Brendan Rodgers explains why he left Celtic for Leicester City

During his first Leicester City press conference, Brendan Rodgers explained his true reasons for leaving Celtic partway through a very important season.

Frustration and disappointment from the Celtic supporters when Leicester City appointed Brendan Rodgers their new manager, is understandable. This is because the decision came at a time when the Hoops can complete a historic treble treble.

If the fans north of the border are completely honest, they will obviously admit the reason for the ill-feeling is due to the 46-year-old’s particularly deft hand at managing all departments of football at Celtic Park. They loved him and were sad to see him depart.

That’s absolutely fine and make your feelings known; preferably in an honest manner with humour and truth. Please do not target anyone in a nasty, vindictive way: endorsing harm or even murder on the man through despicable chanting.

Let Foxes of Leicester be absolutely clear: the vile chanting about Rodgers is unacceptable, but only a minority of the wonderfully passionate Celtic faithful are guilty of such awful behaviour.

The fact that the former Liverpool boss claims to be a fan of the Scottish champions seems to be the other main factor. However, football management is his career so it’s completely normal to move around.

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Friday saw Rodgers give his first Foxes press conference. He answered a multitude of questions about the team he recently left, including the why.

Here’s part of the East Midlands club gaffer’s official media friendly quote from lcfc.com:

"“There was a number of factors in being here [at Leicester City] and, like I say, I’m absolutely delighted”"

While this snippet from his initial presser is candidly revealing as to why the Northern Irishman departed the Hoops:

"“I understand the timing issue because if there was a time, the ideal time would have been the summer.“We [Celtic under Rodgers] were very focused, you saw how we were. This [managerial opening at Leicester City] was just an opportunity that arose very quickly and I had a decision I had to make very quickly. Removing the emotion from that was key.“The opportunity to come to a club like Leicester wasn’t going to wait for me. However hard that was, and I respect people will hurt, but hopefully in time the measure of my success there will be what we did on the field and the improvements we did off the pitch will set the club [Celtic] up for success.“It [managerial offer at Leicester City] would not have waited until the summer. The club had to make a decision in terms of where they were at and the intention was to bring in someone permanent.“When they spoke to Celtic, they made it clear that I was their only choice which means I had to make a decision.”Via Leicester Mercury"

Basically, the Foxes’ new chief is completely transparent when he says that he was Leicester’s only choice and he believed they would have bought another option in if he turned down the offer.

Sunday March 3 sees the Foxes travel to Watford to play the equally good and unpredictable Hornets, in Rodgers’ debut in charge.