How Brendan Rodgers' relationship with Liverpool owners FSG soured
by Tony Adams
It started with a Year Zero philosophy and ended with nothing but regrets. Brendan Rodgers has left Liverpool in worse shape than he found it in the spring of 2012. Success for the club and the American owners, Fenway Sports Group, seems more remote than ever. A significant overhaul of Anfield is needed.
When Kenny Dalglish was summoned to Boston and dismissed to make way for Rodgers, Liverpool were holders of the League Cup and could boast two genuine stars in the team in the shape of Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez. Now, the trophy room contains only relics of another age. In the dressing room, things look even more dispiriting.
The next manager will find no world-class talent available when he meets the squad. He will be hopeful that Daniel Sturridge will stay fit long enough to fulfill his potential and that Philippe Coutinho will stop flickering and shine with more consistency. Rodgers inherited Pepe Reina and Jamie Carragher -- added to the two superstars, they formed a spine for the team. The incoming boss will have to search every nook and cranny of the old ground to find some backbone. There has been little sign of any on the pitch this season.
When FSG bought Liverpool, the new owners were astounded by the way football works: how unprofessional it is in many areas in comparison with American sports. They were amazed by the rank stupidity of some of its common practices, the rampant venality and the unscientific approach to recruitment. They decided to take a fresh approach. The youthful Rodgers would lead them into a new era.
Rodgers refused to work with a director of football. It was his first mistake. The next big one came at the end of the transfer window in summer 2012. He sent Andy Carroll out on loan after being expressly told by the owners that the big Geordie could not leave until "a couple of additional forwards" had arrived. The double move, sending Carroll to West Ham United and scuppering the initial Sturridge deal, left the squad short of strikers. More important, it caused fury in FSG's Boston headquarters. The rage increased further when Rodgers told the press that Carroll's departure was "99.9 percent about finance." It was the first time the manager sent blame in FSG's direction. It would not be the last.
The Northern Irishman tried to pull off a power play that even Jose Mourinho might have blanched at. He thought it would bring him Clint Dempsey. It brought him the transfer committee.
To make sure the chaos of August 2012 never happened again, FSG brought in a system of checks and balances. It took power away from the manager. It also doomed him to work with players he may not have naturally signed.
The 42-year-old used the infamous committee as a scapegoat on a number of occasions. It became easy to blame recruitment failures on others. It is not quite that simple. Rodgers' eye for talent is questionable and FSG were never going to bet the future on their manager's choices. However, some of Liverpool's methods of grading players appear equally bewildering.
In the January window of 2014, with the 16-game unbeaten league run that would produce an unlikely challenge for the title already underway, one of Liverpool's owners had a conversation with an acquaintance. The person involved expressed surprise that the club were trying to sign Mohamed Salah at a time when the squad was heavily stocked with wingers. Rodgers was making it clear that he wanted a defender. The answer was simple, the FSG man said, there were no defenders out there.
This was met with some surprise. The acquaintance suggested that defensive players were the cheapest and easiest to find. Thirty-goal strikers are rare. Full-backs and centre-halves are more plentiful. The owner nodded sagely and went away to ask the question of his scouts. He reiterated later that they had reaffirmed "over and over" their opinion. Too often, it has felt like Liverpool have not addressed the team's immediate needs. The same is true of their fixation with buying younger players. No one seems to be balancing potential with experience, callowness with leadership qualities.
Any sympathy for Rodgers should be tempered by the way he used the dysfunction in recruitment to deflect from his own deficiencies. The attempts to turn the blame on the owners over the past few days may have hastened his exit. His "give me the tools" comments after the Aston Villa game and "I will do my best with what I'm working with" before the derby at Goodison would have hardened attitudes in Boston. Finger-pointing in public is unseemly.
The problem for FSG and the next manager is making sure they do not fall into the same trap. They need to be working with the same purpose. Liverpool cannot afford to spend so much -- nearly £300 million -- and get so little in return. It may be that FSG think a new man can make this squad into serious top-four contenders. There is little evidence to back this up.
Anfield needs a change of direction. A strong director of football would help. The leading candidates for the manager's job -- Jurgen Klopp and Carlo Ancelotti -- enjoy working in such a structure. Mike Gordon, the FSG president, has adopted a de facto director of football role but his experience in the game is limited.
There is some truth in the departing manager's comments. Liverpool have been drifting since Suarez's departure. The collective directionless in recruitment should be addressed and responsibility apportioned.
The arrival of a new man should be a time to take stock. Next week marks the fifth anniversary of FSG's takeover and it is time for the owners to prove that the harsh lessons of that half-decade have been taken on board. The club has an every-man-for-himself feel about it at the moment. The best-run clubs have a tight troika of command with the manager, director of football and chief executive working closely together and taking responsibility. At the moment, Liverpool have none of those three. If the club continue with the same policies, there will be only more regrets and zero chance of the new manager turning it around.
