Ajax manager Frank de Boer was linked with a managerial shift to the English Premier League on more than one occasion. The former Barcelona player was one of the candidates for the Liverpool job after Kenny Dalglish was sacked.
At the time, he felt he was too young to take the reigns at a club abroad. Last summer, he was a prime candidate for the Tottenham Hotspur job. Speaking to FourFourTwo, De Boer revealed that he would have taken the Tottenham job had it been offered to him.
“Together with Mauricio Pochettino I was the biggest candidate, and if they had chosen me, I would’ve done it,” he said in an interview. “I believe you have to take risks, and have the conviction that you’ll succeed.”
The Dutchman has said that he will consider the possibility of a move abroad now. Admitting Monaco also showed interest in him, he has also reiterated that if Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur were to show interest again, he would take the job because he thinks these two clubs will be places where he can present himself well and act the way he wants to.
“If I get an offer from a club in the future, I will consider the possibility and then follow my feeling. I look at whether it’s a club where I think I can present myself well and where I’ll be able to act in the way I like. Before, there was potential interest from Monaco as well, but it wasn’t something I was looking for at that moment. Liverpool and Spurs are clubs I could manage.
“At the time [in 2012], I felt I wasn’t ready for a move abroad. I had just started at Ajax, and I was not finished here at all. Liverpool approached me in the same way Tottenham did this year, wanting to hold exploratory talks first.”
When Liverpool were doing badly in November, links with De Boer emerged again and the Dutch legend who has won five Eredivise titles with Ajax as a player, was rumored to be the man Liverpool’s owners were looking to replace Brendan Rodgers with. In fact, his brother Ronald de Boer also made comments that the Ajax boss will take the Liverpool job if the opportunity was presented.
Four months hence, it is highly unlikely that FSG will sack Brendan Rodgers since the Northern Irishman has sparked a remarkable turnaround at the Merseyside club. After taking time to click, Mauricio Pochettino has also done very well recently with Tottenham and is hoping to lead the London club to a top 4 place. It seems unlikely that either club will part companies with their respective managers but owners of both the English clubs will be pleased that a footballer/manager with De Boer’s credentials is interested to manage their clubs.