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Pep Guardiola would’ve struggled to do a better job than Brendan Rodgers
The statement from Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha suggested that he thought Leicester City had a very good manager. So, obviously, he sacked him. Why? Well, we can
www.thetimes.co.uk
Absolute drivel, but just shows how effective Rodgers has been slagging the club off all season.
The statement from Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha suggested that he thought Leicester City had a very good manager. So, obviously, he sacked him. Why? Well, we can all read the league table; we can all look at a sequence of results that reads six defeats and a draw since beating Tottenham Hotspur on February 11. And these days, that means Brendan Rodgers has to go.
Equally, though, it’s Leicester. They’re one of 13 Premier League clubs who begin every season afraid of relegation. Some lousy buys, or limited buys; good players sold; bad injuries; a run of luck that saps confidence. A club of Leicester’s size are vulnerable to them all. Time was up, the owners accepted this. They placed the job of the manager in context, considered the circumstances. They looked at the man in prime position and reviewed the alternatives. They didn’t always hand out a P45.
Rodgers was a good manager for Leicester, and the chairman acknowledged this, even at the end. So why not let Rodgers continue being just that? A good manager, but going through a difficult time. A good manager, but in need of better support. Crystal Palace scored with a minute remaining on Saturday. Had Jean-Philippe Mateta’s goal not gone in — and he was onside by a whisker — Leicester would have been outside the bottom three and would have drawn two consecutive away games, with home matches against Aston Villa and Bournemouth up next. Leicester put four past Villa the previous time the teams met, only two months ago, and would fancy their chances against Bournemouth.
Mateta’s late winner for Palace on Saturday signalled the end of Rodgers at Leicester
TONY O’BRIEN/REUTERS
It’s ridiculously tight at the bottom. West Ham United beat Southampton 1-0 on Sunday and rose six places. If Khun Top genuinely believes what he said about Rodgers in his statement, this seems such a short-term decision. If Leicester truly have “experienced some of our finest footballing moments under his guidance”, then why would the club jettison the manager on the twist of fate that is a stoppage-time goal? There are candidates out there, obviously. Yet better than Rodgers? Not in any way that comes guaranteed.
Rodgers’s four seasons at Leicester include the first FA Cup win in the club’s history, a European semi-final and two fifth-place finishes. Is there any manager out there now fancied to replicate that? Thomas Frank, at Brentford? Frank would kill for that run at Leicester. So would Pep Guardiola if placed in Rodgers’s shoes. And so would Vincent Kompany, Michael Carrick, or any of the names that will be linked to the job in the coming days, plus almost everybody that came before.
Rodgers is up there with almost all of his Leicester predecessors. Martin O’Neill did a brilliant job, but it is approaching 23 years since he departed for Celtic; Claudio Ranieri performed the miracle of miracles. Yet take those two away, and here’s what a great Leicester manager does: he wins promotion. Nigel Pearson, Micky Adams, Brian Little, all the way back to Gordon Milne and Jock Wallace. They won promotions. Leicester’s status as a first-tier club has never been guaranteed, let alone trophies and European football. So Rodgers genuinely achieved; Rodgers deserved more than one wobbly season and out.
Mitigations for Leicester’s plight? There are plenty. Rodgers has been privately advocating an overhaul of the squad for some time, without success. The players who have been bought have been largely inadequate and, for that, the director of football, Jon Rudkin, must share blame.
Rodgers hoped to have greater funds but instead the club continued selling their best players, the latest being Wesley Fofana to Chelsea. There has been no replacement for the 36-year-old Jamie Vardy, and financial fair play limitations mean equally tough times lie ahead. The paucity of talent has made it hard for Rodgers to play the brand of football he prefers, which can become turgid or timid without players who possess the right skill set.
Rodgers was not helped by Leicester continuing to sell their best players, including Fofana to Chelsea
HARRIET LANDER/ CHELSEA FC VIA GETTY IMAGES
And, yes, of course, sometimes it is possible to upgrade. In 2015, when Liverpool dismissed Rodgers, they brought in Jürgen Klopp, one of the finest coaches in Europe. Klopp’s time with Borussia Dortmund had ended disappointingly, but this was still a manager with a superb track record, and a style and personality that was perfectly suited to his new club. That much was obvious from the start. Change isn’t always for the worst.
Rodgers went to Real Madrid as Liverpool manager in 2014 and lost, playing for a draw, having omitted Steven Gerrard, Raheem Sterling and Philippe Coutinho from the starting line-up. Klopp beat Barcelona 4-3 on aggregate from 3-0 down with a bravura display of courage and verve and went on to win the Champions League. Rodgers did a good job at Liverpool; Klopp did better.
Yet who is the Klopp for Leicester? Who is the manager who is so plainly an improvement that it makes dismissing Rodgers an unambiguously smart move? Maybe Khun Top knows something we do not. Maybe Mauricio Pochettino is, as we speak, telling his agent to take Real off speed dial because Leicester is the place for him. Perhaps Julian Nagelsmann punched the air when relieved of his duties at Bayern Munich, knowing Leicester were poised to come in.
That aside, it’s probably just another decent manager whose availability and willingness to leave his present position is as yet unknown. Frank signed a new contract but it will surely have a release clause. Marco Silva certainly has one at Fulham. Yet can they keep Leicester up, let alone win the FA Cup and qualify for Europe? Who knows? Rodgers did, consistently. But he’s on his way, and on the market.
And if there is ever confirmation of the lunacy of modern football, it is that Rodgers is now 3-1 second favourite with Sky Bet to be the next manager of Tottenham Hotspur. Usually, it works the other way. A manager gets sacked by Tottenham and is fancied to end up at Leicester on the rebound. Not this time. Oddsmakers can see the job Rodgers did at Leicester and reckon Daniel Levy, the Tottenham chairman, can too. They probably remember that he was offered the job before André Villas-Boas when the club were considering parting company with Harry Redknapp. Pundits and supporters are discussing the possibility of another approach now, given that he is unexpectedly available.
What would it say if Rodgers were trusted with getting Tottenham back in the race for the Champions League places, but not with keeping Leicester up?
Thirteen departures in top flight this season
August 2022
Scott Parker, Bournemouth, sacked
September
Thomas Tuchel, Chelsea, sacked
Graham Potter, Brighton, departs for Chelsea
October
Bruno Lage, Wolves, sacked
Steven Gerrard, Aston Villa, sacked
November
Ralph Hasenhüttl, Southampton, sacked
January 2023
Frank Lampard, Everton, sacked
February
Jesse Marsch, Leeds United, sacked
Nathan Jones, Southampton, sacked
March
Patrick Vieira, Crystal Palace, sacked
Antonio Conte, Tottenham Hotspur, departs
April
Brendan Rodgers, Leicester City, sacked
Potter, Chelsea, sacked
