De Boer explains why he turned down Liverpool job

Matt Stead

Frank de Boer has explained why he rejected the chance to become Liverpool manager in 2012.

De Boer was considered for the post at Anfield after Kenny Dalglish was removed from his role as manager in summer 2012.

Brendan Rodgers was eventually appointed, but De Boer, then of Ajax was approached first.

The 46-year-old, who is currently out of employment after being sacked by Inter Milan, is now open to a Premier League move.

“I would love to manage here,” De Boer told the Daily Mail. “But the project has to be right. I told Liverpool I was honoured but I was only one year in at Ajax, it was too soon. I needed to achieve more, and I did.”

Discussing his experiences, the Dutchman added: “Leaving Ajax after 25 years as player, coach and manager was hard, but sometimes you are saying the same things, you need a new challenge, like Pep.

“But at Inter I had to deal with so many things away from football, you lose energy.

“Every time you thought, ‘Finally, a good result, everything has calmed down’, then comes Mauro Icardi’s book or Marcelo Brozovic is in the discotheque and you have to punish him.

“We only had three months but honestly, it felt like a year.”