Rodgers has gone

[homer]

Top article

 

[homer]

Including a special bit for Pops

"The departure of Kasper Schmeichel to Nice left Rodgers with Wales international goalkeeper Danny Ward, who is not good enough at this level"

 

[TornadoShaunUK]

Listening to non Leicester fans like Jamie O'Hara at the minute is getting on my wick. 'They've not signed anybody let's be honest'...'Brendan is a Top manager' bla bla bla.

Souttar, Kristiansen and Tete in January. Smithies and Faes in the summer. Daka, Soumare, Vestergaard, Lookman, Bertrand. All that within the last 2 years. Literally all of which have turned to shit within a month of a positive debut under him.....



I kind of hope he goes to Spurs just so I can await O'Hara's sea change in opinion a year from now when it all starts to go to shit for him there too.

 

[Graz]

Leicester City's fear of relegation saw Brendan Rodgers axed – just like Ranieri​

Brendan Rodgers' tenure at Leicester City is over with the club taking drastic action in a bid to halt their slide into the relegation zone

ByJohn Percy2 April 2023 • 5:06pm

Brendan Rodgers' four-year reign at Leicester is over

When Leicester City axed Claudio Ranieri nine months after winning the Premier League title, the decision was made amid fears the club were heading for inevitable relegation.

A little over six years later, history has repeated itself. Leicester have been left with no alternative but to part company with Brendan Rodgers because they are convinced the alarming nosedive in results will end with the drop.

Rodgers’ departure by mutual agreement is only a surprise in the timing, with 10 games remaining to save the club from relegation to the Championship.

Supporters have been demanding change for over 18 months, and it is probably the Europa League defeat by struggling Legia Warsaw in Sept 2021 that can now be regarded as the turning point.

Leicester did try to give Rodgers time to turn the situation around. Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, the chairman, has come under scrutiny for his delay in taking action, but the truth is that he still had faith in Rodgers. He felt the risk in making a change was too great and could have a detrimental effect.
That faith finally disappeared after Leicester’s late defeat at Crystal Palace, and Rodgers was summoned for talks before a recovery session on Sunday.

The last 12 months or so have been excruciating. Rodgers had frequently spoken of his desire for a “healthy shake-up” of the squad, but funds were limited in the summer amid fears over Financial Fair Play breaches.

Leicester also adopted the stance that Rodgers had been generously backed in the summer of 2021. They could not risk signing two or three more players last year who turn out to be bad buys, while also adding to an already bloated squad.

Though Leicester signed Wout Faes for £15m, after the sale of Wesley Fofana to Chelsea, Rodgers’ mood was dark on deadline day.

After the home defeat by Manchester United his comments over a lack of backing angered the hierarchy.
They argued that Rodgers should be doing better with the team he had available. In their view, it was not a set of players that should be anywhere near the bottom of the table, and that remains the view now.
It was a tricky position for Rodgers to be in: he had made it quite clear that he wanted new signings but had to rely on players that he did not rate. Caglar Soyuncu and Boubakary Soumare were two players he did not want in his squad.

The departure of Kasper Schmeichel to Nice left Rodgers with Wales international goalkeeper Danny Ward, who is not good enough at this level.

Rodgers was backed in January with the funds generated from Fofana’s sale, but despite an initial uplift in form Leicester have gone seven games without a win.

It has only seemed a matter of time for weeks. Rodgers has appeared frequently downbeat, and negative in interviews. Team selection has been unpredictable. Training sessions are alleged to have been repetitive and boring with some players.

Rodgers' decision to give the squad last week off, in the first week of the international break, was a huge surprise to many senior officials at the club, considering the perilous position.

Many supporters have always felt convinced that Rodgers was only using Leicester as a stepping stone to a bigger club. There has never seemed any real affection between him and the fanbase, despite the exhilarating football in his first two full seasons.

This season, Rodgers has looked as if he wanted putting out of his misery. There is a reasonable argument that most managers have a life-span of three years until players need a new voice and direction.

To complete four years at this level, as I wrote in February, is an achievement that cannot be overestimated.

He has been isolated at times, and the lone voice. Srivaddhanaprabha writes a column in the programme but chief executive Susan Whelan and director of football Jon Rudkin have not spoken with the English press since Claudio Ranieri’s unveiling in July 2015.

