Ayre: He was our first choice
Ian Ayre is certain Liverpool have appointed the perfect man for the job in Brendan Rodgers and our managing director insisted the former Swansea boss was always the club's first choice to succeed Kenny Dalglish as manager.
In his first press conference at Anfield this morning, Rodgers announced that he will endeavour to defend Liverpool Football Club's long-held principles and traditions while seeking to implement a style of offensive, creative football.
He spoke of his admiration for the club's extensive and glorious history before pledging to treat all players, staff and fans with the same values and respect that he would expect in return.
And Ayre could not hide his delight at what the Ulsterman had to say upon taking up the reins at Anfield.
"[What Brendan has just been saying] is absolute music to our ears but it's not a surprise, because it's the reason why he's sat here," said Ayre. "As we've said, there was a process to find the new manager. It's right to have a process and it's right to consider and find the right person for the process we set.
"Brendan was always at the forefront of that thinking, and that was evident in the fact that we asked Swansea about him very early on. But we went through the rest of the process and Brendan was the only person we made an offer to. He was the person we wanted and we're very pleased with the outcome.
"The process is a private one but we considered many people because that's what we should do. You understand the profile of those individuals; you try to understand how any individual fits with the profile you have set.
"We went through the process with a lot of people. There are people that people aren't aware we spoke to. Some decided to say they were in the process when they weren't. But for us it was all about understanding individuals and their skill sets and matching them to the profile.
"Brendan was at the forefront of the process and he was at the outcome of it."
Ayre also explained to the gathered media how the club will now look to implement a structure for running the football club that is akin to the European procedure.
"The structure we will put in place is a more continental type of structure, where you have a collaborative group of people in and around the football area," said Ayre. "We don't envisage, at this point in time, having a director of football per se but there will be a group of people who will work collaboratively with Brendan on the football side of the club.
"[When it comes to bringing in new players] it's not going to be a 'signing by committee' type of procedure - it's more of an 'analysis by committee'. It will be a whole range of people bringing together a whole range of skill-sets to go out and find and identify what we need and Brendan will have a big input to that.
"There's nothing in our structure where we would force players onto our manager. It's a very typical, continental style where you've got a collaborative structure of people who are qualified across a variety of people from all sides of the business working together."