Brendan Rodgers may be the right man for Liverpool but the process of his appointment has been far from straightforward
The most critical appointment in Liverpool's recent history was how the club's managing director, Ian Ayre, described the search for Kenny Dalglish's successor when it commenced two weeks ago. In that context, if not the Twitter age, the process has been swift, productive but far from painless for Fenway Sports Group as the stark reality of Liverpool's regression has confronted the club's owners en route to anointing Brendan Rodgers.
At 39, having overseen Swansea City's elevation to the Premier League, their development as a team with supreme confidence on the ball and all on a modest budget, the man from Carnlough on the Antrim coast represents the manager that John W Henry and Tom Werner, Liverpool's principal owner and chairman respectively, envisaged for Liverpool when they gained control 19 months ago.
Rodgers also represents the clean slate the club desperately needs. It is required not purely after a season when Liverpool's reputation deteriorated on and off the pitch but following a five-year period in which, from Rafael Benítez's attack on transfer policy after defeat in the 2007 Champions League final to the appointment of Roy Hodgson and consequential need to rehire Dalglish, with £35m written off on the ghost of a new stadium along the way, the pernicious influence of Tom Hicks and George Gillett has lingered. The effect of the previous regime, of squandering £120m on mostly modest talent under FSG and of Dalglish's failure to mount a challenge for the Champions League places last season, has all been felt in the turmoil of the past fortnight.
When Liverpool's owners last started anew with a manager – not the interim board whose priority was to sell the club and replaced Benítez with Hodgson, or even FSG who had little choice but to give Dalglish a permanent contract – they had the option of the two most promising young managers in Europe. Benítez had just won the Spanish title and Uefa Cup with Valencia and José Mourinho the Portuguese championship plus Champions League with Porto. Eight years on it was a straight fight between the trophy-less managers of Wigan Athletic and Swansea, who finished 15th and 11th in the Premier League last season respectively.
FSG should be congratulated for following their own instincts in pursing Roberto Martínez and Rodgers, their ultimately brave choice as manager and for resisting pressure to make another populist appointment. But the process has not shown Liverpool's owners in the most convincing light, however inevitable are the words "he was always our first choice" when Rodgers is officially unveiled at Anfield.
The reason Rodgers rejected their approach for an interview in the first place stemmed from a reluctance to be part of Liverpool's beauty parade for a new manager, with a host of candidates approached within days of Dalglish's departure before FSG would settle on a short-list. Swansea's manager said no to, pertinently, "the current opportunity" at Liverpool, Frank de Boer declined an approach to leave Ajax and likewise the coveted Jürgen Klopp at Borussia Dortmund. Pep Guardiola and Fabio Capello were also on the wish-list and that proved a fitting description. Liverpool have also suffered the embarrassment of their daily business being revealed to the world by the Wigan chairman, Dave Whelan. Henry invited Martínez to meet him in Miami last Thursday then left the Wigan manager dangling. Martínez has not heard from Liverpool for days.
Progress was made on appointing Louis van Gaal as head of a new management structure at Anfield, albeit the idea of installing a sporting director and a new manager independently appeared optimistic at best. Now, through a combination of both Rodgers' and Martínez's refusal to work under a sporting director, and Van Gaal's inevitable request for overall control in his role, that careful, considered plan to take Liverpool forwards may be compromised. Pep Segura, the former Barcelona coach installed as technical director of the Liverpool academy by Benítez, is in line for promotion.Liverpool's decline has not rendered them completely obsolete to Champions League winning coaches, of course, and Benítez, backed by many fans and players, craved the opportunity to complete his "unfinished business" at Anfield. Only on Tuesday, Pepe Reina told Radio Marca: "For many of my colleagues and me, Rafa Benítez would be the ideal candidate. It is true I'm not objective, it is the coach who most shaped me. He is the best." But it is time to start afresh. Read More
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