As far as job interviews go, Brendan Rodgers nailed it.
The Northern Irishman presented Liverpool’s principal owner John W Henry and chairman Tom Werner with a 180-page manifesto entitled ‘One Vision, One Club’.
The then Swansea City boss mapped out his blueprint for reviving the fortunes of a club which had finished the 2011-12 season eighth in the Premier League with just 52 points.
Rodgers spoke at length about “my culture, my philosophy, my game plan”. He vowed to deliver attractive, attacking football and to bring through young talent from the academy.
Henry and Werner were suitably wowed as they searched for a successor to Kenny Dalglish back in May 2012.
Not only were the Fenway Sports Group hierarchy convinced Rodgers was a better option than Roberto Martinez, who had previously been interviewed, but they were so determined to secure his services that they were prepared to abandon plans to also appoint a sporting director.
Liverpool had held talks with vastly experienced Dutch coach Louis van Gaal, who was out of work after parting company with Bayern Munich, about taking on the role. However, Rodgers made it clear he simply wasn’t prepared to operate in that kind of structure. He sought clarification on the issue from the owners on three separate occasions before finally agreeing to take over.
“I wanted to make sure that I would be in charge of football matters,” Rodgers admitted after his appointment was confirmed. “I know what makes me work well and that wouldn’t have been a model I would have succeeded in. It’s absolute madness if you are the manager of the club and someone else tells you to have that player. It doesn’t work.”
Yet that initial victory for Rodgers proved to be decidedly hollow. He never got the “total control” he craved. Rather than having a sporting director, Liverpool’s owners instead set up a transfer committee — a term created by Henry and one he ended up regretting. As well as Rodgers, it consisted of FSG president Mike Gordon, chief executive Ian Ayre, director of technical performance Michael Edwards, head of recruitment Dave Fallows and chief scout Barry Hunter.
The owners viewed it as a system that provided checks and balances — ensuring too much power wasn’t placed in the hands of a young coach. But it would prove to be an increasing source of friction throughout the manager’s Anfield reign. It felt like an uneasy compromise from the start. Neither Rodgers nor the owners got what they really wanted.
No-one was ever brought in against Rodgers’ will but he was regularly frustrated by a process which meant he had to try to convince others that a target met the club’s requirements and was worth pursuing.
There were times he was blocked from signing his first pick. For example, he wanted Ashley Williams and Ryan Bertrand, but got Mamadou Sakho and Alberto Moreno. Trust was an issue and within three-and-a-half years it had evaporated completely.
Liverpool Football Club in the summer of 2012 was a world away from its current status as champions of Europe and Premier League title contenders under Jurgen Klopp. In the three previous seasons they had finished seventh, sixth and eighth.
The appointment of Rodgers had divided opinion among supporters. Many felt that Dalglish had been unfairly dispensed with considering he had delivered the League Cup and reached the FA Cup final. Others wanted Rafa Benitez brought back.
Rodgers couldn’t point to a trophy-laden CV to alleviate fears about his suitability for the job. He walked into Anfield at the age of 39 with just three-and-a-half seasons of managerial experience under his belt. The highlight had been winning the Championship play-off final with Swansea. But even so, he made a positive first impression.
“I genuinely think that Liverpool is the heartland of football,” he said at his unveiling. “I promise I’ll fight for my life and for the people in this city.” Rodgers vowed to make a trip to Anfield “the longest 90 minutes of an opponent’s life”.
The soundbites kept coming. “You train dogs, I like to educate players”, “Every player I see as my own son”, “My world has been about creating rather than waiting”, “You can live without water for many days, but you can’t live for a second without hope”.
On the training ground, Rodgers was a breath of fresh air. He was hands-on and the players loved his innovative sessions. Although eyebrows were raised when he started quoting Latin in team meetings. ‘Per aspera ad astra (through adversity to the stars)’ was a phrase he used regularly.
In his first summer, Rodgers was tasked with off-loading high earners like Dirk Kuyt, Maxi Rodriguez, Alberto Aquilani, Craig Bellamy and Charlie Adam. The club adopted a policy of only paying significant fees for players aged 24 or under who would have a decent sell-on value.
“We do not expect miracles overnight,” said Henry, who wanted Rodgers to turn rough diamonds into polished gems.
Rodgers was given a transfer kitty of just £20 million, plus what was available from sales. He spent it on striker Fabio Borini and midfielder Joe Allen — both players he had previously worked with at Swansea. Borini, who scored just three goals for the club, was out of his depth and a £10.4 million flop. The owners initially felt that Allen’s £15 million release clause was too high but coughed up after Rodgers’ protests.
