Everyone remembers how we found out, but how it all reached that point is often forgotten.
Seven years ago this Tuesday - October 4, 2015 - pundits Jamie Carragher, Thierry Henry and Graeme Souness were sitting in the Sky Sports studio at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium, with Henry in particular enjoying the trio's dissection of the hosts' 3-0 win over Manchester United achieved courtesy of a brace from Alexis Sanchez and a Mesut Ozil strike, all within the first 19 minutes of the match.
Then, just as the former Gunners forward was about to launch into more praise for Ozil and midfielder Francis Coquelin, presenter Ed Chamberlin dramatically stepped in to announce the "big breaking news from the Premier League " that Brendan Rodgers and Liverpool had parted ways.
What happened next has been viewed on gifs and memes millions of times, as a clearly shocked Henry reached for the leg of a frozen Carragher, who shifted his eyes toward the camera in a manner that has now become infamous. Henry, enjoying the drama of it all, failed to suppress a wide-eyed smile, while Souness simply looked off camera and straight ahead, perhaps remembering his own dismissal from Liverpool almost 22 years earlier.
The Scot had lasted less than three years in the job at a club where he remains such a renowned player, and many had been wondering just how Rodgers had made it past the three year mark at Liverpool after a dire end to the 2014-15 season, culminating in a 6-1 loss at Stoke on the final day.
He clung on for two more months of the following campaign though, until that early October afternoon and a 1-1 Merseyside derby draw at Goodison Park, with the point achieved largely thanks to some fine saves from Simon Mignolet.
Within hours he was gone, as a reign which at times had touched the highest of highs was finally brought crashing down long after it had unravelled.
***
Demolished after the derby
The joke on the red side of Merseyside immediately after the sacking was that Rodgers had been dismissed purely because he couldn't beat Everton, but everyone knew there was much more to it than one result.
In fact, the same result kept happening.
The Goodison draw was Liverpool's fifth 1-1 in six matches, with the only respite from that binary sequence coming in a 3-2 win over Aston Villa when a nervy Anfield crowd willed their side to hold on for the final 20 minutes as two Daniel Sturridge strikes were immediately cancelled out by giant Villa forward Rudy Gestede.
Indeed, dealing with physicality was becoming a problem for a Reds side that looked to be lacking in belief, ideas and a determination to play for each other.
Ligue 1 Bordeaux and Switzerland's FC Sion had exploited that by toughing out draws in the Europa League, Norwich City had been good value for a Premier League point at Anfield and League Two Carlisle United had taken the Reds all the way to penalties in the League Cup, only for Adam Bogdan to have his one and only Anfield glory night.
It was Romelu Lukaku who was causing the damage on Rodgers' swansong, with the Belgian forward cancelling out a Danny Ings strike and only being denied more goals by the excellence of his international colleague Mignolet. Everton still haven't won a Goodison derby since 2010, and this was one of their clearer opportunities.
Outside of the Liverpool bubble though, attention was elsewhere.
Reigning champions Chelsea had started the season abysmally and had just lost 3-1 at home to Southampton a day previously to leave them loitering just outside the relegation zone, and so if there was to be a sacking on that Sunday then plenty of smart money would have been on it being that of Jose Mourinho.
Chelsea had form for doing that sort of thing of course, whereas Liverpool didn't.
However, for Rodgers things had long gone past the point of no return.
***
Coaches go under the bus
Colin Pascoe was a Swansea City man through and through.
The Port Talbot-born midfielder played over 250 times for the Swans across two spells in the 1980s and 90s, as well as earning a handful of caps for Wales at a time when they could boast world class players such as Ian Rush, Neville Southall and Mark Hughes, even if the results were usually disappointing.
After taking up a role on the club's coaching staff he would eventually become the right-hand man and confidant to the highly-rated but raw 37-year-old Rodgers when the Northern Irishman was appointed as Swans boss in 2010, following brief, often chastening periods at Watford and Reading.
Two-and-a-half years later, and with Rodgers ill, the unassuming Pascoe would find himself leading a Liverpool team including the likes of Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez for an away game at QPR, with the latter scoring twice in a 3-0 win.
It was a rare moment in the spotlight for Pascoe, who had been a loyal No.2 to Rodgers during his time in south Wales before joining him on Merseyside, sticking by his side for three years at Anfield which included that wild 2013-14 season which so nearly brought giddy Premier League title glory.
Then in the summer of 2015 he was sacked.
