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Liverpool ended their season with a dismal 6-1 loss to Stoke City, a result that would have been embarrassing enough in and of itself in any season but made more so in the context of how poorly Liverpool finished the season and how poor a send off it was for their departing captain, Steven Gerrard.
Fans quickly assembled their Brendan Rodgers bingo cards ahead of his post-match interview, but rather than getting to mark the usual squares like "outstanding" or "the group", fans scrambled to find a box that said "apology to supporters." It was the first thing on offer to the legions of listening fans, and the lead-in to Rodgers confirming that he's no longer 150% sure of his future at Anfield.
"I've always said that if the owners want me to go, then I go," Rodgers explained. "It's as simple as that. But I still feel I've got a lot to offer the club. A lot has happened this year which has made the job difficult, but I totally understand that. My pride makes me want to be in this job. I love the job, I love the club. But I understand that we need to be better than we have been in recent weeks."
"Our job now is to go away and reflect on this season. There's an awful lot of work to do, and the job is to go and fix that, and make sure we come back with the motivation greater than ever to push on next season. We've finished the season in sixth, it's where we deserve to finish, and we have to start the climb today, to get back up there."
The only real silver lining here is that the season is now officially over, and if Liverpool were ever going to lose 6-1 — let alone to Stoke City — then the last day of the season when people could then go away and immediately start thinking about next season would be a good day to do it. Liverpool have a lot of work to do in the next few months, and the jury is still very much out on whether or not Brendan Rodgers will be around to join them for it.
