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It was interesting to hear Brendan Rodgers speak this week of the sharp learning curve he has experienced this season, a tough education he admits was "needed".

People tend to forget he is still only 40, extremely young in management terms and despite his obvious talents, one who quite patently had to discover the hard way exactly what it means to take charge of such an historic, world renowned club.

The same people - and for people, you can read the small minority who tend to snipe in his direction - also forget he was an appointment for the long term, brought in by owners keen to see a steady and careful transformation at the club.

Rodgers is manager because his employers wanted a change of the philosophies Liverpool pursued in the seasons before his arrival, an ever more destructive spiral of throwing money (particularly in terms of eye-watering player wages) at the problem of competing with the top clubs.

At even the most conservative of estimates, the club have cut their wage bill over the past 12 months by at least £20million a year, and probably closer to £25million, and that process will only continue this summer, as Rodgers again looks to offload yet more peripheral players who are commanding huge salaries.

He has also reduced the age profile of his squad, and without question increased the potential value, with a couple of astute signings and some hard work in transforming players who looked unsaleable only a few months ago.

Of course he has spent some fairly serious money in the transfer market to do that, and made mistakes too - as he freely admits in looking back on a season of frustration and promise in equal measure.

Now he says, after such a tough introduction to life in the pressure cooker, he is a much better prepared manager for the experience.

The point though, is simple. He was backed to do a job - an extremely difficult job - and is only just now getting to grips with that job because even he didn't quite understand the extent of it.

Liverpool were in a mess. Mismanagement by the previous Hicks-Gillett regime, years of overspending on wages and several consecutive years of poor decisions in the transfer market had taken them perilously close to bankruptcy, and left a horribly bloated squad, with millionaire players who were not so much dead wood, as petrified.

The transformation was never going to happen overnight, and could actually take several years even with top class leadership making no mistakes... which doesn't happen in the real world. Unless you have the financial muscle to grapple with the monied superpowers of City, United and Chelsea, it is a fiendishly difficult prospect.

The current owners want to try a different route than slavishly spending their way to success. They have brought in a young manager with a different philosophy to approach the problem from a different angle, developing talent rather than paying hugely inflated wages to attract the biggest stars.

It may or may not work - statistics suggest there is a fundamental correlation between the amount spent on salaries and league position - but they have surely seen enough signs of encouragement so far to stick to the plan.

The form of Philippe Coutinho alone is enough to make anyone believe Liverpool are heading in the right direction. He oozes class, and everyone who has seen him is astonished that Inter Milan not only let him go, but sold him so cheaply.

(Image: John Powell)

Daniel Sturridge has already proved an encouraging buy too, and despite an almost immediate rewriting of history that has questioned the purchase of Joe Allen, he was Liverpool's best player in the first half of the season, and produced hugely influential performances more recently in big, big games against Manchester United and Spurs.

Hell, even Fabio Borini has looked more promising on his recent comeback from injury after his nightmare start to life at Anfield. Of all the signings since last summer, only Oussama Assaidi has proved a dud, and he wasn't a Rodgers purchase.

Add that to the youthful promise of the likes of Raheem Sterling, Andre Wisdom, Suso and even Jordan Henderson and Jonjo Shelvey, and there is much to admire about the direction squad building is taking.

(Image: Action Images)

But it is worth repeating it is just the start for Rodgers. He needs a new keeper, two new central defenders, another left back, a creative midfielder, and probably two more forwards. And that is even before you consider the future of Luis Suarez.

He is not going to find those players in one transfer window, and in all probability given the buying success-rate of even the most successful managers, is going to make some mistakes too.

But as he says, it is a learning curve for the manager as well as the club. It was a bold decision to appoint Brendan Rodgers, but so far it seems a journey that is worth making, especially if it will transform the landscape at Anfield as it promises to.