Unloved and now mocked at Anfield, Roy Hodgson says he is still waiting to hear the famous support of Liverpool's followers. He may be waiting some time.
Liverpool's new owner John W Henry and his Boston-based cohorts must also be pondering the level of backing they can continue to give a manager whose faltering reign is now provoking an almost mutinous response for a fanbase famed for unswerving loyalty.
Hodgson had the silent treatment from The Kop for six months following his arrival from Fulham. When the 63-year-old was finally acknowledged, he received the sort of recognition he could do without.
As Liverpool slipped to a 1-0 home defeat against Wolves, the kind of , Anfield delivered its most damning verdict yet, serving up ironic chants of "Hodgson For England" and adopting the traditional default position of calling for the return of Kenny Dalglish.
The fact that suggests no amount of counselling or consolation will repair this broken relationship.
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Upton Park
Avram Grant has safely negotiated - but the fourth may yet be the defining moment of his brief reign.
that he needed to get at least one win from meetings with Blackburn Rovers, Fulham and Everton to maintain their faith.
ensured Grant recorded a grand total of five points from these decisive dates. West Ham's wider context, however, still presents cause for concern.
The failure to hang on to a lead handed to them by Everton defender Tony Hibbert's second successive own goal at Upton Park - which constituted West Ham's only shot on target - means they stay in the Premier League's relegation zone.
Grant spoke with guarded optimism about the future and his plans for the January transfer window, but the manager who has already had one "Save Our Season" game this term will usher in 2011 with another when West Ham meet fellow strugglers Wolves at home on New Year's Day.
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The Emirates
As , Carlo Ancelotti confessed Chelsea's season has slumped into a deep sleep.
It was only seven months ago, at the end of his first campaign at Stamford Bridge, that .
And yet, after an abject and emphatic defeat at the hands of an Arsenal side they have made their personal playthings in the past, Chelsea's coach was fending off questions about his future as he admitted it was not just his fading team that needed to wake swiftly from their current nightmare.
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Villa Park
Whatever Harry Redknapp received in his stocking on Christmas Day, it is unlikely to have brought him as much pleasure as the gift Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy delivered to him on the last day of August.
is the line Levy reportedly used when he telephoned Redknapp at 4pm on deadline day to reveal he might be able to wrap up a deal with Real Madrid for .
After a mad dash through red tape and technical problems - and Van der Vaart's match-winning display at Aston Villa on Boxing Day confirms that this is the gift that just keeps giving.
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As Rafael Benitez celebrates Christmas at home on the Wirral peninsula following his exit from Inter Milan, an unlikely theory is formulating in the minds of some Liverpool supporters.
It is a theory that may even formulate in the mind of Benitez himself - namely that a departure laced with acrimony after only six months at the San Siro might actually be a road that leads him back to Anfield.
For all the turmoil and mediocrity of Benitez's final season at Liverpool, there is no question still holds a section, however small, of the club's support in his thrall.
However, if Benitez and his admirers retain some distant hope that the Spaniard could some day reclaim his old job, it might be best if they think again.
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Manchester City's ability to turn logic on its head has acquired legendary status. At Eastlands it is always dawn before the dark. Give them a mile and they will take an inch.
So, it was little surprise that the opportunity to top the table at Christmas for the first time in 81 years after that looked set in stone was too much good news for one day.
City's supporters always treat such riches as if they come with a health warning attached. And so it proved as the opportunity to strike a psychological blow by reaching the Premier League summit with victory over Everton was emphatically wasted as .
It was not an experience that will prove terminal for City's chances of presenting themselves as serious title challengers, but it was certainly a deflating one.
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As Arsenal's players and management formed an orderly queue to declare their desire to face Barcelona in the Champions League, an old adage played on many lips: "Be careful what you wish for."
The bold declarations also carried a hollow sound, coming as they did after Arsenal had edged unconvincingly into the last 16 with victory in their final group game against Partizan Belgrade.
And who can forget last season's dismantling of the Gunners by Lionel Messi and co?
Inevitably, side manager Arsene Wenger had already labelled as "super favourites" to reclaim the Champions League they won in such style against Manchester United in Rome in 2009.
Arsenal have certainly been handed the toughest draw of all four Premier League representatives. Spurs will be severely examined by another trip to the San Siro when they face AC Milan, while Manchester United and Chelsea will be hopeful of progress against Marseille and FC Copenhagen.
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Sam Allardyce had no inkling of what was lurking around the corner only nine days ago when Blackburn Rovers rose to eighth place in the Premier League with .
Aston Villa had been beaten in Blackburn's previous home game and Allardyce was revelling, as usual, in what he effectively regarded as a career-long struggle for managerial acceptance.
He admitted: "We never get credit for things, but that's the way it is. We are just a small town club enjoying ourselves by winning football matches. The fortress of Ewood Park is back and the walls are getting higher."
