BRENDAN RODGERS reveals he was encouraged to sign Mario Balotelli by the club's owners and to turn him into a £50million striker.
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| Brendan Rodgers was tasked with turning Mario Balotelli into a £50million striker at Liverpool |
Balotelli was signed in the summer of 2014 for £16m from AC Milan following the sale of Luis Suarez to Barcelona.
But failed to impress at Liverpool and was subsequently loaned back out to the Serie A side.
Liverpool missed out on Alexis Sanchez and, with Daniel Sturridge injured, the Italian striker came into focus.
Rodgers said the club’s owners believed his record of improving players might add value to Balotelli’s price tag.
“I mentioned that (he would never sign) after we had played AC Milan in a friendly in America,” said Rodgers.
“What we wanted and what we needed was a player who could really press at the top end of the field. It wasn’t just a goalscorer we were after. Luis Suarez was giving us so much more than that.
“That ability to press was something we wanted to work. After the AC Milan game, I was asked a question and I felt Mario was someone who wouldn’t work for us, the profile of what we were after.
“But come the end of the summer, we were struggling to get someone who could do the role we wanted.
“I think the ownership group thought that this could be a player I could develop. He had had his issues, Mario.
"Mario has got wonderful talent. Make no mistake about that. You see him on the training ground every day, 6ft 3ins, he is fast, he is strong and he has got a touch.
“They were thinking that maybe he is a £50m player that we can get for £16m. We can bring him in and we can develop him in the way I had developed some of the other players.
“So, when the owners are wanting you to go down that route and there is no other options, then of course you give it a go.”
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