With a measly singular point to show for in Leicester City’s opening six Premier League games, speculation is mounting about Brendan Rodgers’ future at the East Midlands club. The Foxes host Aston Villa on Saturday, before a trip to Tottenham Hotspur next weekend, and a winless return from this pair of games could spell the end of the Northern Irishman’s tenure after three and a half years at the helm.
Lots has been made of the financial constraints facing the King Power club, given that only Wout Faes stepped through the door this summer as an outfield player, with reports suggesting that less than half of the £69.5million City received for Wesley Fofana was made available to the manager to bring in reinforcements. £15million of that was spent on the Foxes sole recruit, leading some to suggest that the club would struggle to afford the payoff to relieve their manager of his duties.
With the manager reportedly earning an eight figure salary, the rumoured severance package was between £20 million and £25 million. However, the Daily Mail reported after Sunday’s humiliating Brighton defeat that the lowest possible amount the club could have to pay Rodgers in his dismissal is as little as £10 million.
This would still be a big price to pay just for a change in manager, especially for a club that has operated with its financial hands behind its back for the whole summer. Monday’s reports suggested that the City boss’ job is safe for now, but Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha may soon get to the point where the threat of relegation becomes very real and he feels a change in manager is necessary.
With the Foxes enduring their worst start to a season for 39 years, patience appears to have already worn thin with a large proportion of the fan base, as a banner reading ‘RODGERS OUT’ was unfurled in the Amex away end on Sunday. After the aforementioned two fixtures come some crucial games against Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, Leeds United and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Almost regardless of the results that the Villa and Spurs games produce, the club’s ownership has a big decision on its hands as to whether it sticks with Rodgers for that key run of games, or decides that it cannot continue into that period with a squad low on confidence whose morale has been battered. It might cost upwards of £10 million to change the manager, plus any potential compensation the club could pay if it poaches a boss from elsewhere.
But Srivaddhanaprabha will surely be weighing this risk up against the potential £150 million that relegation to the Championship could cost. Dropping down a division could even be more costly than that.
On paper, City’s squad looks like one that is stacked with quality, and of which any suggestion that it could get itself embroiled in a relegation battle is quickly talked down. However, the longer the bad results persist, and the more demoralised the playing staff look with every passing game, demotion to the second tier becomes a more frightening and tangible possibility for supporters.
There have been many suggestions that the squad is strong enough to compete for Europe, as it has done in recent years with the two fifth place finishes and an FA Cup triumph, but the pool of players Rodgers has to choose from is virtually the same, even minus Fofana and Ben Chilwell.
The squad might not have got any worse, but it would be difficult to claim that there’s more quality there now than 18 months ago, and the Premier League is a highly-competitive space that if a club stands still for a window or two, the chances are that it will be left behind.