Dalglish enjoys latest challenge

Kenny Dalglish has admitted that he is not very good at being unemployed and has found a new direction since parting company with Celtic.

Kenny Dalglish has admitted that he is not very good at being unemployed and has found a new direction since parting company with Celtic.

Dalglish has been out of work since severing his links with the Parkhead club during the summer following a desperately disappointing return to Scotland. The 49-year-old probably does not need to work, but is now putting his name, face and experience to use by starting a career in the expanding field of sports media rights.

Dalglish has been recruited as a non-executive director by the London-based Eye Group, which is buying up the rights to various sports in anticipation for an explosion in media and internet demand for coverage in the coming years.

Dalglish admits that he is something of a novice when it comes to business matters, but he is keen to learn from the people around him and, perhaps more importantly, to have a new challenge ahead of him.

"When you're not working, I can understand why people who are unemployed take a severe jolt in their pride and just feel as if they should be working," he said.

"I've been there before a couple of times, and I just don't feel comfortable with not working. I really enjoy what I have, but it's nice to get up in the morning with a purpose.

"I've never been financially orientated, I just wanted to go out and work. I'm not saying I know much about the business side, but then it could be a new education for me. Maybe I've found my vocation now," he added, with a smile. "I'm not a member of the chartered accountants' association or anything, but it's sports-related and I've been about a wee bit, so you pick things up.

"Anybody who takes pride in themselves, whatever job they do, feels a responsibility to do it to the best of their ability, and I'll certainly try to do that. There are a lot of people around me who I can pick things up from, and who knows, I may be able to swap my sports bag for a briefcase."

Dalglish will not rule himself out of another job in football but is content in his new role for the time being. He said: "I'm enjoying things and involved with this but you never know what's going to come up."

Dalglish enjoyed a hugely successful playing career with Celtic, Liverpool and Scotland, for whom he won 102 caps, before tasting glory as a manager at both Anfield and Blackburn Rovers.

Dalglish's time at Newcastle United and then back at Celtic brought fewer tangible rewards, but he insists he has no regrets. "I've been a lot more fortunate than many other people," he said. "I've done my best wherever I've been and enjoyed many parts of it. Perhaps there are parts that I would have enjoyed more if things had been better, but I've still enjoyed them, and now I'm enjoying this."

Dalglish's role with the company will be to help secure rights to different sporting events as an instantly recognisable personality, and his contacts within the field in which he has made his name could prove invaluable.