While the captivating controversy of Raheem Sterling and the 20 year old’s contract situation continues, the more important end of season talks lurk in the background for Brendan Rodgers. The opinion splitting question among Liverpool fans is whether or not Brendan Rodgers deserves to stay on as manager of Liverpool Football club.
Fenway Sports Group, led by John W Henry support a longevity philosophy at Liverpool. This policy involved the hiring of Brendan Rodgers in 2012, a promising young manager who showed his quality while at Swansea. However in three years he has failed to deliver a single trophy, having spent over £200 million in the process. Rodgers also failed in keeping Liverpool in the Champions League. Last season (2013/14) Brendan Rodgers led Liverpool to a second place finish.
Rodgers looks to have lost his gamble in signing striker Mario Balotelli (£16 million) and Rickie Lambert (£4.5 million) in an attempt to replace the quality lost in Luis Suarez. Further signings in Dejan Lovren (£20 million) and Lazar Markovic (£19.8 million) have forced angry cries from Liverpool fans to replace Rodgers with someone better suited in the current market. Signings such as Iago Aspas (£7 million) and Fabio Borini (£10.4 million) add to the list of signings under Rodgers that have not come to fruition.
While fans around the world are split, it looks like players and pundits are backing Rodgers for one more season.
Sky Sports pundit and Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher backs Rodgers, despite failing to reach targets in the Premier League and transfer market declaring “Is he the right man? I think so,”.
He is joined by departing ‘Captain Fantastic’ Steven Gerrard who has continuously praised Rodgers throughout his time as manager. Gerrard spoke to the clubs official website at the start of the year stating “I wish I was 24, I wish I’d met Brendan when I was 24 because I think I’d be sitting here talking about a lot of titles that we’d won together.”
Some may be sympathetic towards Rodgers as his target of back to back top four finishes had been hampered by recurring injuries to key striker Daniel Sturridge. A string of defensive woes also plagued his Liverpool side, having to rely on the rusty Kolo Toure and Dejan Lovren, even moving Emre Can to centre-back for a number of matches.
As of now it appears Rodgers will be given another season to shape the team and add silverware to the trophy cabinet. It would be logical for FSG to back Brendan Rodgers for one more year in continuation of their philosophy. On the other hand failing to reach the Champions League and a lack of success with recent transfers may be the final straw for FSG who need to see results soon from this Liverpool team.
Will it be bon voyage Brendan or ‘We go again’ after the end of season talks?
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