Liverpool's two-week search for a new manager is likely to be concluded later today once owners Fenway Sports Group come up with acceptable compensation to take Brendan Rodgers from Swansea.
The Carnlough man was offered the job yesterday and his south Wales club have reluctantly allowed him to leave even though he only signed a new three-and-a-half-year deal in February.
However, the safety net of that contract means Swansea are likely to receive a pay-off of between £4million-£5million once terms are agreed in the next few hours.
Rodgers (39) is expected to sign a three-year contract and be presented as the successor to Kenny Dalglish on Friday.
Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins admitted he could not stand in the Northern Irishman's way, although he will insist on driving a hard financial bargain with the Reds.
"Following on from discussions with Liverpool's owners, Brendan has informed us that he would like to take up their offer to manage Liverpool," said Jenkins in a statement.
Most of this is just unfair. Can we be sure Martinez would have guided Swansea to 11th place in the Premier League table?
Would he have produced such dramatic improvement in players whose métier seemed to be the second and even third tiers? Maybe, but Rodgers should not have to surrender any credit for the inspiring nature of Swansea’s Barcelona-based system.
If this is how Liverpool end up playing, with the ball always passed from defence and great fluidity and enterprise in midfield, then they will have taken an evolutionary leap. But stylistic reinvention is never instant.
Fenway have returned to their founding principles of faith in youth and long-term thinking. For that to work they will have to resist the disaffection of fans who have lost touch with the reality of Liverpool’s league position.
The emperor Dalglish will no longer be gazing down from the stands. Or not as saviour-in-waiting, anyway. However much he wanted the job when Hodgson was appointed, he will respect Rodgers’ position and will not imagine himself riding to the rescue for a third time.
The job has changed entirely. Liverpool overpaid for Andy Carroll, Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing: a problem Rodgers has inherited.
At Swansea he relied on technique and aspiration to transform Championship players into Premier League artistes. This time he will either have to purge expensive acquisitions from Dalglish’s time or persuade them to buy into his Spanish methodology.
Carroll is not a Swansea kind of player. Unless he abandons his religion Rodgers will not want Liverpool to play through a target man. In South Wales, Danny Graham was more of a David Villa type.
There is also the familiar need for Rodgers to bring Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher onside. These elder statesmen remain the bridge to the future as well as the past. They can help Rodgers push through his changes just as Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes support Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.
The brightest vision is of Rodgers lending Liverpool a new identity and purpose. But for him to have any chance the club’s following must avoid the 12-game premature grumbling syndrome that brings so many managers down. Once this starts it becomes self-fulfilling.
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