Brendan Rodgers was close to making a Swansea City return in 2016, the club's under-fire chairman Huw Jenkins has revealed.

Rodgers led Swansea to promotion from the Championship in the first of his two years in charge, achieving an 11th-place finish in the Premier League in the 2011-12 campaign. The Northern Irishman subsequently moved to Liverpool but Jenkins held talks with Rodgers following his Anfield departure, with Swansea thought to be lining up a summer return after Francesco Guidolin replaced Garry Monk in the January of the 2015-16 season.

Rodgers wins the treble with Celtic

Guidolin was eventually handed a new two-year deal by Swansea, while Rodgers headed to Celtic, where he won a domestic treble last season. The Italian coach was sacked only five months into that contract, with Bob Bradley and Paul Clement following him in and out of Swansea's managerial revolving door since, and Carlos Carvalhal named as the latest man to take on the job on Thursday.

"My biggest regret is not getting Brendan back here at any cost," Jenkins, who cited financial constraints as the reason behind his failure to land Rodgers and a return for midfielder Joe Allen at the same time, told BBC Wales on Friday. "I'm not going to hide from that. And I told him as well a few times. That would have been the biggest thing that we, or I, should have done differently, and that is make sure that at all costs he came back."