The “Welsh Xavi” tag bestowed by Rodgers on the Wales international did Allen no favours. “This boy is unique, he’s in love with the football. He is 5ft 6ins but in terms of being a footballer he is 7ft 6ins,” Rodgers raved. He couldn’t live up to his manager’s hype.
Brendan Rodgers with his new signing Joe Allen in 2012 (Photo: John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Rodgers was undoubtedly dealt a bad hand by the fact that prior to his appointment the club had already agreed to a six-part fly-on-the-wall documentary with Fox Soccer. It was the last thing a young manager getting to grips with a daunting new job needed. The cameras panned on to a large self-portrait of Rodgers hanging on the wall in his Formby home. It was manna from heaven for his critics. The reality was it had been a gift to him from a disabled fan in Swansea.
In another episode Rodgers was filmed speaking at a team meeting before the season kicked off. “I think there’s three players who will let us down this year — the cause, the fight, everything – and I have written them down already in these three envelopes. Make sure you are not in one of the envelopes.”
Full-back Glen Johnson was among those who stared back, stunned.
“I remember I was looking around like ‘is he fucking serious?’,” Johnson said. “You could bet your bottom dollar all those envelopes were empty. After that it was a ‘trying to get a reaction’ sort of speech.”
It wasn’t original. It was a psychological ploy straight out of Sir Alex Ferguson’s old handbook.
Rodgers happily off-loaded Andy Carroll on loan to West Ham in the belief it would free up funds for him to bring in more firepower. He wanted Clint Dempsey from Fulham but the owners refused to pay £6 million for a 29-year-old who was in the final year of his contract.
Rodgers was prepared to offer Jordan Henderson in a swap deal and informed the midfielder prior to a Europa League clash away to Hearts that he could leave. Henderson went back to his room, shed some tears, rang his dad and vowed to stay and fight and prove Rodgers wrong.
Dempsey ended up joining Tottenham instead and to Rodgers’ disgust Liverpool failed to sign anyone. When Borini then broke his foot, Luis Suarez was the club’s only fit striker for half a season.
Henry responded to fans’ fury after the window closed with a 800-word open letter, insisting “we will invest to succeed” but not in “expensive, short-term quick fixes”.
By then Fenway Sports Group had brought in Jen Chang as the club’s new director of communications. As Liverpool made their worst start to a season in over a century, the former writer and editor at Sports Illustrated was busy briefing reporters that Rodgers was himself culpable, having turned down the opportunity to sign Daniel Sturridge due to concerns over his attitude.
Chang, who had asked for a dossier to be drawn up on every journalist who covered the club regularly, was gone within six months. Accused of threatening a Liverpool fan who had set up a spoof blog posing as a journalist, he left the club by “mutual consent” and returned to the States.
By the halfway point of 2012-13, Rodgers’ side sat 10th in the table with just 25 points. Nuri Sahin’s loan from Real Madrid was cut short with the Turkey international blaming his lack of impact on Rodgers playing him out of position. Joe Cole was also off-loaded.
Reinforcements did arrive that January in the form of Sturridge for £12 million from Chelsea after Rodgers was convinced about his willingness to knuckle down and commit to the cause. The transfer committee had also pushed the claims of Philippe Coutinho, who was snapped up from Inter Milan for £8.5 million.
Their impact helped propel the club forward as they climbed to finish seventh with 61 points.
Rodgers launched the career of a teenage Raheem Sterling. “I believe a young player will run through a barbed wire fence for you. An older player looks for a hole in the fence,” he said.
Suarez delivered a series of stunning performances en route to becoming the first Liverpool player since Fernando Torres in 2008 to reach the 30-goal mark. However, the Uruguayan was hit with a 10-game ban that April after biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic.
Jamie Carragher retired on his terms, waving goodbye to Anfield after 16 years of remarkable service. Rodgers had known shortly after taking over about the one-club man’s plans but had reneged on an initial promise to find room for Carragher on his backroom staff.
“He changed his mind and brought Mike Marsh in from the Academy, which is not a problem,” Carragher said. “I always think how would that have worked for me going forward, and would that have got me the bug in terms of coaching?”
There was something strikingly different about Rodgers approaching his second season at the helm.
He’d had his teeth whitened and embarked on a health kick, shifting three stones in weight, with a tailor called to his Melwood office to adjust his rack of suits accordingly.
