Brendan Rodgers signs long-term contract at Liverpool

Brendan Rodgers at the Aviva Stadium recently: “I am both humbled and privileged to be offered the chance to extend my stay at this great club,” he said.

Brenda Rodgers has signed a new, improved, long-term contract designed to keep him at Liverpool for the foreseeable future. Quite apart from rewarding Rodgers for his achievement in steering the club into second place in the Premier League and guaranteeing Champions League football at Anfield next season, the deal is intended to thwart any attempts to poach the 41-year-old.

The Northern Irishman had a year remaining on his previous agreement and this lucrative extension - its precise length has not been specified but it is understood to extend to 2018 - will make it very expensive for any potential suitors to prise him away from Anfield.

“I am both humbled and privileged to be offered the chance to extend my stay at this great club,” said Rodgers. Appointed as Kenny Dalglish’s successor in 2012, the former Swansea manager experienced a deceptively slow-burn start, leading Liverpool to seventh place in 2012-13.

If progress was initially incremental it has become dramatic in recent months, with Liverpool finishing the season just ended two points behind Manchester City after a campaign in which they came within touching distance of securing their first title since 1990.

No matter, they qualified for Europe’s showpiece competition for the first time in four years and Rodgers was named the League Managers Association’s manager of the year.

Rodgers, a coach at Chelsea under Jose Mourinho who subsequently managed Watford and Reading with mixed success before establishing himself at Swansea, has turned Liverpool into one of England’s most attractive teams with his clear footballing vision and principled playing philosophy.