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| Brendan Rodgers has been sacked by Liverpool |
LIVERPOOL have this evening sacked Brendan Rodgers after losing faith that he is the right man to lead the club forward.
Rodgers was informed by chief executive Ian Ayre in person and Fenway Sports Group president Mike Gordon in a telephone call that his contract was being terminated within three hours of today's 1-1 Merseyside derby stalemate with Everton after which he said he needed time to turn results around.
The two front-runners to succeed Rodgers will be former Borussia Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp and ex-Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti, who was in New York last week at the same time as Liverpool chairman Tom Werner.
Klopp left Dortmund after seven years in the summer and has let it be known he would end a sabbatical early to return to management in England. Ancelotti has been out of work since being sacked by Real Madrid at the end of the season.
Liverpool have won just one of their last nine games in 90 minutes, but lie only three points off fourth place in the Premier League.
Despite that FSG have moved to end Rodgers’ tenure just eight league games into his fourth season in charge and they will now spend the international break lining up his successor.
Rodgers has spent £291m since succeeding Kenny Dalglish in June 2012 and came closer than any other Liverpool manager to winning the Premier League when he took his side to brink of success in 2013-14.
But the departure of Luis Suarez in the summer of 2014, plus injuries to key personnel, prompted a downturn in performances last season which ended with Rodgers only keeping his job following an end-of-season review.
The decision to split now highlights how FSG has lost belief that Rodgers would oversee an upturn even though skipper Jordan Henderson is currently injured and £32.5m summer signing Christian Benteke is also sidelined.
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| Rodgers spent almost £300m on new players at Liverpool |
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| Danny Ings scored Liverpool's opener at Everton today |
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| Romelu Lukaku bagged the equaliser for Everton at Goodison Park |
Benteke and Daniel Sturridge – the strike-force Rodgers will have pinned his hopes on this season – have played just 45 minutes together.
He has repeatedly said he did not fear the sack, but that is primarily because he does not believe his managerial reputation will suffer and that he will find another job.
Now he will be able to test the theory after FSG embarked on the hunt for their fourth manager since taking over in 2010.
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