Markovic Pushed for Fenerbahce Loan After Relationship with Rodgers Broke Down

Lazar Markovic won’t be making his Liverpool return today, but the young winger on loan at Fenerbahce did take the close of the January transfer window as an opportunity to air some of his grievances with his parent club. Or, more precisely, with departed manager Brendan Rodgers.

The 21-year-old talent, who arrived from Benfica in a £20M deal in 2014, says life under Rodgers started out well and everything seemed to be going just fine. Until one day it wasn’t. And nobody, least of all Rodgers, ever took the time to explain to Markovic just what had happened to turn everything sour.

"I had no problem with Brendan Rodgers and we had a bond until for some reason that remains a mystery to me he changed," said Markovic. "He stopped playing me and then at the start of the season did not even include me in the squad and nobody explained to me what was going on or what his plans were."

With Markovic pushed to the fringes of the first team, the young winger explains that he was the one—and not Rodgers or the transfer committee—who pushed for a loan move for the season in the hopes of finding more playing time and to avoid having his development stalled completely.

Liverpool are believed to have enquired with Fenerbahce about terminating Markovic’s loan early but with no clause in the agreement setting out a termination fee, it is believed the Turkish club’s demands for sending the youngster back to Anfield were too high for Liverpool to seriously consider.

Markovic will return to Liverpool at the end of the season. So far, he has had a decent if unspectacular return, scoring two goals and three assists for Fenerbahce in 19 appearances. Only looking at total minutes, he has seen a little more than 12 games worth of action in all competitions this season.