There will be many pundits and neutrals who repeat the old tropes of ‘be careful for what you wish for’ and ‘it’s only Leicester, what do they expect’?

These should be ignored, for the people who actually pay the money to watch games have been frustrated for months, or longer.

Perhaps Rodgers should have gone earlier, for it has to be remembered that those first two and a half years were special. He did not deserve the situation to become so toxic.

He will return, most probably in the Premier League, and the chance to recharge will be good for him.

Now the change has come and Leicester are locked in a 10-game shootout for survival.
The prospect of Championship football does not bear thinking about.

I love John Percy. Always so accurate, great article.

Share this with any neutrals or any pundits thinking Brendan deserved better...

 

[Graz]

I did a 20 mile run this morning for my marathon training, finishing in the sunshine in front of a crowd and feeling good for it.

Then fished out my phone to find a bunch of texts telling me Rodgers had gone!

Oh happy day!

Now just don't **** up the replacement - I'm terrified we're going to get Vieira...

 

[taupe]

Listening to non Leicester fans like

Yep, just reading comments btl on a number of websites, it's quite clear that some people have no idea wtf they're talking about. Doesn't stop them spouting when they've probably only followed us in highlights and results, and no idea at all about the mood of fans who watch week in, week out.

 

[popillius]

Including a special bit for Pops

"The departure of Kasper Schmeichel to Nice left Rodgers with Wales international goalkeeper Danny Ward, who is not good enough at this level"

My fave.

 

[ElsieEfsie]

Left by mutual agreement of all four sides of the Stadium.

 

[alex]

I suspect he has something lined up if he's happy to leave... Spuds?

 

[fitz]

That Percy article sums it up nicely. Odd to read that he doesn't rate Soumare though....

 

[Graz]

I suspect he has something lined up if he's happy to leave... Spuds?

I think Spurs are absolutely Spursy enough to take him

 

[pork pie fox]

Potter is available…..

 

[give_us_a_wave]

I've had to take some time to digest it. But obviously I'm delighted.

As well as being utterly disgusted that it's taken this long.

All in all it's actually a surreal state of affairs. Quite unlike anything I can ever remember.

I've followed this club for 48 years. When I started being interested in the game I remember looking up Leicseter & being delighted to find out that we were in the top half of the top division & apparently widely admired for the football we played. I was pretty ecstatic. It never, not even for a second, occured to me that I would support anyone other than my home town club. I was frankly baffled that anyone would (barring family connections of course, I was prepared to allow that)

Of course that team rapidly disintegrated & won **** all. In truth they never came close. But I still held out hope that we would rebuild & win things. After all, I watched both Derby & Forest win the league, so why wouldn't we? That all dies away very quickly as I got older though as it became clear to me that we had a parochial board who had no actual ambition & were more interested in using the club as a promotional tool for their business interests. So i decided that winning the league wasn't going to happen. But with a bit of luck & a couple of shrewd signings under a decent manager I definitely thought we could win the FA Cup.

As I said...48 years. Which means I belong to a generation that considered the FA Cup a massive deal. Our playground kickabout fantasies weren't about scoring the winner in a league game that secured the title. they were about scoring at Wembley in front of 100,000 & millions on the telly. So that became the dream. Seeing City do that.

So, to think that all these years later, the manager who finally made that happen leaves as 2nd on my all time shit list behind only Frank McLintock is ****ing mind boggling. But it's how it is.

Of course, it could still turn out that the damage he's done is much bigger & longer lasting than anything that other turd managed. In which case he'll probably end up dispalcing him at the top of the list. But for now...well, **** off Brendan. & i hope your career spirals down into nothing & you end up back in the footballing wastelands north of the border where your bullshit will probably still play.

Bring on whoever. I really don't care. There's nobody I'm remotely interested in who would a) want to come here or b) is even available so I don't give a **** who it is.

Just keep us up so i can enjoy the summer.

Sorry, rambling. I've cracked open a bottle of JD to celebrate & have had to correct 14 typos.

 

[alex]

POTTER, PLEASE...

 

[give_us_a_wave]

Potter is available…..

JESUS CHRIST !

That has divine intervention written all over it. Come on you useless wankers. get in there before ****ing Spurs move for him. It was always inevitable from 3 seconds after he signed that he'd never last at Chelsea. But we're perfect for him. A rebuilding job. Even if we go down he'd be the perfect choice to get us back.

