It’s proved a long seven months for Antrim manager Brendan Rodgers since Liverpool were pipped to the league title by Manchester City, writes Garry Doyle
IT is hard to believe that just seven months have passed since Brendan Rodgers was lauded as the next Jose Mourinho.
The self-confidence he displayed then is now being viewed with embarrassment. And rather than being regarded as a new Mourinho, he is seen more as a real-life David Brent.
You wonder how it has come to this, especially when you remember how the Antrim man had galvanised a city in the spring of this year, masterminding an 11-game winning streak which briefly placed Liverpool top of the Premier League.
Five years had passed since Liverpool last finished in the top two and five seasons since they had last qualified for the Champions League.
Yet here they were, guided by an Ulsterman to the brink of their first title since 1990, allowing thoughts to turn to the bigger picture.
If Rodgers was, indeed, the sporting messiah, what impact would this have on other Irish coaches and managers?
At a time when the Premier League is as equally cosmopolitan as it is ruthless, more Irish leadership is desperately needed.
You only have to look at Ipswich and Mick McCarthy for this. He has six Irish internationals on his books.
Can you imagine a Chilean, Portuguese, French, Uruguayan, Scottish or even English manager shopping in the same market?
In the history of the Premier League, it has rarely happened.
Everton, courtesy of their Spanish manager, Roberto Martinez, has four Irish internationals, two of whom he signed. Hull City, similarly, are stocked up with Irishmen but this has happened by chance and not design.
With McCarthy, and previously Roy Keane, there was a tendency to buy the players they knew.
So Irish footballers flocked to Irish managers and everyone benefited — the players, the club and by extension, the international team.
Rodgers may be Irish but he has never been particularly attracted to an Irish player-base.
Still that cannot take away from the fact he is a pathfinder.
“We need Brendan to succeed,” says Sean Dyche, the Englishman in charge of Burnley. “All young Irish and British managers need him to do well so that Chairmen can see that they don’t need to recruit from abroad, that there is talent on their doorstep.”
Rodgers aside, few other Irishmen have done well in management. McCarthy has but is pigeon-holed as a firefighter who you bring in when costs and expectations are low. Keane excelled initially at Sunderland before losing his way. Martin O’Neill certainly succeeded wherever he went but the Sunderland job unjustifiably scarred his reputation. And David O’Leary, who took Leeds to the Champions League semis, has not had a job worth the name in eight years.
“An Irish manager making a name for himself in England is good for Irish football. No doubt,” said Niall Quinn, who knows the boardroom every bit as well as the dressing-room.
When life was going smoothly for Rodgers, the only question being asked about him then was whether he would get a new contract.
And Chairmen, quietly, may have been asking, ‘is there another Rodgers lurking around that we haven’t discovered yet?’
But everything has gone sour. It all seems to stem from two huge mistakes. The first was to open his mouth; the second to open the club’s wallet.
This summer Rodgers forked out £115million on seven different players, three of them from Southampton, who kicked up a bit of a fuss as Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert and Dejan Lovren walked out the door.
In response, Rodgers couldn’t stop himself from snapping back.
“Southampton don’t have to sell, they have a choice,” he said. “Maybe their objectives have changed. They were looking to be a Champions League club, I believe.”
That was August. This is December. Southampton have punched way above their weight since while Liverpool have lacked a knockout blow.
“Well, we lost Suarez (to Barcelona) and Sturridge (to injury). When you take away 80 per cent of your goals, there will be an adjustment period,” he said. And he’s right. Yet wrong. Suarez and Sturridge contributed 61 per cent of Liverpool’s goals last season. Altering the mathematics to prove his point has backfired.
So too did his argument that Manchester United would struggle to recruit the world’s most coveted players on the back of missing out on a Champions League spot. “The best players want to play in the best competition. Any club will suffer the same when they’re not in there. It will hurt you, and United will know that.”
What we all know now is that United got Radamel Falcao, Angel Di Maria, Daley Blind and Ander Herrera whereas Liverpool spent way over the odds on Adam Lallana (£25million), Mario Balotelli (£16million), Dejan Lovren (£20million) as well as giving generous amounts totaling £64million to Bayer Leverkusen for Emre Can, to Benfica for Lazor Markovic, to Lille for Divock Origi and Sevilla for Alberto Moreno.
Initial targets, Falcao and Alexis Sanchez, ended up elsewhere.
All of this has come back to haunt him as results have compared unfavourably with the 2013/14 season. To an extent, he is a victim of his own success. No one gave Liverpool a prayer last year yet they nearly delivered on Rodgers’ fantastic dream, playing breath-taking football en route to their second-place finish.
This year they have struggled to finish at all in front of goal and even when Rodgers has made sensible decisions, like resting Steven Gerrard during a particularly hectic schedule, the scrutiny has been relentless.
Liverpool’s fans, meanwhile, are far from pleased with the club’s patchy, and at times, abysmal recruitment policy. Rodgers can’t be blamed for the historic mistakes but he has had five transfer windows to address this issue and has bought more duds than talent.
Nor are they pleased that six months have dragged out since Gerrard — the man who scored key goals in Liverpool’s UEFA Cup, League Cup, FA Cup and Champions League wins during his Kop career and who stayed true to the club in times of crises — first suggested he wanted a new contract.
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