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When John W Henry and the fenway Sports Group rode into town last year,every Kopite was dancing for joy at walking through the worst of the storm.

                                                                           American hurricane, Yank you and goodnight for Comolli, Kenny could be next

Last night the storm — in hurricane proportions — came raging back with a vengeance two days before a game that could make or break Liverpool’s season.

Director of football Damien Comolli was first out of the door, swiftly followed by sports medic guru Peter Brukner on Anfield’s very own night of the long knives.

And despite the reassurances that Kenny Dalglish was not about to join them, the message for the greatest Kop idol of all was clear… winning cups may keep them happy on the terraces but if you do not sort out that pitiful Premier League form, you could very well be next.

Comolli paid the price for forking out way over the odds for Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson.

In the words of chairman Tom Werner, the Yanks have been increasingly alarmed with the results — and the way their strategy was being implemented. That, plus the PR nightmare which accompanied the Luis Suarez racial abuse row with Patrice Evra that dragged the name of one of the world’s greatest sporting institutions through the mud.

Of course conspiracy theories — and they are growing ever fonder of them around these parts — snowballed.

King Kenny was merely strengthening his own hand, said many.

Ridding himself of people who could be seen as a threat to his total power on the football side of things.

Yet even if that does hold true in the short term, the implications for Dalglish are patently obvious — get us into the top four or it’s curtains. Comolli hardly covered himself in glory in agreeing to spend £75million on Henderson, Carroll and Downing.

In fact he was hardly out of the door before the joke was doing the rounds about how his sacking was Downing’s first assist of the season.

But Dalglish has constantly made a big thing about how no player has arrived at Anfield since his return without his total blessing.

He has insisted, almost weekly, how delighted everyone to do with Liverpool is with the new arrivals. Clearly, it appears, not everybody.

Yet while Comolli is clearly the man carrying the can for the way those over-inflated signings have, in the main, flopped, that in no way should see others resting on their laurels.

And anyone thinking King Kenny is untouchable before yesterday should certainly be having second thoughts about that right now.

For yesterday’s actions have shattered those notions once and for all in the first serious show of strength from FSG since they bought the club.

The axing of Comolli and Brukner was a resounding warning to everyone at the club. A warning that smacked of “when it comes to the big decisions, we certainly ain’t afraid to make them. And if we don’t like what you’re doing, it’s goodnight Vienna”.

And after insisting to all and sundry throughout the campaign that he gave the final say to all new signings — and the constant defiant comments of how the club were delighted with them — Dalglish could be forgiven for squirming in his chair.

A key sentence in Werner’s statement over yesterday’s news was the revelation “we’ve been dissatisfied . . . with the results so far”.

Well, Comolli can be held accountable for many things but the one man ultimately left to stand or fall by those results is Dalglish.

And if they do not improve, the implications are patently obvious.

No one in their right mind was thinking King Kenny would find his own neck in the noose just 48 hours before Liverpool aim to reach a second cup final of the season. Barring a total humiliation against Everton — plus a total dropping off in league results — the Kop’s favourite son will surely still be the man at the helm when they kick off next time around.

But unless the Reds hit the ground running or at least hang on to the coat tails of the top dogs, then he will find himself on the thinnest of ice.

There is certainly something of the smiling assassins about Henry and Werner. Especially when you consider that they were having lunch with Comolli at the club’s Melwood training camp yesterday, with no hint of the drama to come.

Indeed, the Frenchman had meetings pencilled in next week with various agents, as the net began to be cast for potential new summer arrivals.

Not exactly the actions of a man who knew his end was nigh.

Of course if Liverpool were to lose tomorrow’s Merseyside derby FA Cup semi-final, the finger will be pointed squarely at the owners for the timing of their actions.

But it is blindingly obvious that they have a ruthless streak to rival any in business — and accusations and recriminations swiftly pale into insignificance alongside profit, achievement and results.

And unless they start seeing all three of them pretty damn quickly, the King may find the throne unceremoniously whipped from beneath him.

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