If Top hasn't rung him already he needs stringing up by his bollocks from the clock tower. GERRIMIN !!!!!!!!!

 

[bocadillo]

I suspect he has something lined up if he's happy to leave... Spuds?

Potter has been sacked. Perhaps Brendan already has a new job .

 

[give_us_a_wave]

Sorry. I've calmed down now. Thats not the way we roll.

Whelan, Rudkin & Top will have a conference call. Top will consult with the rest of the family. Then have a think. Take in a polo match or two. Then decide it's maybe a good idea. Should take about a fortnight.

By which time Potter will be at Spurs.

****.

 

[ElsieEfsie]

Sorry. I've calmed down now. Thats not the way we roll.

Whelan, Rudkin & Top will have a conference call. Top will consult with the rest of the family. Then have a think. Take in a polo match or two. Then decide it's maybe a good idea. Should take about a fortnight.

By which time Potter will be at Spurs.

****.

And we will be down. Always look on the bright side of life

 

[Miles Away]

Listening to non Leicester fans like Jamie O'Hara at the minute is getting on my wick. 'They've not signed anybody let's be honest'...'Brendan is a Top manager' bla bla bla.

Souttar, Kristiansen and Tete in January. Smithies and Faes in the summer. Daka, Soumare, Vestergaard, Lookman, Bertrand. All that within the last 2 years. Literally all of which have turned to shit within a month of a positive debut under him.....



I kind of hope he goes to Spurs just so I can await O'Hara's sea change in opinion a year from now when it all starts to go to shit for him there too.

Do yourself a favor and ignore them

 

[Brown Nose]

Why Leicester sacked Brendan Rodgers – player unrest, split fanbase and facing relegation​

Rob Tanner
Apr 2, 2023

Brendan Rodgers is one of the most successful managers in Leicester City’s history, but his departure after just over four years felt inevitable in the end.

Even after leading the club to a first FA Cup triumph, a Community Shield win and two fifth-placed Premier League finishes (and one eighth-placed finish), Rodgers was not immune, although it seemed it was the last thing chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha wanted to do.

He may have been responsible for two European campaigns — they have only had six in their history — and reached the Europa Conference League semi-final last season, but the worst opening to a top-flight campaign the club has experienced since 1983 and more poor form that plunged his side back into the relegation zone with 10 games to go proved to be Rodgers’ undoing.

It was a decision the owners took on Saturday night with a heavy heart after all of Rodgers’ achievements. There was the honest assessment that they had been unable to help him refresh the squad as he had wanted because of financial fair play constraints, but they still expected more. They did not expect their Premier League status to be hanging by a thread.

What they witnessed in the 2-1 defeat away to Crystal Palace was the catalyst. They saw a side devoid of confidence, a fanbase drained of belief, split and in some cases resigned to the drop, and they witnessed the bounce that a change of manager could have as Roy Hodgson returned to spark life into a team that had not tasted victory in 2023. Leicester will be hoping for a similar response this week as they face back-to-back home games against Aston Villa and Bournemouth.

Rodgers had credit in the bank that kept him in his job for longer than most had been afforded when going through difficult times. Finally, that credit ran out. Many fans had turned and when that happens, generally the club’s owners listen. Rodgers had been at the training ground on Sunday morning to pore over the Palace defeat as his future was being discussed. He soon discovered his fate.

While there was a lot of sadness when he was told, there was conviction that it was the right call. As they hoped he would turn it around, there is not a successor waiting in the wings and all options are on the table. In the meantime, first-team coach Adam Sadler and goalkeeper coach Mike Stowell have been placed in temporary charge.

James Maddison, who has excelled under Rodgers, sums up the mood after the defeat to Palace that has left them second bottom.The pressure had been building on Rodgers from sections of the fanbase even before the season kicked off.

Though there was mitigation surrounding injuries to key players, the failure to address the club’s persistent problems defending set pieces until the arrival of set-piece coach Lars Knudsen and 6ft 6in defender Harry Souttar and an alarming tendency to run out of steam in games and concede late goals has spread into this season. Ironically, Rodgers’ last taste of action as Leicester boss was the devastating blow of Palace’s last-gasp winner at Selhurst Park. It proved to be the knockout punch, but many had seen it coming.

