BR responds to questions regarding Mario Balotelli, who could be our latest signing early next week: I can categorically tell you...... that I can’t speak about it [Balotelli transfer] until the player has signed! When a player is signed then I will speak at length about them. We have a fantastic environment here and a great culture. Over the past two years that was something which was very important for us to create and build here. Nothing will ever shake that or provoke it in any way. It’s something I’ll always protect. We’ve got a real learning environment here for players and over the past two years you’ve seen lots of players improve and develop and that will continue. We have an extensive code of conduct for players and staff here. Every player we assess and look at and, of course, character is very important. No player would come into here if I felt they couldn’t work. This is a club different to most. It’s a really strong, family football club with values and ethics which run over many years. As manager of the club I will always fight to protect those and players at this club will abide by that. I don’t just look at people from the coaching element, if I think I can help the person it’s something I’ll look at. If you assess my coaching career from when I was a youth coach it’s all I’ve ever done. People who know me well will tell you I look to develop the player and the person. That’s very important to me. If I feel like someone cares enough then I will give them everything. Thankfully, we have a culture here that give talent the opportunity to blossom. I think I’ve shown before that nothing will ever stand in the way of that. As long as they show they care and want to learn and want to develop we can give them that opportunity here. Players and people come in all different shapes and sizes with different traits. All I can say is that if we were looking to bring in a player who was a risk then two years ago I couldn’t have done it because the environment wasn’t created. What we have here now is a culture of performance and hard work – the infrastructure is set up to allow players to flourish. If you’re not that way, if that’s not your character then it will be really difficult for you. But I understand that sometimes you have to take a risk with people. A lot of time if you take a risk you can get a reward for it.” liverpoolecho.co.uk/incoming/rodgers-insists-balotelli-arrival-wont-7660746
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 04:09:21 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015