Rodgers says Mourinho gave him confidence to become successful leader

Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has said that Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho gave him the confidence to become a successful leader in football.

Rodgers, who joined Mourinho at Stamford Bridge as youth boss in 2004, said that he arrived at Chelsea as an academy director, so he had gone through lots of roles and had a vision and philosophy well in place.

Rodgers, who will attempt to crush Mourinho's Premier League title hopes during this weekend, said that he arrived at Chelsea working there with a guy who had been a winner but did not have the protection of being a big player to get his opportunity, the Daily Star reported

Rodgers said that Mourinho had to go down a different route and that gave the current Liverpool boss the confidence that one can become a leader in his field by doing that.

Rodgers also said that their ideas on football were not exactly the same but he saw seen how Mourinho dealt with players and how he gained respect from players.

The Liverpool boss added that he learnt from Mourinho to be super professional, as the Chelsea boss' day did not finish at 1:30 pm, adding that if one works hard one can get their rewards and the Portuguese worked tirelessly all his life.

Rodgers, who left Chelsea after Mourinho departed to manage other clubs before returning back to the Premier League side last year, has remained close to the Portuguese ever since and even received a text from him in 2012 to tell him to take the Liverpool job, the report added.