Brendan Rodgers was relieved of his duties by Liverpool yesterday. After so much initial promise, one more managerial career came to an end at Anfield.
While Liverpool board is on the lookout for Rodgers’ replacement, let’s take a look at Brendan Rodgers’ journey in the highest tier of English football.
Brendan Rodgers’ first claim to fame came in the 2010-11 season with Swansea City. In his first season with the South Wales club, Rodgers won the play-off for the promotion to the Premier League and as a result Swansea became the first Welsh club to win the promotion to the Premier League.
Rodgers’s Swansea excelled everyone’s expectations in their debut Premier League season. Despite many people predicting relegation for the Welsh club, they impressed everyone with their performance.
Swansea picked up points against the likes of Liverpool, Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea. They also defeated Arsenal at Liberty Stadium in January. Subsequently, Rodgers earned his first Premier League Manager of the Month Award. Swansea finished in a respectable position of eleventh in Premier League with 47 points.
Rodgers started attracting attention from other clubs following his impressive season with Swansea. On 1 June 2012, he joined Liverpool on a three-year deal following the departure of Kenny Daglish.
Rodgers’ debut season at Anfield failed to live up to the pres-season expectations. Reds finished in the seventh position in Premier League, one better than last season under Kenny Daglish. They also bowed to Oldham Athletic in the fourth round of FA Cup and to Rodgers’ previous club Swansea in the fourth round of League Cup.
Liverpool started the 2013-14 season under Rodgers in some fashion. This season would eventually propel Rodgers into the Liverpool folklore. He was named the Premier League Manager of the Month for August 2013 as the Reds begun their season with three wins on the trot.
The trio of Luis Suarez, Daniel Sturridge, and Raheem Sterling wrecked havoc on defenders as the Reds scored 101 goals in the League. It was club’s highest since the 1895–96 season and the third-highest in Premier League history.
After a run of 11 wins in the second half of the season, Liverpool led the table and were favorites to win the title before their home clash against Chelsea at Anfield on 27th April. Reds lost this game 2-0 to Blues after a Gerrard’s slip and lost the advantage in the title race to Man City. This defeat proved costly, and Man City eventually won the League title. Rodgers came agonizingly close to achieving history with Liverpool, but it was not meant to be. Though he won LMA Manager of The Year Award and signed a new deal with the club tying him to the club till 2018.
During the following summer, Luis Suarez departed to Barcelona, and Rodgers lost Sturridge to injuries for a major part of the season. This season proved to be the undoing of Rodgers at Anfield. Despite the major summer spending spree, his team failed to impress. The Reds bowed out of the Champions League in the group stage and out of Europa League in the round of 32.
After the heights of last season, Liverpool ended up at disappointing sixth in Premier League. Their only hope of landing a trophy ended when they lost to Aston Villa in FA Cup semi-final at Wembley Stadium.
This result meant Rodgers became the first manager at Anfield since the 1950s not to win a trophy after three seasons in charge.
Another summer of substantial investment in transfer market followed, but the results didn’t improve. And finally after an underwhelming start to the season, Rodgers was eventually relieved of his duties by Liverpool board on October 4, 2015.
