Brendan Rodgers discusses Liverpool's failed transfer pursuit for Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez

Brendan Rodgers has discussed Liverpool's failed pursuit of Arsenal forward Alexis Sanchez in the summer of 2014 as the Reds went in search of a "world-class operator" to replace Luis Suarez, who left for Barcelona.

Rodgers led the Merseysiders to a second-placed finish in the Premier League in 2014 but was not able to keep Suarez, who was so crucial to the Reds' title charge, from leaving Anfield for the Nou Camp.

Liverpool used the £75m they received from Barcelona for Suarez on a raft of new players, but they failed to use their recent dealings with the Blaugrana to their advantage and eventually saw Sanchez plump for Arsenal, who will find it hard to hold onto him beyond next summer.

Liverpool failed to capture a number of high-profile transfer targets during Rodgers' tenure: Diego Costa and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were chased by the Reds but both decided to move to Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund respectively.

Rodgers, who is now enjoying a wonderful spell in charge of Celtic, revealed that the Liverpool hierarchy saw Sanchez as a "like-for-like" replacement for Suarez, but the former Swansea City boss eventually ended up having to make do with the likes of Mario Balotelli and Lazar Markovic. The Chile international has meanwhile developed into one of the best players in the Premier League at Arsenal, who will command a £30m fee for the 28-year-old in the January transfer window.

"We felt like Luis [Suarez] was going to move on and we needed to get a world-class operator to go like-for-like," Rodgers told talkSPORT. "We finished second in the league playing a great level of football. Players were flexible in how they could play and then it was about trying to make that next step. And for that we needed to get a replacement. And we deemed Sanchez to be that one."

Liverpool's poor transfer dealings that summer saw them fall from second to sixth in the Premier League, with Rodgers' reign eventually coming to an end the following season after overseeing another transfer splurge courtesy of the funds received from the sale of Raheem Sterling to Manchester City, who are still keen on prising Sanchez away from Arsenal.