To those observers, the moment it all started to go wrong was the FA Cup surrender at East Midlands rivals Nottingham Forest in February last year. But even before then, there was the 3-2 defeat at home to Tottenham Hotspur when Rodgers’ side were 2-1 up entering stoppage time, only to show incredible naivety to concede two Steven Bergwijn goals in the 95th and 97th minutes.

It was deja vu when they dropped two points to Brighton & Hove Albion the following weekend. They conceded stoppage-time goals against West Ham United, Newcastle United and Everton. The defensive and mental fragility that has been a feature of this season had started to emerge and Rodgers was unable to stop the rot.

Around the time of the Forest defeat, Rodgers began to talk about refreshing his squad and how the natural cycle of the group he inherited had come to an end. His frustration at the inability to bring in a central defender in that January window would become a feature of the remainder of his reign.
It was not just to add more quality to his squad, or more hunger and competition — “competition is a great coach for a player” — but to bring in fresh ears. Rodgers’ style of man-management was no longer having a positive impact on some of his squad. Previously reliable performers were playing at a level way below the standards they had set.

After three years together, things were going stale. Nine of the starting line-up at the City Ground for the 4-1 defeat to Forest had been in the first-team squad Rodgers inherited in February 2019.

Some players were unhappy with Rodgers’ comments after their FA Cup exit to Forest last season and relationships have not healed.

The club were putting the brakes on their spending under Rodgers, having registered a record net outlay of £55million ($62.8m) on five players during the summer 2021 transfer window — Boubakary Soumare, Patson Daka, Jannik Vestergaard, Ryan Bertrand (free transfer) and Ademola Lookman (loan) – without a key asset being sold that summer. That was a major contributory factor in Leicester’s recent record loss of £92.5million.

He was left needing to get more out of a group of players who were upset at his criticism after the loss to Forest. Three of those signings were earmarked to be moved on just 12 months after their arrival — Vestergaard, Soumare and Bertrand.

“That’s why a lot of these players are not top players — because they can’t sustain it,” Rodgers said after the FA Cup defeat, telling them he had been embarrassed by their display. There are players here who may have achieved everything they can.”

It was hardly motivational and without the club’s financial support in the next summer window, Rodgers had backed himself into a corner. Now he had to get a tune out of the same fiddle he had complained about.

It was a stinging rebuke and went down in the dressing room like a lead balloon. Many were now looking for the exit door. However, that door was closed to many by Leicester’s asking prices and their contracts.
Youri Tielemans, who refused to sign a new contract, was not the only one who felt he had achieved as much as he could at Leicester. Others such as Caglar Soyuncu and Wilfred Ndidi were now looking at opportunities elsewhere and their form has suffered.

Then there were the players Rodgers had been referring to, like Vestergaard. Rodgers had chosen the Dane as a signing following Wesley Fofana’s injury, but the centre-back had by now been discarded and continues to be out in the cold. In a recent interview in the Danish media, he stated he did not understand why he wasn’t anywhere near Rodgers’ team. Rodgers was furious, calling Vestergaard into his office at the training ground. His signing and Bertrand have been a disaster. Soumare and Dennis Praet were seemingly on their way out, too, while patience had worn thin with Ayoze Perez.

When Rodgers publicly questioned Soyuncu’s commitment in training, it left no one in any doubt the Turkey international, who is one of seven players who have moved into the last year of their contracts, that his time was up at the club under Rodgers. With so many knowing they had no future at Leicester, it proved difficult to keep them motivated and committed.

Even club captain Kasper Schmeichel was thinking of his own future. He approached Rodgers at the start of pre-season and revealed he had a tempting offer from Nice, a three-year contract Leicester seemed unwilling to match. When Leicester accepted their transfer offer, Schmeichel knew his 11 years with the club were over. He too recently claimed in an interview he did not want to leave.

Schmeichel was a leader on the pitch but could be a challenging character off it, although demanding high standards is not a bad thing and Schmeichel’s absence has been felt within a dressing room now missing its bigger characters. Rodgers was left to search for leadership elsewhere, especially when Jonny Evans was injured.

Schmeichel was one of the highest-paid players at the club, on around £120,000 per week. His departure would help ease the club’s finances as they looked to deal with a rising wage-to-revenue ratio of 85 per cent, which was threatening their ability to conform to UEFA’s financial fair play rules. Those wages and contracts had grown steadily during Rodgers’ tenure and the plump contracts were a major factor in the inability to move on surplus players last summer.

