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Brendan Rodgers doesn’t need Spurs job to prove his worth
Henry Winter
, Chief Football Writer
Tuesday March 23 2021, 12.01am, The Times
Brendan Rodgers has outwitted Pep Guardiola (5-2 away), Jürgen Klopp, José Mourinho and Marcelo Bielsa, among other managerial maestros this season. So it is high time that after his 100th game in charge of Leicester City, the comprehensive defeat of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United, Rodgers is finally acclaimed as one of the most important managers in football today.
Guardiola will doubtless be named manager of the year when the esteemed judges at the League Managers Association consider their choice, and the genius of a guide of Manchester City’s fortunes makes a deserved recipient. But Rodgers’s savvy stewardship of Leicester, steering them to the FA Cup semi-finals and embedding them in the Champions League positions (seven points clear of fifth with nine games left) on a comparatively limited budget, deserves saluting.
The 48-year-old Northern Irishman has always divided opinion, his critics decrying the megawatt smile, grandiose pronouncements, the manner of throwing away the title chance with Liverpool in 2014, and controversially leaving Celtic mid-season in 2019. For some of the faultfinder generals, Rodgers was David Brent in a tracksuit, all ego, soundbite and no substance.
The agenda-setting Being: Liverpool film series in 2012 didn’t do Rodgers many favours, especially the image of the huge portrait dominating his drawing room. Those depicting a man with narcissistic tendencies overlooked the real story that the portrait was a thank-you gift from a charity he supported during his Swansea City days, and he felt it disrespectful to shove it away in the attic. The envelope story was similarly tainting. “I think there’s three players who will let us down this year — the cause, the fight, everything — and I have written them down already in these three envelopes,” he told Liverpool players. “Make sure you’re not in one of the envelopes.” That did sound pure Brent.
Yet anyone who has spent time in Rodgers’s company is immediately acquainted with the qualities that have led him to emerge as one of the leading managers in the land. I recall a chat with him at Melwood in 2013 when he listed the problems with player development in England, the fear of flair in particular, and how a culture shift was required in academies to let youngsters express themselves, which has since happened. Rodgers’s forthright views made so much sense I later recycled them for a book on England.
I recall a chance encounter with him on the eve of the 2014 World Cup final in Rio de Janeiro when he was out in Brazil advising the LMA; it was on the Copacabana and, ignoring the myriad distractions, Rodgers stood there on the pavement, yards from that bewitching beach, speaking passionately about the tactical trends at the tournament and why Germany should be feared.
I recall leaving the King Power Stadium at 11.30pm on March 9 last year, following Leicester’s thrashing of Aston Villa, walking out with Rodgers and he was already gathering his thoughts for the lockdown, way before politicians reacted (Premier League clubs with connections in the Far East were all ahead of the curve on Covid).
Such recollections have left the impression of a man who thinks deeply about the game, a reality that any of his players past or present, Steven Gerrard or Kasper Schmeichel, will confirm. He is maturing into a fine manager. Rodgers has always been a good coach, dating back to his early years in the academy at Reading, then Chelsea, then into management with Watford, Reading and “Swansealona” before Liverpool called.
It is no coincidence that Leicester have produced two of their best results, the 5-0 skewering of Sheffield United to strengthen their grip on third spot and then the FA Cup defeat of Manchester United on Sunday, during a rare period of the season in which Rodgers has enjoyed free midweek time to work in training with his players, drilling them so productively.
He is very hands-on in training, still very much a coach. Chris Davies, Kolo Touré, Mike Stowell and Adam Sadler play important roles but Rodgers is at the heart of it, enjoying being out on the grass with the players, preparing and encouraging.
That smile helps. Rodgers is one of life’s positive characters, and rarely laments absentees through injury. He checks on them at the training ground, tries to lift their spirits, reassures them they are in his thoughts and plans, but in public Rodgers never makes excuses.
In defeating Manchester United, Rodgers’s achievement was even more impressive considering the respective benches. Solskjaer’s contained David De Gea, Luke Shaw, Axel Tuanzebe, Brandon Williams, Amad Diallo, Bruno Fernandes, Daniel James, Scott McTominay and Edinson Cavani. Behind Rodgers sat Danny Ward, Vontae Daley-Campbell, Daniel Amartey, Christian Fuchs, Luke Thomas, Nampalys Mendy, Hamza Choudhury, Dennis Praet and Thakgalo Leshabela.
