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Brendan Rodgers Reveals How He Was Shafted By Liverpool's Transfer Committee

Gavin Cooney
By Gavin Cooney
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Brendan Rodgers is currently having the time of his life in Glasgow, as his Celtic side swagger their way to a league title as Rangers flounder amid spectacular mismanagement. 

Rodgers and Celtic is an ideal match: he is giving fans some beautiful football, along with his reputation allowing the club sign players of the calibre of Scott Sinclair and Moussa Dembele.

For Rodgers, Celtic was a cracking choice of club after his mixed time at Liverpool, offering the Irishman a chance to show critics and potential employers that he can win trophies regularly, while all the while managing in the Champions League.

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After he left Liverpool, Rodgers made a number of media appearances to repair his image. While he spoke glowingly of Liverpool, he was eager to point out how the fabled 'transfer committee' shafted him with regularity.

The most obvious example was the club's failure to sign Dele Alli. Rodgers wanted to get the starlet signed from MK Dons, and given that Alli was a boyhood Liverpool fan who looked up to Steven Gerrard, the deal looked easy to push across the line. Rodgers told Sky of his frustrations that the club didn't get it done, the deal falling apart as Liverpool's personal terms were not what Alli's representatives expected.

We thought we had him at Liverpool.

The manager of MK Dons actually drove him down to us. They played a game on the Saturday and we were playing West Ham on the Sunday.

We'd had contact with Dele, it was all above board, I was speaking with Karl Robinson and I spoke to Dele and his adoptive parents.

Liverpool stalled, however.

Karl did really well with him and he came to me and said, 'I've got a really exciting player, I'd love to see him at Liverpool'.

I spent a couple of hours in a hotel room with him and he wanted to come to Liverpool. It was all about getting the deal done with the club but unfortunately it never got done.

On Saturday evening we thought it had got done but eventually he went to Tottenham, which was frustrating and disappointing. He's done really well there.

Rodgers has now revealed that the club twice rebuffed his efforts to sign Virgil Van Dijk, the outstanding Southampton defender who is now valued at an estimated £50 million. Speaking to the Evening Times, Rodgers tells of how the club's scouts mysteriously decided he wasn't right.

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When I was at Liverpool I asked about Van Dijk when he was at Groningen and then at Celtic.

But I was told he wouldn’t be for us at the time.Van Dijk could have jumped from Celtic to a Liverpool. Some clubs will want to see the players tested at certain arenas first.

But if there is enough belief in the player then that counts. The key for scouting is trying to predict when the player is peaking. You could see with Van Dijk that he was quick, strong, good on the ball and decent in the air.

Another incident which reflects badly on Liverpool.

See Also: Why Is Nobody Talking About How Good Lazar Markovic Was Against Arsenal?

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