Liverpool midfielder Joe Allen has admitted that another club might have sacked manager Brendan Rodgers, following our disappointing performances over the course of last season.
Despite finishing second during the 2013-14 Premier League campaign, the Reds slipped to sixth last time around, and much of the frustration was directed towards our boss.
However, the owners stuck by their man – although coaches Colin Pascoe and Mike Marsh were less fortunate – and the Northern Irishman, who Allen has been with since their Swansea days, will be the man to lead us into the new season.
Speaking about Rodgers’ future, he said: “Yeah, of course, some owners may have been less tolerant after the way the season went. But the players we’ve got here are all honest players who take responsibility.
“At the end of the day, we were the ones who let the supporters, the manager and the staff down — and ourselves down as well. It’s as simple as that. So it’s up to us to get back out there and get back to the levels we know we can reach.”
Last season ended in a turmoil with a 6-1 defeat at the Britannia Stadium, a venue the Reds will visit again for the first game of the 2015-16 Premier League campaign, and Allen admits that the loss was the final nail in the coffin for what was an incredibly disappointing season.
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“The start of last season was disappointing for us,” he said. “We didn’t start the way we would have liked. We turned it around at one point and had a good run from December through to March but in the last two months we dropped off again. To allow the standards and the levels to drop like that was what hurt the most.
“And when you end on a low like we did at Stoke, it’s a really long summer. But thankfully we’re back in now and everyone wants to set the record straight. It’s no point looking back — last season is the past. It takes a while to get over disappointments like that, but our mentality now is to look forward.”
Allen has an important season ahead of him on a personal level as well. The Welshman has spent three years at Anfield but needs to push on if he’s to prove himself capable of being a regular again next year. Emre Can and Lucas Leiva will both be competing for his spot in the team and Allen will know that he must perform well.