Chairman on new man Rodgers
Liverpool chairman Tom Werner was at Anfield on Friday morning to officially unveil new manager Brendan Rodgers and he took time out to talk to Liverpoolfc.tv about the appointment.
Upon becoming the 18th manager of Liverpool Football Club, Rodgers promised to defend the club's principles and traditions and the 39-year-old vowed to implement his own aggressive, possession-based brand of football, something that Werner singled out for praise.
Liverpool have a new manager, Brendan Rodgers. Can you tell us what qualities you saw in Brendan to convince you that he was the right man for the job?
Brendan has a philosophy of football which I think our fans will find enormously exciting and entertaining. It is an attacking, relentless style of football which is very much in sync with Liverpool's history. Brendan's not only a great strategist and tactician but he is a great motivator and I think he has all the qualities that we're looking for in a new manager.
Have you conducted a thorough search? Have you appointed your first choice?
We had heard great things about Brendan from a number of wise and esteemed football advisors. He was an early person that we targeted. We did not talk to him until late in the process but he really was our first choice and we were convinced after discussing his strategy and his goals and his way forward that he was the right person for us.
Is that when you realised Brendan was the right man for the job? Was there a specific time or a specific moment?
At the end of the process was the first opportunity we had to sit down and talk to Brendan. We had talked to other managers for a few weeks but we always had Brendan in our sights.
Does Brendan have targets and do you have a vision for the future?
When we came in our goal was to be the best team in England, not just the top four, to compete with the best teams in Europe. We believe that Brendan's philosophy and his tactics will bring us there. We have no set target for when to do that, we've always looked for slow and measured improvement and we believe that we will be more successful going forward, not just this year but in the future.
Will Brendan have time to make changes and develop and build a football club here?
Absolutely. We have a great confidence in Brendan. We don't expect immediate results overnight we expect steady improvement. He is going to be implementing a new tact for the team. It may take a little time to implement that but we are very confident that he will bring us the success that we all are looking for.
Brendan is one of several changes to key personnel at the football club. Are you confident that, come the start of the season, we'll have the right people in the right place in order to re-establish Liverpool Football Club where it needs to be?
I am. We are in the process of securing a number of other key people in the football operations department. I believe that when they are announced, they will gain a great sense of enthusiasm from our supporters and we will have a team allied, all going in the same direction to help all of us achieve the goals that we want.
Finally Tom, what is your message to all the Liverpool fans watching this interview and hearing that Brendan Rodgers is our new manager?
First of all, I want to pay a great debt of thanks to Kenny. Kenny is the heart and soul of this club, he provided us with great stability at a time when we needed it and so I want to pay tribute to a man who I consider to be a great football player and a great friend. Brendan is one of a generation of new managers who have a very creative way of attacking the game, of teaching the game. He was a great ally and colleague of Jose Mourinho, when Mourinho was at Chelsea. I think the brand of football he will bring to Anfield will be very exciting for our fans.