owner, seems to have a preference towards a young and upcoming manager with an exciting resume. It is here that the two contenders, young Porto manager Andre Villas Boas and Ralf Ragnick, come in.

To begin with let me start with Andre Villas Boas. He is a name relatively unknown in club football almost until just a few months back, when the 33-year-old started creating ripples in Portugal with FC Porto.

On 11 December 2010, Villas Boas set the club record for the most matches across all competitions unbeaten, a record previously held by José Mourinho at 33 matches.

However, Villas Boas has another very interesting link to Jose Mourinho, who is accepted by many a football pundit as the self proclaimed "Special One" by virtue of his achievements.

Villas Boas, who initially entered football management at an age when the likes of Pele and Rooney were household names, worked in the scouting department under Sir Bobby Robson and was impressive right from the start. In fact, he was so impressive that at the tender age of 21 he became the Technical Director of the British Virgin Islands and then also went on to manage them for 18 months.

He then returned to coach the U-19 Porto team by the time Jose Mourinho had taken charge of the Porto and was about to write history. Thus, a pair of two very impressive to-be managers came to the front, neither of whom had any auspicious footballing careers. Some of us may know that Mourinho started off as an interpreter for Sir Bobby Robson and went on to dizzying heights in a completely separate profession, however, Villas Boas was even more amateur in that he never had even the very little playing experience that Mourinho had!

However, Villas Boas then followed Mourinho to both England and Italy and obtained valuable experience. He moved on and took charge of Academica de Coimbra of Portugal in October 2009. The team was in tatters and Boas had a huge task ahead of him. However, he turned everything in a matter of a month with exciting, attacking football (A "magic wand " of sorts!).

Consequently, he was chosen for a job at FC Porto, who had sacked their manager Carlos Ferreira, a manager who had won them the League from 2007 to 2009 consecutively and only finished third in the last season. FC Porto further went on to sell their two best players, Bruno Alves and Raul Meireles, in the transfer season. All the makings of a knee-jerk decision destined for failure, right? Wrong!

Not only did Porto begin the season with a bang, they are the only team in the top European clubs to not have been beaten in any competition so far and have won almost 90 percent of all their matches. They lead the league table by eight points, beating the now second placed and last year's champions, Benfica, 2-0 along the way to win the Portuguese Super Cup in August.

Although FC Porto has made him sign a long-term contract very recently, we all know how futile the contracts can be in recent times. If Liverpool pursues him instead of buying a player, they may well be successful in the end and that too in the long term.

Current Bets : 6/1 (slashed from 16/1)

Another manager linked with the Anfield hot seat is unlike Villas Boas, very available and has recently even claimed that he would love to work in England. He is the former Hoffenheim manager, Ralf Ragnick.

Ragnick quit his position on January 3rd, 2011, because Luiz Gustavo was sold behind his back to Bayern Munich from the club. However, although 52, this German manager has done his share of miracles too.

While nowhere like Mourinho, Ragnick has been compared to Arsene Wenger in his approach and philosophy to the game. Ragnick has an impressive resume too, and although he didn't win many a silverware, he took two very ordinary third tier German teams in Ulm 1846 and Hoffenheim to the Bundesliga. With Hoffenheim he even finished seventh in his first term in charge after leading the table 'til the winter break. All this from a German village with a mere 3,000 people in 2007!

In his latest feat, backed by one of the richest entrepreneurs, Dietmar Hopp, Ragnick went on a "hire them young" policy and brought in the likes of Demba Ba, Chinedu Obasi, Vedad Ibisevic and a host of other players. They took German football by storm as they played very exciting football and went on to claim the promotion to Bundesliga where they finished seventh and eleventh in Ralf's two complete seasons in charge.

During the entire feat, Hoffenheim is said to have never recruited any player above the age of 24 and they excelled. Now even though Ragnick struggled with some better clubs like Schalke and Stuttgart, his approach to the game has been the focal point of attention ever since, and it seems like the perfect fit for what the Liverpool FC management is up to.

Also, the concept of Director of Football has been a well accepted fact in Germany for quite some time now. Ragnick should have less of a problem while fitting into the prevailing structure at Liverpool.

Current Bets: 7/1 (easing from 6/1)

Thus, Liverpool under John Henry has their work cut out, and with the building pressure on Hodgson's regime, it may not be long before Liverpool FC gets a manager for the long term.

Demba Ba's recent efforts to get into West Ham and Avram Grant's dodgy stance at Upton Park may hint about Ragnick's future in England even without Liverpool FC. Under such circumstances Liverpool FC has the option of hiring Ralf if they need a permanent choice just now, or they could go by the fans' choice by hiring Kenny Dalglish as a caretaker now and have a real go at other quality managers like Villas Boas, just in case they are unavailable now. However, Didier Deshamps, another rumored contender for the post has ruled himself out of the running.