The writing was on the wall long before the trigger was pulled. Brendan Rodgers had the air of a man on the brink in his press conferences and post-match interviews, arguing that certain ex-players and media identities had it in for the manager from the get go.
As results started to wane and the fan-base grew ever anxious, the American owners finally decided enough was enough.
Two months into the 2015-16 English Premier League campaign Liverpool sit mid-table with a bloated squad and limited world-class players to revive a run at a Champions League position.
The Northern Irishman tinkered between three and four at the back, signalling to all and sundry that he didn’t know what his best team was. He lost the confidence of the players, the fans and ultimately the owners.
Rodgers’ downfall can be linked intrinsically to the departure of Luis Suarez to Barcelona at the end of the 2013-14 season. Ever since Steven Gerrard slipped over to gift Chelsea the win at Anfield, Liverpool have not recovered as a football club.
They failed to convince Alexis Sanchez to come and replace Suarez before compounding the error by copying the same mistake Tottenham made post Gareth Bale. From Rickie Lambert, Dejan Lovren, Adam Lallana and Mario Balotelli, Liverpool only succeeded in replacing quality with quantity.
Constant switching of formations and personnel gave the impression from the outside looking in that the team had a crisis of identity.
Rodgers came across from Swansea on a mission to replicate his philosophy from Wales playing attacking football, keeping the ball and pressing high up the field. When results started to slip last season, he completely threw that mantra out the window.
In this instance, the manager only has himself to blame. For a man taught under Jose Mourinho he should have had the conviction to play the game on his terms.
When the time comes for Rodgers to give his side of events, he will point to a number of achievements and aspects of operations where the club failed to back their man.
The 2013-14 season was a record breaker for Liverpool, scoring their highest amount of goals in a Premier League campaign in the midst of an 11-game winning streak. The emergence of Suarez as a genuine world-class talent culminated with the development of young British prodigies in the form of Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge.
Then there is the small matter of the ill-fated transfer committee. The board’s decision to sell two of those superstars, combined with long-term injuries to Sturridge, pulled the rug from under Rodgers’ feet. He will point out that the net spend compared to their rivals was well below their top four compatriots.
With Jürgen Klopp filling the hot seat, the German will have a convoluted group of footballers to galvanise with a fan-base hungry to see the club reach the next level.
If the current structure remains in place there is nothing to suggest that he will achieve either of those objectives, but if his time in Dortmund told us anything it is that it will be well and truly worth watching.
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