Ayre: I've spoken to top stars

The club's managing director has spoken to key members of the squad following the departure of Kenny Dalglish - and has now dismissed any talk of high-profile exits.

"I spoke to all our senior players yesterday and I don't think that will happen," said Ayre.

"Of course Kenny is an important part of the fabric of the club and always will be.

"There isn't anyone who won't be disappointed with the decision but at the same time players are respectful.

"It's about the football club. We are talking about going forward, not going backwards."

Ayre hopes key positions will start to be filled over the next fortnight after the club parted company with Dalglish, director of football Damien Comolli and director of communications Ian Cotton.

"There are no plans to fire anyone else," Ayre confirmed. "It was just part of a process. It is all part of wanting to get it right. The natural break point is at the end of a season. That is the time when you take stock of what people have achieved or what they haven't achieved within a period.

"This view that there is a crisis and everyone is leaving is wrong, it's just a time based thing. When anyone leaves you have to go through the process of finding a replacement and moving forward.

"It's fair to say we are fairly imminent on a lot of positions that have exited. What you will see over the next two weeks is those new people arriving and a momentum of going forward.

"There will be new people arriving with new energy and new initiatives. For all the negativity that has existed in the last six to eight weeks, you will see a lot of positivity around the new appointments with their experience and what they will deliver."

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Ayre has also revealed how the responsibilities previously held by Comolli could be split between several appointments in future.

"The idea is rather than one person being responsible for all the elements Damien's role took on, we will divide up the responsibilities," Ayre said.

"We will have a slightly different structure so there will be two or three positions within that. Running a big football club is a big challenge. It's evident we need to focus on each area with a specialist who will deliver value in each area."

Despite a possible redefinition of our director of football role, Ayre does not anticipate additional pressure burdening whoever succeeds Dalglish in the dugout.

"The model has always been developing and the plan has evolved," he said.

"As is always the case when you have a difficult situation, it highlights the shortcomings and issues around certain areas. Did we learn from the Suarez thing? Did we get some things wrong? Of course.

"But you move on. The important thing is you take the things that you get wrong and build to not get those things wrong again.

"I wouldn't go as far as to say the manager's job will only be a training ground role but absolutely the idea is to create a structure so that the manager doesn't need to focus on too much else.

"You want the manager to be focused on getting the best out of his team. But what it absolutely isn't about is bringing players in without the manager's input.

"In the past a manager would be going to look at 20 or 30 different games just to find one player. Whereas with the right structure someone lines all of that up and the manager is just going to the final interview.

"We are trying to create as much resource and expertise in all the areas that serve the manager and the team rather than having one or two people trying to achieve everything. We are not looking to copy any other club. It will have Liverpool's own stamp and structure on it."

One addition to the LFC team will be someone to aid Ayre with creating revenue.

He explained: "I'm the person here responsible for running the football club. I welcome that challenge and I'll do the best job I can do.

"What's important is we've got the right structure to run the club in the right way. One of the announcements we will make in the next week or so will be about someone working with me to continue delivering the important revenue streams.

"We've done very well in growing our revenue in the last four or five years but it's important to keep building on it."

Meanwhile, Ayre has explained more about the decision to part ways with Dalglish following a review of the season.

He said: "It was a very simple decision based on results, and did we believe that was going to change? To be 37 points off the winner, 17 points off fourth, 14 losses...

"Winning the FA Cup wouldn't have made any difference - it was never about an individual result. It was always about taking a review of the season in full.

"The Carling Cup and the FA Cup don't generate the revenue and the success that is needed to keep investing. If you want to be successful, you have got to keep investing. People don't want to hear that football is a business. They want to see us put lots of money into the football team and win lots of trophies and games.

"But you have got to have both. You have got to have continued progress in the league. If you don't do well in the league and you don't get into the Champions League, you are writing cheques from your own pocket, aren't you? That is not a sustainable way going forward.

"I agree you can't keep changing managers and as long as what you expect in terms of moving forwards is achieved, of course you give that person the time and support they need. But there is a difference between that and failure. If you massively get it wrong then of course you have to make that change. You expect targets to be achieved.

"It's absolutely critical that we get it right and we move forward. The Champions League is where the football club has to be. It's where everyone wants it to be. When John Henry and Tom Werner arrived, they said they wanted to be winning the league.

"It won't happen overnight. Nobody is kidding themselves. But you have got to be heading in that direction. You can only live on history of success for a certain amount of time.

"I don't believe that Chelsea have more fans in south-east Asia than Liverpool. Spend time in those countries and those cities and you will see that Liverpool and Manchester United dominate the landscape. But it doesn't last forever.

"That is why progress is so important. If you are a manager at that level or you are a manager aspiring to get there, I still think this is one of the biggest jobs in world football.

"We can find a top-class manager to come to this football club."