Former Liverpool striker Luis Suarez has discussed Brendan Rodgers infamous envelope stunt in his new autobiography.
Rodgers famously declared he had written the names of three players that would let the club down that season and sealed them in three envelopes.
This was early on during his Liverpool reign, and was caught on film as a part of the Being Liverpool documentary.
And in his new autobiography, the Uruguayan has revealed how the stunt went down with the first team squad.
“If I was excited, others were worried,” the 27-year-old said. “And no, not because of the famous envelopes that appeared during a TV documentary about the club.
“Mostly, we just joked about that particular episode, but the manager’s methods really worked for us.
“For those who didn’t see the documentary, Brendan had got the entire squad together during pre-season soon after he had taken over and showed us three envelopes.
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“He told us that inside each envelope was a piece of paper on which he had written the name of someone who would let the team down during the coming season. It was our duty, he said, to make sure that it wasn’t our name in there.
“At the end of the year, he would open the envelopes and reveal the names inside. I hadn’t seen a manager do that before and of course afterwards lots of the players were talking about it.
“There was a group of us sitting there, and Glen Johnson came over and said: ‘I know who’s in the envelopes. I know what’s written on all three pieces of paper.’ Who? What?
“‘Number 3’ . . . ‘Jose’ . . . and ‘Enrique’. We fell about. Jose Enrique protested: ‘No, no, no, no, ingles – I’m not there, you are!’
“We never did find out what was written in those envelopes. It was unusual and I must admit that for a moment I did think: ‘How can you think before the season has even started that there are three people who are going to let you down? And if there is a name in there and he plays well, and you doubted him, what are you going to do then?’
“I’m sure there were no names, it was just a way of motivating us; a tactic to make sure we gave everything. And in truth it got forgotten pretty quickly.”
