Brendon Rodgers has raised the stakes in his quest to have a bigger and better Ex Saints team than well the Ex Saints association.

Brendon Rodgers is turning into the biggest Saints supporter in the country as he attempts to bring the entire squad to Anfield for the coming season, but not content to let the media do his courting of the rest of the Saints squad he has failed to buy so far, he has made it personal by bringing in family members to try and convince Saints players that Anfield is where it is at.

A week ago Brendon's son Anton was in limbo fast becoming the new Antony Pulis he found himself discarded by Oldham after only a year and wondering where his next club was coming from.

But then came a big break for Rodgers junior, Dad Brendon noticed that Saints were due to play at Swindon Town and saw a great opportunity to get his son to spread the word, given Ronald Koeman's penchant for playing two seperate sides in pre season friendlies, the chance to get someone on the pitch for this game was too good to miss.

A quick phone call to the County Ground with saw the deal done with Swindon allegedly now having first option of Steven Gerrard should he leave Anfield plus 24 free tickets for the Anfield stadium tour and with great fanfare Anton Rodgers was heralded as the Robin's new signing and thrown straight into the first team for the visit of Saints.

Thus Anton had two team talks before the game, one from his new boss at Swindon and another from his Dad telling him to keep things tight at corners and not miss the chance to tell Saints players how great Liverpool is.

Anton was also told to hum Beatles tunes during injury breaks and leave flyers in the away dressing room offering discounted train travel to Lime Street as well as cheap hotel deals.

However the plan was foiled at the last moment when Ronald Koeman getting wind of the plans kept his key players safely locked up at St Mary's, leaving Anton to chat up the likes of Jack Stephens and Sam McQueen.

However according to media reports this might not be the end of this dastardly plan, Anton's head is apparently already in Bournemouth and it's likely he will have signed for the Cherries in time to play in Friday night's friendly against who else but Saints.

Bournemouth fan's should not get too attached to their new icon though, Brighton are already bemoaning the fact that they let Rodgers junior slip through their net last year and are believed to be ready to bring him back to the Amex next Monday.

Saints fans unable to travel to any of these friendlies should not despair as Bayer Leverkusen have an extensive scouting network.

Photo: Action Images

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