Talks between Rodgers, club chairman Tom Werner and Fenway Sports Group president Mike Gordon had arrived at the conclusion that the manager must make some changes if he was to stay in the job, and that included dismissing Pascoe and first-team coach Mike Marsh, the former Liverpool midfielder.
After coming so close to the title in 2013-14, the following season had ended in a sixth-place finish following one of the most dispiriting Reds campaigns in recent memory, which began with exit of Suarez and ended with Gerrard and Raheem Sterling leaving in vastly differing circumstances.
In between there were miserable defeats and an increasing sense that Rodgers was overthinking things, determined to come up with some masterstroke or other that would convince everyone that all was well.
In the early November he fielded a shadow side for a Champions League group stage trip to Real Madrid, who the Reds had failed to lay a glove on in the Anfield tie, ahead of a Premier League game at home to Chelsea. He lost both and it left a bitter taste.
The FA Cup had looked to be a potential face saver, but despite being heavy favourites in the Wembley semi-final against Aston Villa the Reds looked all at sea as Rodgers tried a variety of different formations in the same game, with 20-year-old Sterling preferred as a centre-forward over the likes of Mario Balotelli, Rickie Lambert and Fabio Borini.
Liverpool lost 2-1.
The campaign ended in that mess of a 6-1 loss at Stoke, a sorry farewell for Gerrard, but despite many wanting Rodgers gone there and then he was allowed to plough on through the increasingly muddled picture in front of him.
Never shy of a quote or two, Rodgers had compared football management to "trying to build an aircraft while it is in flight" after becoming Liverpool manager in 2012, and although he came through the gusts and the turbulence of the summer of 2015, the crash landing wasn't far away.
***
The deckchairs on The Titanic
The former Bournemouth, Doncaster Rovers, Crawley Town, Nottingham Forest and Bristol City manager Sean O'Driscoll was appointed as Pascoe's replacement. He had left Crawley in 2012 after just two months in charge, without overseeing a game, to join Forest, where he would be sacked after five months. He then went straight into the Bristol City job, and was out less than a year later.
He'd be on Merseyside for three months.
O'Driscoll had left the England under-19s to become Liverpool's No.2, and the hope was that some fresh ideas could inspire Rodgers to get his mojo back following almost £80m of summer investment.
Christian Benteke was signed as a striker who had proven he could score top-flight goals, Danny Ings was a lively squad option, Roberto Firmino was a mystery attacker full of flair, James Milner provided Premier League-winning experience, Nathaniel Clyne looked to be one of the best right-backs in England and Joe Gomez was an exciting young prospect in defence. In hindsight that really isn't a bad £80m haul, and there was hope.
It's just that Rodgers didn't really seem to know what to do with his new toys.
With Benteke used to a specific type of game, and receiving crosses into the box, Rodgers was picking the young winger Jordon Ibe in the opening few weeks of the season, with no other Liverpool player really offering any natural width.
The manager was trying to get some out of Firmino, although it quickly became clear that he didn't really seem to know what to do with the Brazilian, the signing of whom - and just who was responsible for it - would go on to be a major talking point around the demise of the manager.
With Milner promised a central midfield role, the likes of Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana well aware of where they could do their best work, and newly-appointed captain Jordan Henderson suffering a three-month injury in the season's second game, the constant shuffling around of the midfield would lead to issues elsewhere around the team, with players being asked to play in multiple positions by their manager.
Rodgers started with Firmino, Ings and Benteke for a match against Manchester United at Old Trafford, with the Brazilian operating in a right wing-back role for some of the 3-1 defeat.
It was a mix and a muddle and a mess, and the manager had quite clearly lost the run of himself and his ideas.
Three weeks later, after those five 1-1 draws in six, he was gone. By that stage it felt like the right thing for all concerned.
“I went to Spain for a week. Then I came back, and flew to Dubai. Within a couple of days in Dubai, I was rushed into hospital," Rodgers told The Coaches' Voice when reflecting on his dismissal in 2018.
“I went through all the tests. It was felt that I was having some issues internally, but then they got into the process of what had happened with work, with my life. They pieced it all together, and it was simply a case of my body being so tense, so tight, from all that had happened in finishing my time at Liverpool.”
Rodgers' determination to keep putting a brave face on it while battling internal forces of doubt had impacted his health, and it had been clear that he was under intense stress during his latter weeks and months at Liverpool.
His time in charge can be looked back on with fondness because of what it might have been, but it was abundantly clear when it had run its course.
