As Brendan Rodgers’ tenure at Anfield is reviewed, a former employee of Liverpool has charged that the manager disregarded transfer recommendations.
After a contentious transfer to Leicester City in 2019, the Irishman returned for a second stint in the Hoops’ starting lineup last summer and won over Parkhead supporters. Relationships have improved after a Premiership and Scottish Cup double, and supporters want to see their coach supported in the transfer market.
Adam Idah’s £9.5 million move from Norwich City to Celtic is evidence of that support, as Rodgers expressed his obvious desire for the striker. When he succeeded Sir Kenny Dalglish as manager of Liverpool in 2012, he is rumored to have been making similar recruitment wishes.
He served as Liverpool’s director of research for more than ten years, and Ian Graham witnessed his rule firsthand before contributing to his successor Jurgen Klopp’s commercial success. He remained until 2015. After working together at Tottenham, Michael Edwards initially appointed her in 2012. According to an article in The Athletic, “a transfer committee was formed compromising of the manager, CEO Ian Ayre, Edwards (then technical director), head of recruitment Dave Fallows, and chief scout Barry Hunter because Rodgers refused to work with a sporting director.”
Graham participated in the decision-making process as an unofficial member and contributed data, but there was “friction” when he opposed Rodgers’ ambitions to recruit Joe Allen and Gylfi Sigurdsson, two players he had previously worked with at Swansea City. Rodgers has a history of hiring players he has previously worked with; this summer, he continued the trend by adding former Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel to Celtic.
Allen was eventually signed along with striker Fabio Borini, but six months later, other committee members felt Chelsea’s Daniel Sturridge was a superior choice. After that, Ashley Williams and Ryan Bertrand were pursued, but the Celtics manager ultimately settled on Mamadou Sakho and Alberto Moreno.
Graham says he “begged” Liverpool’s owners not to approve a transfer for Christian Benteke of Aston Villa in 2015 because the striker wasn’t a good match for Anfield’s style. However, Rodgers’ “obsession” with getting Benteke led to FSG to fulfill Benteke’s £32.5 million release clause. In 42 games for Liverpool, he scored ten goals. A year later, he left for Crystal Palace.
The former head of research at Liverpool has shared details about his collaboration with the Celtic manager. “Back in the early 2010s, when a data person would walk into a club with some bright ideas straight out of university, some old football guys would say, ‘This is all rubbish, we’re not going to listen to this stuff,'” he added.
“There was opposition, and Brendan was most definitely one of them. Even though that was difficult, I understood that having support from the owners and Michael, my direct manager, made it a far better position than it would be at other teams.
“During the initial years of the transfer committee, the majority of the unsuccessful signings occurred as a result of Brendan vetoing the players we intended to acquire. We overruled Brendan’s requests to include them. Consequently, we occasionally had players who were fifth or sixth choices. Simply put, we weren’t hitting our primary goals.
The open-mindedness of Jurgen made a difference. The models got better and the data got more complex over time, but when Brendan left and Jurgen took over, the caliber of our analysis didn’t drastically shift. The same individuals and procedures were used. Brendan did not view players the same way that Jurgen did, in contrast to Michael Edwards.
GET MORE NEWS HERE
Be the first to comment