Rodgers believes Royals tenure helped

Former Reading manager Brendan Rodgers believes that his spell with the Royals helped him achieve what he has today.

The 39-year old has been rewarded with the Liverpool manager’s post after working wonders with Swansea City. His six month tenure with the Royals came to an abrubt end, being sacked in Decemeber after only winning five times out of 21 games.

Rodgers said: ‘I probably became more clinical after that. I went in there looking to change things too quickly. I went in thinking `Right, the club want a new vision, a new philosophy` and I felt if I stripped it down quickly and let it build then that would be okay.’

‘But what I realised after that was you are still in the business of winning. You talk about football, creativity and invention, but you have to win games – as simple as that. That was something very important to me on reflection when I came away from Reading.’

‘That allowed me to round off everything I do and how I work with players and it brought me success at Swansea. That six months at Reading over the course of a nearly 20-year period coaching and managing has been great learning for me. Hopefully that will be the defining moment of my career.’