Liverpool and Manchester United managers Rodgers and Van Gaal could have been Anfield dream team

Reds were already talking to the Dutchman about technical director gig when the then-Swansea boss made it clear he wouldn't work with one

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Dutch and go: Rodgers' stance on directors of football meant no Anfield gig for Van Gaal (left)

Brendan Rodgers has revealed for the first time how he inadvertently stopped Louis van Gaal going to Anfield, writes David Maddock in Charlotte.

The Reds' boss will attempt to deliver a knockout blow to the Dutchman when his Liverpool side come face to face with Van Gaal's Manchester United in the final of the pre-season Guinness International Champions Cup on Monday night in Miami.

And it would not be the first time...

Two years ago, Liverpool’s owners were in talks with Van Gaal to become technical director at Anfield... until then-Swansea manager Rodgers impressed them so much during the search for Kenny Dalglish's successor they scrapped the idea.

As the Northern Irishman prepared to meet Van Gaal for the first time in his life, he said: “I’m not sure how many people the club spoke to.

“But for me coming in, I was always going to work with a team of people, rather than a director of football.

“I felt it was important, with all the work that needed to be done, and the size of the job I took on, that I needed to have the full responsibility to do that job, and I think the owners backed that.”

Anfield’s American owner John Henry had wanted to pursue a European model of management, and had even dispatched MD Ian Ayre to talk with Dutchman Van Gaal.

Talks were at an advanced stage, so when Rodgers sat at the table for talks over the manager’s role, his opening gambit of insisting he could not, and should not, work under anyone, was a bold one that could have cost him the job before it had even been offered.

It was, Rodgers says now, nothing personal, merely a conviction that the rebuilding job Liverpool faced at that time was so massive it required only the manager operating at the coal face.

“I always think the manager is the technical director. He is the man who oversees the football development of the club, and I believe you should take on that responsibility when you are manager,” he explains now with a smile.

Rodgers knows from his own difficult experience that a director of football can complicate, and not smooth out, problems at a club.

At Reading, the only blip on his otherwise immaculate coaching career, he was forced to accept that model under Nick Hammond, and paid the price with his job after just six months in charge.

It was, he says now, a salutatory experience that flavoured his talks with Henry and chairman Tom Werner... and ultimately persuaded them to call off the parallel talks with Van Gaal, which could have changed Premier League history.