Brendan Rodgers has revealed he persuaded Neil Taylor to stay at Swansea City instead of joining Newcastle United in 2011 while climbing down from Mount Kilimanjaro.
The Northern Irishman guided the Swans into the Premier League courtesy of a dramatic 4-2 win over his former club Reading in the play-off final at the end of the 2010/11 season. Shortly after getting the Swans into the promised land, Rodgers joined a host of celebrities on a charity walk up Mount Kilimanjaro.
But the current Leicester City boss has revealed he was late hearing about Newcastle's interest in former Wales star Taylor due to a lack of phone signal on the 5,895-metre-high mountain in Tanzania.
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"Because we had no phone signal when we were there. I nearly lost one of my players," he said speaking to Chris Kamara and Ben Shephard on Kammy & Ben's Proper Football Podcast.
"The club was trying to get hold of me whilst I was away. Neil Taylor was going to leave, and he'd spoken to Newcastle United at the time. Thankfully, I got signal once we got back down the mountain, I was able to talk him around staying after we got promoted to the Premier League."
Rodgers enjoyed two memorable years with the Swans before joining Liverpool in 2012. And the 49-year-old admits he knew he had to be successful in south Wales after being sacked by Reading.
"It was just a hand in glove," he added. "I knew there was pressure on me in that job. Going to Reading, if you get sacked, in close to your first job, statistics tell you you might not get back in the game.
"I knew that I needed to be good, I needed to succeed or I would just drift away. It was about the right club and, thankfully for me, Huw Jenkins asked me to come in and it really was the beginning of a magic carpet ride.
"I loved living there, it was an amazing place to live, the guys, the group, the staff, everything came together and we became the first Welsh team to play in the Premier League."
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