Liverpool couldn't decide where the blip was

The sacking of Brendan Rodgers from Liverpool hasn't really gone as a big suprise to the football community. Being a Liverpool manager that doesn't win trophies is a treacherous position. Rodgers has paid the price for the success of past managers and the fans still believe that it's the 1980's and that they are the world's biggest club. To compete in the top level, Champions League is an absolute must and Liverpool haven't been able to deliver that consistently. This affects both their recruitment and their ability to keep hold of their top players.

Any dressing room that had lost players of the quality and character of Luis Suarez, Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Raheem Sterling in a short period of time would suffer. The influence, passion and connection with the fans that both Carragher and Gerrard carried can't be replaced in the transfer market. Suarez and Sterling wanted to play on the Champions League and Liverpool can't make those promises.

To my mind, though the biggest question is "when was the blip?"

The first season for any manager can be put to one side, unless they make a complete mess of things like Paolo Di Canio did at Sunderland. It's a chance for a new manager to assess the existing players. A chance to bring in some new faces and establish their own philosophy and playing style. And Rodgers got this.

His second season was the one where the team played fantastic attacking football and were a Gerrard slip away from possibly winning the league. Suarez the player was magnificent that season, even if Suarez the man reared his ugly head more than once. The partnership with Sterling and Sturridge often blew teams away. Matches were over before they started as a flurry of Liverpool goals flew in and the opposition has no answer.

Then last season was very poor - in fact if you ignore in a great run in the middle it was awful. The Suarez money (and more) was largely squandered as the flawed transfer committee bought Mario Balotelli, Rickie Lambert, Dejan Lovren and Lazar Markovic among others.

And so to the Summer of 2015 and the conversations with the board about the blip. I'm sure that Rodgers maintained that the season 2014/15 was the blip. This was the season that things went a little bit wrong, and that the 2nd place and title challenge of 2013/14 was the real Rodgers Liverpool. But from the outside it appeared obvious what had happened. The 2nd place was a Suarez-inspired feat and not one brought about by Brendan Rodgers. The goals scored by Suarez weren't just plentiful, they were scored at crucial times to kill teams off and win games they otherwise wouldn't have won.

FSG and the hierarchy should have spotted this Summer that the blip was the good season and not the bad. I think that they felt some loyalty towards the man that had given the club their first shot at the league for a long, long time.

What's next? For Liverpool probably Juergen Klopp. For Rodgers it's time to start rebuilding that reputation a little. Sunderland are looking for a new manager and a new direction.....