Brendan Rodgers was back on our television screens on Sunday morning ahead of Manchester United's trip to Anfield to take on their fierce rivals.
The Northern Irish manager was on Goals on Sunday discussing everything from his future in the game, to his sacking as the Reds' boss.
One thing that will frustrate Liverpool fans to hear and could have been a main reason for his ultimate failure was the club's inability to secure the best players willing to move to England.
Liverpool eventually lost the 'Alexis Sánchez sweepstakes' to Arsenal, but Brendan Rodgers was convinced that the deal was done at one point. He believed that Suárez was leaving for Barcelona and Sánchez was on his way to Anfield, which might have eased the loss a little.
He spoke about the mysterious transfer committee, saying that the "model at the club was slightly different. The ownership group [...] have a way of working where they want to bring in young players and see them develop".
He added that "it was a group decision, it was certainly not something that I would have the sole or the final say on. It's difficult because you want a player in and there's a list of players, but if the player that you want isn't on that list, you have to take someone. You can't have a void".
The Balotelli signing was one that raised a lot of eyebrows when it took place in the wake of Suárez's departure, and Rodgers highlighted it as an example of the problems with the transfer committee.
"The huge blow for us was that we thought we were getting Alexis Sánchez. We thought that Luis was going, and the like for like replacement was Sánchez . If you look at how he plays he was going to be perfect for us [...] and then we would bring in Rickie Lambert alongside that to be the option for us if we needed something else in the game".
However, the Sánchez deal fell through, and with Daniel Sturridge injured, leaving the squad down to the bare bones: "unfortunately there was a lot of pressure on Rickie Lambert, and really that wasn't the plan. All of a sudden [...] our only striker we're looking at who's maybe going to be here is Rickie Lambert. At 32 years of age going into a Champions League season, it's not ideally what we wanted, so we had to bring in someone".
As a player that clearly had talent, Rodgers stated that the transfer committee felt that he would be able to work with Balotelli, and help him to develop.
"I wasn't thinking that I was going to be any different to all the other managers that he's had issues with," said Rodgers. "There was none of that at all, but at that moment in time, we didn't really have another option. So what do you do? Do you go with one striker or bring him in and see if it can work?"
Rodgers, refreshingly honest and characteristically insightful, hinted that he was let down by some of the signings, but stated that one player who always gave his best for him was Luis Suárez.
He highlighted his importance to the team as a whole saying, "when Luis was playing the others gained great confidence from him", and called him the "ultimate professional".
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