Brendan Rodgers Reveals When He Found Out He'd Been Sacked by Liverpool
By Ross Jackson
Brendan Rodgers has lifted the lid on the phone call with the Liverpool owners that ended his Reds career.
The current-Leicester boss spent over three years on Merseyside, coming agonisingly close to guiding the club to their maiden Premier League title in 2014. However, after missing out to Manchester City by just two points, Liverpool struggled to a disappointing sixth-placed finish the following season.
Rodgers departed the club in October 2015 after a poor start to the campaign, and the former Liverpool man admitted the appointment of Jürgen Klopp just four days after his dismissal was probably already confirmed, though he insisted he holds no ill feelings towards his former employers.
"There were a few stories but I didn't know a thing,” Rodgers told The Beautiful Game Podcast. “Clearly the decision was made but I wasn't aware of it.
"The first I spoke to the ownership was with Mike Gordon on the drive back home after the game. When I arrived at the training ground, I got in the car and I was driving home and I got the call from Mike. That was the first time I knew. I thanked them for it, for the experience, I knew where they were coming from and we parted on good terms. We both moved on."
Despite the club languishing in tenth position in the Premier League when Rodgers departed, he looks back on his time at Anfield with fond memories. In spite of a turbulent final season, he pinpoints the defeat to Aston Villa in the 2015 FA Cup semi-final as the catalyst for his sacking.
"I had a wonderful experience," he added. "The first two years in particular of building towards that run that we had. We then lost one of the real catalysts of the team. The third year I found, from a coaching perspective, we weren't doing well then we changed it and went on a run and came back into it.
"But at the end of that season when Aston Villa beat us I think everyone wanted to finally get a trophy and after we lost that we dipped, then of course the last game of the season wasn't a true reflection of how we worked."