Rodgers takes injuries in his stride. He believes that if he talks too much about an unavailable player, and the loss to the team, it does not help the fit understudy. Rodgers must have been frustrated when Ricardo Pereira ruptured his cruciate and missed 35 games, as the full back was arguably Leicester’s best player alongside Jamie Vardy in 2019-2020. Yet Rodgers simply concentrated on James Justin’s strengths, and the signing from Luton Town was outstanding until his own unfortunate injury. Losing such players, Rodgers was prepared to change formation, going with wing backs.
Faced with misfortune, Rodgers responds positively. When James Maddison, then Harvey Barnes were hors de combat, Rodgers calmly rejigged, using Kelechi Iheanacho more. The Nigeria player’s fine form is testament to his own qualities but also Rodgers’s man-management, keeping him focused even when out of the side.
That smile helps. It invites players to open up, leaving his office in a better mood. He tells staff and players that his “communication is open” and it is. He listens. He reassures. Is it an act? Part of management has to be an act but those who know Rodgers insist it is genuine, and such traits enhance his managerial prowess.
It needs acknowledging that Rodgers works for ideal employers. Take recruitment, one of Leicester’s many strengths. There is a team behind the team, and the recruitment team involves Rodgers dovetailing with the experienced director of football Jon Rudkin and head of recruitment Lee Congerton, with whom he worked at Chelsea, along with trusted technical scouts.
Rodgers knows Leicester will reinvest sums made from transfers, so the Ben Chilwell money (£50 million) goes into bringing in Wesley Fofana (£30 million) and Timothy Castagne (£25 million). Fofana, only 20, will doubtless be sold on in a year or two for a handsome profit, and the money invested in another prospect to be developed. Rodgers’s coaching skills accentuate their value. What is great for Rodgers, and Leicester supporters, is that they are not a club that sell assets to pay dividends to shareholders. The ethos of the Thai owners, of Top and the much-missed Vichai, is about glory.
A trophy in memory of Vichai would be huge. As would a finish in the top four, leading to re-entry to the European elite. Rodgers aims to deliver that. He seems in his element. He was under such scrutiny at goldfish clubs in Liverpool and Celtic where every word and move were dissected. Rodgers can breathe a bit more at Leicester. Headlines are linking him with Tottenham Hotspur but Leicester are more likely to be in the Champions League and, given his growing stature, Rodgers deserves to be up there in such stellar company.
Henry Winter
, Chief Football Writer
Tuesday March 23 2021, 12.01am, The Times
Brendan Rodgers has outwitted Pep Guardiola (5-2 away), Jürgen Klopp, José Mourinho and Marcelo Bielsa, among other managerial maestros this season. So it is high time that after his 100th game in charge of Leicester City, the comprehensive defeat of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United, Rodgers is finally acclaimed as one of the most important managers in football today.
Guardiola will doubtless be named manager of the year when the esteemed judges at the League Managers Association consider their choice, and the genius of a guide of Manchester City’s fortunes makes a deserved recipient. But Rodgers’s savvy stewardship of Leicester, steering them to the FA Cup semi-finals and embedding them in the Champions League positions (seven points clear of fifth with nine games left) on a comparatively limited budget, deserves saluting.
The 48-year-old Northern Irishman has always divided opinion, his critics decrying the megawatt smile, grandiose pronouncements, the manner of throwing away the title chance with Liverpool in 2014, and controversially leaving Celtic mid-season in 2019. For some of the faultfinder generals, Rodgers was David Brent in a tracksuit, all ego, soundbite and no substance.
The agenda-setting Being: Liverpool film series in 2012 didn’t do Rodgers many favours, especially the image of the huge portrait dominating his drawing room. Those depicting a man with narcissistic tendencies overlooked the real story that the portrait was a thank-you gift from a charity he supported during his Swansea City days, and he felt it disrespectful to shove it away in the attic. The envelope story was similarly tainting. “I think there’s three players who will let us down this year — the cause, the fight, everything — and I have written them down already in these three envelopes,” he told Liverpool players. “Make sure you’re not in one of the envelopes.” That did sound pure Brent.
Yet anyone who has spent time in Rodgers’s company is immediately acquainted with the qualities that have led him to emerge as one of the leading managers in the land. I recall a chat with him at Melwood in 2013 when he listed the problems with player development in England, the fear of flair in particular, and how a culture shift was required in academies to let youngsters express themselves, which has since happened. Rodgers’s forthright views made so much sense I later recycled them for a book on England.
