Below is a summary of the full article. Click here for the full version or go back to LFC Live.net

Arne Slot has made the transition from Feyenoord to Liverpool look as easy as pie.

Go back to 2010, though, and the Liverpool owners could hardly have made a worse choice when put in a similar position.

Things were not going well for Rafa Benitez by May 2010, but the Spaniard had still delivered Liverpool’s best moment for more than 20 years with the Champions League win of 2005.

With the club at a low ebb under George Gillett and Tom Hicks, Roy Hodgson was the man chosen to lead Liverpool into the post-Rafa era.

As Ryan Babel has now attested, it was a ‘terrible’ decision.

Photo by Clint Hughes/Getty Images

Hodgson was not a universally popular choice to manage Liverpool at the time he was appointed.

However, given his over-achievement with Fulham in the three years leading up to 2010, there was some logic behind his arrival.

MORE LIVERPOOL STORIES

But the highly experienced coach could not make it stick at Anfield and ultimately lasted only six months in the dugout.

And according to Babel, from the player’s side, the writing was on the wall for Hodgson almost immediately.

READ MORE: Brad Jones reveals Roy Hodgson did something ‘the players didn’t like’ while managing Liverpool

“The moment he set foot at Liverpool Football Club he was already under pressure,” Babel told The Obi One Podcast with former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel.

“Because Rafa Benitez had been sacked prior to that, so it was kind of like, someone needs to change things.”

“He was very old school, a different type of approach and I didn’t feel it from day one,” Babel admits.

I have to admit we didn’t necessarily have the best squad at the time.

But, yeah, it was terrible.”

Clearly, the problems at Liverpool in 2010 were not all of Hodgson’s making.

As Babel points out, the Liverpool squad had been depleted over the previous year.

Nevertheless, players like Paul Konchesky, Christian Poulsen and Milan Jovanovic coming in felt like pure Hodgson.

JoinedLeftGames PlayedGames WonGames DrawnGames LostWin %1st July 20108th January 201131139941.94%Roy Hodgson at Liverpool

The future England manager never ingratiated himself to the Liverpool fanbase, instead making regularly snarky comments and joking with then Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

It was a bad fit from day one.

But how terrible things were 15 years ago only serves to highlight just how far Liverpool have come.

Since replacing Hicks and Gillett, Fenway Sports Group have made some terrific decisions to lead the Reds into the big time once again.
For more news relating to Chelsea, visit our sister site Chelsea Latest Live.