I Asked Liverpool For Alexis Sanchez, They Gave Me Balotelli – Brendan Rodgers

“It wasn’t just a goalscorer we were after, Luis Suarez was giving so much more than that – the press and how we wanted to work”.

Former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has claimed club owners Fenway Sports Group told him to sign the problematic Mario Balotelli after he had rejected the player. ‘Ashley is one that I’ve always felt could play at one of the very top clubs in the league, and he’s been very loyal to Swansea and stayed there. He was a world-class player and we thought that it would be a smooth transition into the team.

Balotelli scored just four goals in 28 appearances for Liverpool in a disappointing season where the Merseysiders finished sixth in the Premier League. Losing Luis Suarez hurt the club immensely, no doubt, but watching Liverpool’s other strikers disappear due to injury, underperforming, or falling out of favour with the manager certainly didn’t help.

“We didn’t get Alexis Sanchez and, bless Rickie, there was a lot of pressure on him when really that wasn’t the plan”.

“The ownership group, as I say they are a wonderful group of people, but they have a way of working and they want to bring in young players and look to see them develop and move on”.

Former Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers admits he would consider taking a managerial role overseas as he eyes a return to football this summer.

“All of a sudden, Sanchez doesn’t come in; we think Fabio Borini is going”.

Instead, they went for Balotelli, who’s now on loan at AC Milan after making nothing in the way of a positive contribution during his first (and to date) only season as a Liverpool player.

The Northern Irishman, who was sacked by the Reds last October, says he has turned down a number of opportunities since the end of his three-and-a-half year Anfield reign. It was a group decision, really. “It is the model”.

I spent a couple of hours in a hotel room with him and he wanted to come to Liverpool. “I spoke to him and his adoptive parents and Karl Robinson, the manager of MK Dons, drove him down to us”.

“The huge blow was that we thought we were getting Alexis Sanchez and that he’d be a like-for-like replacement, in terms of how he pressed the game and his aggression”.