Football
Glenn Price, Liverpool correspondent 7y

Frank de Boer: Chance to manage Liverpool came 'too soon'

Frank de Boer has told the Daily Mail that he once rejected the chance to manage Liverpool because it was "too soon" in his career. 

The former Ajax and Barcelona defender began a career in management following his retirement from football in 2006 and was recently sacked by Inter Milan after just 85 days in charge.

De Boer insists he would like to manage in the Premier League one day and says Liverpool approached him regarding the manager's position in 2012 when he was in charge at Ajax.

Liverpool were looking for a replacement to Kenny Dalglish, but De Boer opted to stay in Amsterdam, with Brendan Rodgers moving to Anfield from Swansea City instead.

"I would love to manage here [in the Premier League]," De Boer said. "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."

The former Netherlands international won four consecutive Eredivisie titles with Ajax between 2011-14 before departing for the San Siro.

"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 [Guardiola]," De Boer added. "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 [in which the captain criticised the club's Ultras] 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."

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