How Leicester and Rodgers can salvage the 2021/22 season

As well as being a huge boost for the Foxes’ faithful, winning the Conference League comes with several major benefits. First, there is the cash prize. Rodgers has said it again and again, but they don’t have the budget to compete with the big spenders in the Premier League. Winning the cup wouldn’t give them the finances of Manchester City, but it will help with their summer rebuild.

More importantly though, the winners of the Conference League are automatically added to the Europa League group stages for next season, securing a third successive season of Europa League football for Leicester. It allows the 2022/23 season to be a clean slate for Rodgers: that he can look to fix his squad’s form and challenge for the EPL top six once again – whilst also giving fans some more memorable European nights.

It also makes Leicester a much more attractive club to join. Not only competing in European competition, but also having another trophy to their name. Suddenly the prospect of replacing the – inevitably – departing Youri Tielemans becomes a lot easier, as well as giving the likes of James Maddison and Wesley Fofana more of a reason to stay.

In recent years, we’ve seen how hard it is for clubs to be consistently competing in the Europa League. Burnley, Everton, and Southampton have all recently enjoyed a year of European football before failing to reach the competition the next year. Even Arsenal, once Champions League mainstays, found it hard to secure a consistent place in the Europa League.

There are a lot of reasons to be hopeful about winning the cup, and, if they can do it, it will be yet another chapter in an astonishing period for the club. History once again beckons for the Foxes, Rodgers has to give his everything to win it, and to preserve his legacy at LCFC.