Ahead of his emotional return to Anfield tomorrow a report in The Independent has claimed that Brendan Rodgers ‘was eyeing his next move’ within weeks of being appointed as Celtic manager.
‘Friction, frustration and broken promises: The inside story of Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool’ by Tony Evans provides a real insight into his time in charge of Liverpool that is far from the ‘wonderful human being’ image that Rodgers has carefully cultivated.
There is no doubt that he knows how to captivate an audience, after the soulless reign of Ronny Deila Celtic fans lapped up the buzzwords that were delivered sugar coated at every turn by the Irishman.
Slowly some cracks began to appear, Danny McGrain contradicted the drooling account given in Rodgers’ book about their first training ground encounter. The Clyde Tunnel story was always dubious as humble Brendan played up his human touch stopping just short of tales about how he walked on water.
The final fall-out with Celtic came in February this year, within 48 hours of managing Celtic to a win over Motherwell and taking training the next day he had decided to dedicate his life to Leicester City as he watched them in action at the King Power Stadium.
Evans goes underneath his reign at Anfield but also, interestingly claims:
At Celtic, he indicated to former colleagues that he was eyeing his next move within weeks of arriving in Glasgow.
Rodgers’ first few weeks, months and first full season at Celtic were one long story of success as the hoops completed an Invincible Treble including two 5-1 victories in the Glasgow derby.
With Lee Congerton appointed to oversee recruitment the wheels began to fall off, after signing Olivier Ntcham in the summer of 2017 central defence was left badly exposed with Marvin Compper and Jack Hendry signed in the January transfer window as well as Charly Musonda.
Evans review of the Anfield years is highly critical but very detailed with the biggest revelation being attempts to sell Jordan Henderson to Fulham- before he went on to captain Liverpool to victory in the Champions League.
His relationship with the club owners, the Fenway Sports Group, is best summed up by the transfer of Andy Carroll. While Rodgers was keen to move the striker on to West Ham in public he portrayed it as a move against his wishes by the club money men.
CLICK HERE to read The Independent report in full