He may have at least expected credit inside that Lancashire fortress, but the walls were not high enough to prevent .
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When Carlos Tevez was unveiled on what was to become an iconic "Welcome To Manchester" poster, he was being paraded as the symbol of a new era at Eastlands.
Not only had Manchester City demonstrated the financial muscle and ambition to tempt him away from Old Trafford, they had the audacity to take their confidence to the streets and taunt the neighbours with their latest purchase.
Tevez became an instant hero simply by crossing Manchester - then cemented the status by scoring 39 goals in 60 games to lead what the club's cash-laden Abu Dhabi hierarchy hoped would be a revolution.
How ironic then that Tevez has now effectively told the club it is they who are welcome to Manchester, .
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St James' Park
Alan Pardew's welcome to Newcastle United was one of as opposed to naked hostility - apart from when one irate fan craned his neck towards the new manager and shouted: "Sort it out Curbishley."
Pardew might have embraced this case of mistaken identity had he concluded another tempestuous week on Tyneside with defeat in his first game against Liverpool after stepping in to succeed the .
Instead, as Newcastle's fans celebrated a in the traditional watering holes of The Strawberry and Shearer's Bar, Pardew left St. James' Park a much happier place than he had found it when he arrived hours earlier.
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Alan Pardew walks into Newcastle United with his personal rating plunging off a cliff and an atmosphere of simmering unrest swirling around St James' Park.
Pardew will have got the hint that the welcome mat is unlikely to be thrust out before him on Tyneside after.
He had the rather scant consolation of knowing he was kept off the bottom of the pile by his West Ham United successor Alan Curbishley, who gathered in 14 backers as opposed to Pardew's 15. Not exactly the ideal start.
almost represents a life sentence when set alongside previous regimes, while the acrimony that still surrounds Chris Hughton's sacking will make for an uncomfortable backdrop to his first game in charge against Liverpool at St James' Park on Saturday night.
No pressure then but, at a time when he needs all the friends he can get, .
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The Emirates
Arsene Wenger joked that the media may prefer to join Arsenal on a trip to Spain in the last 16 of the Champions League rather than head for Germany.
The Frenchman must hope the plane tickets take his side to the latter.
Wenger saw the Gunners maintain a proud record by reaching the last 16 for the 11th successive season with . But an unconvincing showing in an average group puts them in peril in this competition.
The prize for finishing second behind Shakhtar Donetsk will be a meeting with either Real Madrid or Barcelona, the "super favourites" as Wenger labelled them, or a tie against one of the German representatives, Bayern Munich or Schalke 04.
, reality suggests the Germans represents an easier road to progress.
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Anfield
Gerard Houllier felt the warmth of The Kop amid sub-zero temperatures as he made his return to Anfield - but was soon experiencing an icy blast of harsh reality as Liverpool inflicted a damaging defeat on his Aston Villa side.
who still respect the successes he brought them during a six-year tenure. He touched the "This Is Anfield" sign as he made his way to the familiar territory of the technical area and enjoyed the strains of "You'll Never Walk Alone".
Sadly for Houllier, .
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Chris Hughton has brought dignity, stability and a respectable Premier League placing to Newcastle United - so it should be no surprise that his reward from owner Mike Ashley is the sack.
that seems only comfortable with chaos and a hierarchy that has a vastly inflated sense of Newcastle's standing in the game.
Ashley's unsure touch on football matters has surfaced in the wayward decision-making of the past but, short of pleading with Kevin Keegan to return for a third term of office, few have been as unfathomable as the decision to remove Hughton less than eight months after the 51-year-old former Tottenham and Republic of Ireland defender took them back to the top tier.
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Ewood Park
Sam Allardyce admitted defeat after victory. No-one, he insists, will ever give Blackburn Rovers or their manager the credit they deserve.
This is not strictly true. Allardyce, for one, is never slow to talk up his own talents or the achievements of his players. In the absence of what he regards as their due from elsewhere, perhaps he is right to do so.
For a manager who is unlikely to ever take charge of one of the elite Premier League clubs, Allardyce cuts an oddly divisive figure in the court of public opinion.
From the methods he employs to his very obvious refusal to indulge in false modesty, , Allardyce provokes a reaction.
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St Andrew's, Birmingham
in Fifa's Zurich hotel at the very moment the game was being dragged back into the dark ages in Birmingham.
With desperate timing, as England's 2018 World Cup bid team were putting the finishing touches to their pitch ahead of what they hope will be a momentous day, .
The high-powered team, lobbying late into the night to persuade Fifa's voters of England's merits as a country to which they can entrust the future of their showpiece, will have shuddered at the images that would have been flashed to Switzerland.
Images from a bygone age - or so we thought.
A mass pitch invasion, confrontational scenes, seats ripped out of stands and massed ranks of police standing between two sets of supporters.
If England's opponents in the race for 2018 needed one final piece of ammunition to use against them, the shameful events that unfolded in Birmingham provided it.
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