Brendan Rodgers: 'Managing Liverpool was draining'

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 04 September 2017

Former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers admits that he "needed a break" after three years in charge of the club as the job was so 'intense and draining'.

Brendan Rodgers has opened up on his "intense" spell managing Liverpool, admitting that it left him in need of a break after being sacked.

The Ulsterman almost wrote his name in Anfield folklore during his three years at the helm, coming within two points of winning the Premier League title in 2014.

Rodgers was out of a job 17 months later after a tough start to the 2015-16 campaign, however, but after taking on the Celtic job last summer he is happy to find himself under a similar sort of pressure to succeed.

Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, he said: "When I came out of Liverpool, I needed a break. It was so intense. It was draining. We moved to London just to come away from it.

"I had offers from England and a couple from China where the money is very good, and that's tempting for a boy from Northern Ireland. But I had come out of one of the biggest institutions in the world and I had to find that pressure again. I've got that now.

"With Liverpool, you can go away from home and draw and that's okay. But Celtic, you have to win every game. It's a different pressure. I came as close as anyone there to the holy grail of winning the league. That season, with the fans, it was special."

Rodgers won a domestic treble in his first campaign at Celtic, going the entire season unbeaten.