Schmeichel wanted to stay at Leicester before Nice’s offer of a three-year contract (Photo: Getty Images)
Rodgers was convinced Danny Ward could step up as No 1 after being back-up to Schmeichel for nearly four years and, in May, he finally gave the Wales international his first league start since joining the club in 2018. He said it was a mutual decision with Schmeichel and Ward, but Schmeichel was unhappy his run of 149 consecutive league games had come to an end.

The mood has darkened in the squad in the past 12 months with cliques forming, particularly among the Belgium internationals, who are all close having come through similar pathways in their homeland. Praet, Tielemans and new arrival Wout Faes all came through Anderlecht’s Purple Talent Programme. Rodgers has dropped Timothy Castagne and Tielemans this season.

Praet’s experience is an indication of how Rodgers can quickly change his mind. Torino wanted to sign Praet again after his loan spell in Italy last season, but Rodgers had a change of heart when he realised he was not getting the full squad refresh he craved. He said Praet had a big role to play, yet he has been used sparingly. Likewise, he altered his stance over Soumare, but since the turn of the year, he hasn’t completed 90 minutes.

Rodgers had not lost the dressing room totally and players like James Maddison, who he made captain, were fully supportive. Rodgers has had a huge impact on his career, but doubts were starting to creep into the minds of others, even the more experienced like Jamie Vardy, who has been marginalised in recent weeks.

The manager had started making mistakes that were not happening before. Substitutions and tactical switches he would get right in previous years were now going wrong, such as when he took off Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall on the opening day of the season with his side 2-0 up against Brentford, only for them to slip to a 2-2 draw.

Rodgers has been steadfast in his commitment to his style of play, the patient build-up from the back, looking to play through the lines, probing for the openings. It has not worked with this group of players. They are too prone to losing possession in bad areas and putting themselves under pressure. It has happened in every game this season, but Rodgers was stubborn in his belief.
After the Palace game, Rodgers looked like a man resigned to his fate, drained by the experience and devoid of solutions.

Rodgers has talked about time running out for some players but there was the impression Rodgers felt he could do little more at Leicester, especially when he discovered the purse strings had been tightened this summer unless he could move on some peripheral figures. Targets had been identified, such as winger Cody Gakpo at PSV Eindhoven before he joined Liverpool, but without departures, there could be no arrivals.

Rodgers has spoken about his ambitions and how he is not a manager for “maintaining” a club that is standing still but is one to build and make progress, while constantly pointing out his squad “needed help” that wasn’t forthcoming. There have been distinct echoes of the last few months of his time as manager at Liverpool, where he felt he needed more help from the board to boost his squad.
It has followed a similar track to his time at Liverpool. After an initial boost when Rodgers arrived, there was a period of success, but the decline has been just as rapid as the climb. In Leicester’s case, it has been spectacular.

Rodgers led Leicester to their first FA Cup triumph only 16 months ago (Photo: Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)

One source, who asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships, describes Rodgers as a “systems guy” who goes into clubs and lays out his plan, but when it stops working and needs evolving, he cannot change it, as Pep Guardiola has been able to do at Manchester City.
His four years at Leicester is his longest period at any club.

That may be why Rodgers has appeared to be preparing for his exit and speaking like a man who has had enough, although he then insisted he was fully committed to turning around the team’s fortunes and owner Khun Top initially backed his beleaguered manager. Even when the fans started to turn, Khun Top kept faith until now. Time will tell if it has come too late.

The club’s statement said they had come to a mutual agreement with Rodgers. He will get a handsome payoff. He had over two years left to run on his contract worth around £8million a season, the highest ever given to a Leicester manager. The payments are likely to be spread over several years. His stock remains high and the memories of his achievements are still fresh in the memories of clubs who may look to make changes in the summer. He will get offers for a quick return.

As for the next Leicester manager, the priority will be to bring together a talented squad and devise a new game plan they will buy into.

Brentford’s Thomas Frank is admired internally, but it is unlikely they will get him. Likewise, Graham Potter has been the long-term favourite to succeed Rodgers. His situation at Chelsea will be keenly watched internally at Leicester as the pressure mounts after their 2-0 defeat at home to Aston Villa.

Austrian coach Adi Hutter and former Liverpool and Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez will be in the mix and both are available. The question will be whether they relish the battle for survival and the task of completely rebuilding a squad.

It could be the fresh start Leicester need, the players require and Rodgers may relish in time.