I recall a chance encounter with him on the eve of the 2014 World Cup final in Rio de Janeiro when he was out in Brazil advising the LMA; it was on the Copacabana and, ignoring the myriad distractions, Rodgers stood there on the pavement, yards from that bewitching beach, speaking passionately about the tactical trends at the tournament and why Germany should be feared.
I recall leaving the King Power Stadium at 11.30pm on March 9 last year, following Leicester’s thrashing of Aston Villa, walking out with Rodgers and he was already gathering his thoughts for the lockdown, way before politicians reacted (Premier League clubs with connections in the Far East were all ahead of the curve on Covid).
Such recollections have left the impression of a man who thinks deeply about the game, a reality that any of his players past or present, Steven Gerrard or Kasper Schmeichel, will confirm. He is maturing into a fine manager. Rodgers has always been a good coach, dating back to his early years in the academy at Reading, then Chelsea, then into management with Watford, Reading and “Swansealona” before Liverpool called.
It is no coincidence that Leicester have produced two of their best results, the 5-0 skewering of Sheffield United to strengthen their grip on third spot and then the FA Cup defeat of Manchester United on Sunday, during a rare period of the season in which Rodgers has enjoyed free midweek time to work in training with his players, drilling them so productively.
He is very hands-on in training, still very much a coach. Chris Davies, Kolo Touré, Mike Stowell and Adam Sadler play important roles but Rodgers is at the heart of it, enjoying being out on the grass with the players, preparing and encouraging.
That smile helps. Rodgers is one of life’s positive characters, and rarely laments absentees through injury. He checks on them at the training ground, tries to lift their spirits, reassures them they are in his thoughts and plans, but in public Rodgers never makes excuses.
In defeating Manchester United, Rodgers’s achievement was even more impressive considering the respective benches. Solskjaer’s contained David De Gea, Luke Shaw, Axel Tuanzebe, Brandon Williams, Amad Diallo, Bruno Fernandes, Daniel James, Scott McTominay and Edinson Cavani. Behind Rodgers sat Danny Ward, Vontae Daley-Campbell, Daniel Amartey, Christian Fuchs, Luke Thomas, Nampalys Mendy, Hamza Choudhury, Dennis Praet and Thakgalo Leshabela.
Rodgers takes injuries in his stride. He believes that if he talks too much about an unavailable player, and the loss to the team, it does not help the fit understudy. Rodgers must have been frustrated when Ricardo Pereira ruptured his cruciate and missed 35 games, as the full back was arguably Leicester’s best player alongside Jamie Vardy in 2019-2020. Yet Rodgers simply concentrated on James Justin’s strengths, and the signing from Luton Town was outstanding until his own unfortunate injury. Losing such players, Rodgers was prepared to change formation, going with wing backs.
Faced with misfortune, Rodgers responds positively. When James Maddison, then Harvey Barnes were hors de combat, Rodgers calmly rejigged, using Kelechi Iheanacho more. The Nigeria player’s fine form is testament to his own qualities but also Rodgers’s man-management, keeping him focused even when out of the side.
That smile helps. It invites players to open up, leaving his office in a better mood. He tells staff and players that his “communication is open” and it is. He listens. He reassures. Is it an act? Part of management has to be an act but those who know Rodgers insist it is genuine, and such traits enhance his managerial prowess.
It needs acknowledging that Rodgers works for ideal employers. Take recruitment, one of Leicester’s many strengths. There is a team behind the team, and the recruitment team involves Rodgers dovetailing with the experienced director of football Jon Rudkin and head of recruitment Lee Congerton, with whom he worked at Chelsea, along with trusted technical scouts.
Rodgers knows Leicester will reinvest sums made from transfers, so the Ben Chilwell money (£50 million) goes into bringing in Wesley Fofana (£30 million) and Timothy Castagne (£25 million). Fofana, only 20, will doubtless be sold on in a year or two for a handsome profit, and the money invested in another prospect to be developed. Rodgers’s coaching skills accentuate their value. What is great for Rodgers, and Leicester supporters, is that they are not a club that sell assets to pay dividends to shareholders. The ethos of the Thai owners, of Top and the much-missed Vichai, is about glory.
A trophy in memory of Vichai would be huge. As would a finish in the top four, leading to re-entry to the European elite. Rodgers aims to deliver that. He seems in his element. He was under such scrutiny at goldfish clubs in Liverpool and Celtic where every word and move were dissected. Rodgers can breathe a bit more at Leicester. Headlines are linking him with Tottenham Hotspur but Leicester are more likely to be in the Champions League and, given his growing stature, Rodgers deserves to be up there in such stellar company.
