Liverpool legend Gary McAllister has opened up on the time he was once offered a job working under Brendan Rodgers in 2015, only for the former Reds manager to get sacked just eight games later.
Despite enjoying a short but successful career on Merseyside, most notably playing a key role in the 2000-01 cup treble, the Scotsman earned himself legendary status among Reds fans and made 87 appearances prior to his return to Coventry City in 2002.
Thirteen years later, however, and McAllister would return to Anfield in a much different capacity, this time as first team coach to Rodgers as part of a new lineup of backroom staff, which included Sean O'Driscoll as assistant manager along with Dutch coach Pep Lijnders .
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McAllister, at the time, said he was "really excited about coming back" to Anfield and owed the club for getting the opportunity at the last stage of his career.
"The capacity was mentoring, a second coach," McAllister told Liverpoolfc.com . "Brendan was very much an on-the-grass coach and manager, he took all the sessions and wrote all the sessions. Pep Lijnders had been pushed up as well from the Academy and Sean O’Driscoll was coming in. Again, it wasn’t a financial thing, it was just the fact of getting back to Liverpool."
However, that excitement would soon fizzle out just three months later when Rodgers was sacked after three wins in Liverpool's first eight games of the 2015-16 campaign. "I didn’t realize Brendan was under so much pressure and within eight league games he was gone," McAllister said.
The 59-year was then left at a loose end, with the club informing him that incoming manager Jurgen Klopp would be bringing his own backroom staff with him to Anfield. They didn't want to sack him, but also couldn't keep him on at the same time, yet a solution was found.
"So I’d had a real good, steady job and contract in TV and then all of a sudden, I don’t know where I’m going to be," McAllister explained. "Ian Ayre came to me and said, ‘Listen, you’re not fired but we don’t know what to do’ because Jürgen Klopp came in and was going to bring his own coaches, which I totally understood.
"There was no place for me there. But Ian said, ‘We’ll keep paying your wages’ and then I got involved with being a club ambassador, which was brilliant. I loved the fact that he said we’ll find you something. They came up with a plan, a commitment to the club, which was just a no-brainer."
Following his brief coaching role back at Liverpool, the former midfielder also went on to be assistant manager to Steven Gerrard at both Rangers and Aston Villa, before leaving the latter in 2022 following the 44-year-old's sacking at Villa Park.
McAllister is also just one of many Scotsmen who have enjoyed a successful career at Anfield and believes the Scots and Scousers are a great fit. In fact, he claims it's what helped him to feel "really comfortable" when arriving on Merseyside.
He said: "I think it’s a good fit, Scots and Liverpool work! And I think because I come from near Glasgow. Glasgow and Liverpool are both ports, both working-class cities, and they’re known for their banter and craic, the humor is very similar. It’s a sharp city. I just felt really comfortable from the minute I arrived."
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