Another week, another disappointing display, and another reason Leicester City fans are looking at the Championship with real fear. Speaking to many Foxes supporters, there are plenty that want the manager gone yesterday with a dwindling number that are happy to keep him till the summer. But the hierarchy seems to be doing nothing, and remains silent even though Brendan Rodgers has now posted the most number of Premier League defeats in a season in his entire managerial career. With 12 games still to play, there are many twists and turns to come but it feels like LCFC have been on a downward spiral for a long time, so why does the east Midlands club still keep faith in the Northern Irish boss?
£20million
It has been well-documented how much Leicester City have been paying their Manager since he signed an improved five-and-a-half-year contract in December 2019 less than a year into the job. They probably thought it represented good value for money at the time with the club second in the league just behind Liverpool and looking good for Champions League football. Things changed quickly in 2020 and have had a significant knock-on effect on the finances of the club.
But as things stand Brendan Rodgers is being paid 10 million pounds a year to manage the football club and would be due over 20 million pounds in compensation. Just for context that is more than Erik Ten Haag gets paid at Manchester United. With the club’s finances in dire straits, it is a perilous position to be in. But the cost of relegation would be significantly higher and gets nearer every day he is in charge. We would all like to think people have professional pride in every job they do, but Brendan looks like he is in a job that he clearly is no longer enjoying, with the prospect of a multi-million-pound payout on the horizon.
Rodgers’ interviews are now peppered with constant protection of his brand saying things like surviving relegation would be “one of my biggest achievements”, it sounds like he’s already prepping his CV for his next job which will most certainly not be as well paid. But also he could easily resign and leave with his head held high, as he knows is not worth a fraction of those wages right now.
Misplaced optimism
Somehow, there may be a belief from insiders at the club that Brendan Rodgers can get Leicester City out of this. A couple of times this season Leicester City have pulled out bizarrely effective performances and gone on runs of form that have come out of nowhere. The club has got it in them to pull out some performances and the one thing that will be giving them hope is how the chances are being created but just not being converted. The woodwork is being crashed, open goals are being missed and simple chances are not being converted. The belief could be that as soon as the club gets a lucky break they will be back on form.
But that ignores the bigger problem, Brendan Rodgers cannot coach a team to defend. He has so far presided over the third-worst defence in the league and against Chelsea in particular, they surrendered too many easy chances and could have been on the end of another embarrassing thrashing. If you’re not a hard team to beat then you will constantly come unstuck, and this manager has no clue how to make his teams tough to play against.
No viable replacement for Leicester City
Whenever any City fans contemplate sacking Brendan Rodgers they end up getting as far as ‘But who do you get in?’ before sighing and accepting the accepted fate that they are stuck with a manager they have lost faith in. That’s mainly down to us not being able to grasp the available names they could get in with a seeming lack of guaranteed options available, it seems we all feel it’s better the devil you know. But the club has a larger duty than that and should have a list of names ready for any situation.
This campaign has highlighted more than ever that Rodgers might not be the man for the job, so names should be spoken about and targets identified. There must be emerging talents all over the world that would love to join a club that pays well, houses a world-class training facility has a stadium expansion on the horizon, and a squad full of talent. It’s crazy to think that no manager could do better than him at the moment. There are managers everywhere, the club needs to work harder to find them.
Sticking is better than twisting
Sacking a manager without a plan is just madness, isn’t it? That’s me asking myself that question in case you were wondering. Normally I would stay away from that line of thinking as it seems the hierarchy of the club are. But sooner or later the question of whether Brendan is adding problems to the club needs to be addressed. The players look unmotivated, confused and sorely lacking in confidence. All issues that a good coach would have addressed by now. There is a strong argument to say that the reason the club is where they are is mainly down to Brendan and removing his bleak and morose personality from the club could well provide the players with some much-needed freedom. Six years ago the club made the difficult decision to remove the most successful manager in the club’s history and put a caretaker in charge. It worked out pretty well then and mustn’t be dismissed here either.
Unseen problems
Where I will stick up for Brendan, is how silent the club has been all season. Something is not right with the complete lack of communication with the fans about where this club is headed. Brendan has been left to field all media questions about everything transfer related whilst clearly not revealing everything. It may be that this is not the job he thought it would be when signing his multi-million-pound contract and perhaps there have been broken promises along the way. We know for certain that he was not backed in the transfer market in the summer and it took till January for the club to back him whilst players seem to have stuck around at the club that clearly are not wanted.
It’s worrying that the situation has come to this. A club that refuses to sack a manager when they have several good reasons too. Ultimately Leicester City fans just want to enjoy watching their team play football again, ideally in the Premier League. It’s been entertaining and he’ll always have that FA cup win but for everyone’s sake, the time to part ways is now – before it’s too late.