THE past is everywhere Brendan Rodgers looks. Or at least it feels that way at the moment.

Having negotiated a first, emotional, return to Swansea City at the weekend, the Liverpool manager now faces a second testing away trip in three days. And Tottenham Hotspur, the Reds’ opponents this evening, are another club with whom Rodgers has his links. Lots of links.

Indeed, had things worked out a little differently last summer, he could easily have been sitting in the home dugout at White Hart Lane tonight, plotting the Reds’ demise.

Rodgers was courted by Spurs during the second half of last season, as Harry Redknapp’s position became increasingly untenable. Contact was made, tentatively, but the Ulsterman opted for Anfield instead. Redknapp’s job eventually went to Andre Villas-Boas.

“Tottenham is a big club with a wonderful history,” says Rodgers. “Harry had done a brilliant job there but obviously they decided that, for whatever reason, it wasn’t to be, and they looked elsewhere.

“I always said that for me leaving Swansea City was a big ask, but I had the opportunity to come here and I’ve not regretted any moment of that.

“Spurs have chosen to go down the route of Andre Villas-Boas, and he will look to continue the great work that Harry has done. But it (the Tottenham link) is irrelevant now. My thinking and focus is only on Liverpool.”

That may well be the case, but surely the 39-year-old still casts an envious glance towards North London every once in a while? Spurs may only be four points – and four places – better off than the Reds at the moment, but there is a financial belligerence, and a squad depth, at White Hart Lane that is absent at Anfield.

Liverpool fans would probably rather not admit it, but they are playing catch up on the Londoners.

“What Tottenham have done in the last four or five years is they’ve built the squad up very well,” admits Rodgers.

“They have invested heavily, and done it over a number of windows.

“It has left them with a very strong squad.

“They obviously lost (Luka) Modric in the summer, which is a big loss, but they’ve still got top players.”

Among those players, of course, are two that Rodgers knows particularly well. Gylfi Sigurdsson and Clint Dempsey, after all, were the banes of his summer.

Sigurdsson had looked certain to follow Rodgers to Anfield at one point. The midfielder had agreed a deal to go to Swansea prior to Rodgers’ departure, and was prepared to move to Merseyside after it. A late U-turn, however, saw the Iceland international opt for Tottenham instead. He has started just five Premier League games since.

“There are no regrets,” insists Rodgers. “He’s a good kid and I wish him the best, but it wasn’t to be.

“All we could do is present to him the opportunity to come to a great club like this, and give him the idea of what we are looking to achieve.

“Obviously having worked with him before, and knowing his strengths, I knew he could play in that central role as a No.10, and this would have been a real good opportunity for him to come here, into a group that is going to evolve.

“He obviously decided to go to Tottenham, a club that have built up their squad over a number of years, and he hasn’t played as much as he probably would have liked.

“But as a player, a manager or a coach, you have got to go with your gut feeling. His gut feeling was to go to Spurs. Whatever reason that was – football, financial, whatever – it doesn’t matter, that was his decision.”

On Dempsey, Rodgers adds: “The club thought that we’d done enough to get the player, but obviously it wasn’t to be and he went to Tottenham. Life moves on.”

And so to the future, or at least the present. Victory at White Hart Lane could move Liverpool into the top half of the Premier League for the first time this season. Rodgers says his side will be going there to do just that.

“It’s a big game against a rival,” he says. “It is going to be a difficult game. But we’ve got great resilience and commitment at the minute, and we’re showing that in our games. Our consistency is really starting to shine through.

“If we could just go that one step further, and turn some of these draws into wins, then that would be good.

“We know we’re not too far away. We’re very close to arriving in that zone that we want to be in. And to win away to a rival would give great confidence to the team.

“Performance levels away from home have been improving, and we know we can go there and win. That’s what we will look to do.”