Jolly Rodgers! Swansea boss agrees to take three-year Liverpool deal... with £7m Sigurdsson on hitlist
Liverpool’s extensive search for a new manager is over after Brendan Rodgers agreed a three-year deal to take charge at Anfield.
Rodgers will be officially announced as Kenny Dalglish’s replacement within the next 24 hours after he informed Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins of his desire to move to Merseyside.
And one of the first acts Rodgers could perform is to sign Gylfi Sigurdsson, as the Iceland midfielder has not had a medical at Swansea and his £6.8million move from Hoffenheim has not been ratified.
Main man: Brendan Rodgers will be installed as the new Liverpool manager
Available: Gylfi Sigurdsson could be tempted with a switch to Liverpool
Liverpool will have to pay compensation in the region of £5million to acquire Rodgers, though they will try to get their man for less and, 15 days after sacking Dalglish, it seems Fenway Sports Group have their man.
Rodgers spoke with Anfield officials on Wednesday, including chairman Tom Werner, after Swansea accepted Liverpool’s official approach for the Northern Irishman late on Tuesday night.
He then headed to South Wales to tell Jenkins he would be ending his successful two-year stint at the Liberty Stadium.
Centre of attention: Wigan boss Roberto Martinez is now out of the running
Jenkins said in a statement: ‘Following on from discussions with Liverpool’s owners, Brendan has informed us that he would like to take up their offer to manage Liverpool.
At the moment we are in talks to agree compensation. We are trying to finalise that within the next 24 hours. Although we didn’t wish to lose an outstanding young manager, we didn’t wish to stand in his way.’
Assuming talks go well, Liverpool could install Rodgers just in time for the start of their £25m-a-year kit deal with American firm Warrior Sports, which begins on Friday.
Wigan’s Roberto Martinez, who has also been courted by Aston Villa, had initially been favourite to succeed Dalglish and his odds tumbled after he met Liverpool’s principal owner John W Henry in Miami seven days ago.
Replacement: Rodgers is set to take over from Dalglish at Anfield
Since the start of the week, however, the momentum has been firmly with Rodgers and it is understood that dialogue with Martinez and his representatives broke down after the Spaniard discovered he was not FSG’s first choice.
Rodgers, who was in New York last weekend to watch Wales play Mexico, initially withdrew from the first round of interviews when as many as a dozen names — including Pep Guardiola, Fabio Capello, Andre Villas-Boas and Frank de Boer — were pulled together following Dalglish’s sacking on May 16.
But despite that rejection, he remained firmly in FSG’s thoughts because of the impression he made last season, steering Swansea to 11th place thanks to results such as a 0-0 draw at Anfield and a 1-0 victory over Liverpool at the Liberty Stadium.
New arrival? Rodgers could snatch Gylfi Sigurdsson from under Swansea's nose
Henry and Werner have been determined to implement a new tiered structure at Liverpool, though Louis van Gaal’s hopes of landing the position of sporting director in the shake-up have dramatically receded.
Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre met the Dutchman in Portugal last week but the former Bayern Munich, Ajax and Barcelona manager is believed to have made it clear that he also wanted to be considered for the role in charge of the first team. Van Gaal has been on Liverpool’s radar since Damien Comolli was sacked on April 14
source Daily Mail
Posted by Editor
on 13:13.
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