BRENDAN RODGERS is due to be unveiled as Liverpool’s manager today having agreed to work within the new management structure that Fenway Sports Group has planned for Anfield.
The 39-year-old’s move from Swansea City to Liverpool was unable to be ratified yesterday as the two clubs agreed a compensation package that extended to members of Rodgers’ backroom staff at the Liberty Stadium. Respective club officials then had to attend a Premier League meeting in London.
Personal terms had previously been agreed between Rodgers and Liverpool and he is expected to put pen to paper on a three-year contract before taking his public bow as Kenny Dalglish’s successor at Anfield this morning.
Swansea were entitled to around €6.2m in compensation for Rodgers due to the three-and-a-half year contract their former manager signed in January.
Terms were also agreed for three members of the Swansea backroom team after Rodgers insisted on bringing them with him to Merseyside, illustrating that, while Liverpool’s owners are overhauling the management system at Anfield, the manager selects his own staff and will not be subservient to a sporting director.
Rodgers will be the lead part in a sporting director-type model at Anfield and accepted that framework during talks with John W Henry and Tom Werner, Liverpool’s principal owner and chairman respectively.
Damien Comolli’s former duties as director of football are expected to be fragmented into three new roles and further appointments are scheduled.
Liverpool’s new manager will retain a say on transfers although, having paid excessive fees for Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson, FSG do not intend to allow one person to have overall control on transfer policy and fees. A new executive team, headed by Rodgers, will take on that responsibility.
FSG do not see the traditional British-style manager as the way forward for Liverpool but appear to have compromised on the authority between Rodgers and the sporting director figure. The former Watford and Reading manager’s insistence on appointing his own backroom team may prompt the departure of Steve Clarke from Anfield and has also scuppered Louis van Gaal’s prospects of joining Liverpool.
Rodgers is expected to bring his assistant Colin Pascoe, conditioning expert Glen Driscoll and chief match analyst Chris Davies with him to Anfield. He may also attempt to hijack Swansea’s €8.5m deal with Hoffenheim for Gylfi Sigurdsson.
Joe Allen, Scott Sinclair and Ashley Williams, who all excelled under Rodgers in the Premier League last season, could also be of interest to the next Liverpool manager. Liverpool are also expected to announce within weeks they intend to stay at Anfield, not build a new stadium on Stanley Park.
Swansea have held internal discussions over who will replace Rodgers at the Liberty Stadium. The former Swansea assistant manager Graeme Jones, the Brighton manager Gus Poyet, Blackpool’s Ian Holloway and Birmingham’s Chris Hughton have all been linked with the vacancy.
Guardian Service