It was used as a stick to beat him with — a sign of vanity. But he had lost both of his parents to cancer during his time at Swansea and with the stress of life at Liverpool he was determined to take better care of himself. He would regularly go running around the streets of West Derby, close to the club’s training base.
The summer of 2013 was far from straightforward. Liverpool failed with big money moves for Diego Costa and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. They just didn’t have the pulling power.
Suarez tried to force through a move to Arsenal, who had offered £40 million plus £1 in the mistaken belief that would trigger a release clause in his contract. He publicly accused Rodgers of breaking a promise to let him leave and was banished to train on his own.
Rodgers was heavily indebted to Steven Gerrard, who stepped in and defused a difficult situation.
Suarez later revealed: “Steven told me ‘I promise that if you stay this year you’re going to take off and next year you’ll go to Bayern, Barcelona, Real Madrid or whichever one you want, but stay this year because you won’t be better off at Arsenal’.
“His words convinced me in that moment. They came from a person who cared for me. They were words from a true captain.”
The arrival of Kolo Toure (free transfer), Iago Aspas (£7 million), Luis Alberto (£6.8 million, Simon Mignolet (£9 million) and Mamadou Sakho (£15 million) — coupled with loan deals for Aly Cissokho and Victor Moses — was hardly a major show of ambition.
Stewart Downing was among those to depart — being informed by Ayre that a £6 million fee with West Ham had been agreed shortly after Rodgers had told him he was still part of his plans.
There were other occasions when players felt his man-management could have been better. Daniel Agger’s relationship with him deteriorated over the course of 2013-14 when he didn’t seem to be able to get a straight answer about why his game-time had dwindled.
“I think Brendan is an incredibly talented manager,” Agger said. “You can’t take that away from him. He’s good in the way he trains and he is clever in the way he sets the team up.
“The things that went wrong between us is that I say things the way they are and I expect others to treat me the same way.”
Yet despite all that, Rodgers masterminded the most unlikely Liverpool title challenge in history.
Those who try to rewrite history by claiming that 2013-14 was all down to the mesmerising brilliance of Suarez are way off the mark. ‘Make Us Dream’ read the banner on the Kop and Rodgers certainly did that. He created a system which got the best out of Suarez and Sturridge, who plundered 55 goals between them.
Rodgers gave Gerrard a new lease of life by reinventing him as a deep-lying playmaker. Henderson, Coutinho and Sterling all blossomed in the roles they were given.
His astute tactical tweaks paid off as he switched between 4-3-3 and a 4-4-2 diamond with Sterling at the tip. He got the best out of the likes of Martin Skrtel and Jon Flanagan. The whole was greater than the sum of its parts.
Arsenal arrived at Anfield as league leaders but found themselves 4-0 down inside 20 minutes and begging for mercy. “That was as explosive as it gets,” declared Gerrard.
Tottenham were routed 5-0 at White Hart Lane, Manchester United were thrashed 3-0 at Old Trafford and Manchester City were beaten 3-2 in a thriller at Anfield. Rodgers’ name was chanted incessantly as attacking masterclasses papered over defensive vulnerability.
A run of 11 successive league victories put him on the brink of Anfield immortality. Seven points from their final three games and Rodgers would have been the man to end Liverpool’s 24-year wait for the top-flight crown. Had that achievement been realised, maybe a statue would have been built in his name.
But then the cruel hand of fate intervened. Gerrard slipped against Chelsea and Demba Ba made him pay.
Rodgers was criticised for being naïve and adopting a gung-ho approach on a day when a point would have kept the title race in Liverpool’s hands. “I sensed an over-confidence in Brendan’s team talks,” Gerrard wrote in his autobiography My Story. “We played into Chelsea’s hands.”
In truth that team only had one way to play and it had served them well until that point. Their subsequent late capitulation at Crystal Palace after being 3-0 up gave City the spoils but the damage had already been done against Chelsea.
Liverpool stood accused of ‘bottling it’ but they won 12 of their last 14 games. Rodgers was left to curse the absence of Henderson during the run-in as he served a three-match ban. It was remarkable that they even came close to glory having shipped 50 league goals.
Rodgers had surpassed all expectations. He thumped his chest proudly in response to the acclaim of the Kop as the curtain came down on an unforgettable campaign.
“Yes, we can make the final step,” he said defiantly. “We won’t go into next season with doubts.”
James Pearce