Relegation-threatened Leicester fired manager Brendan Rodgers in a late-season bid to preserve their Premier League status after the team’s sharp decline.
Leicester’s leadership took the decision with a heavy heart, hailing Rodgers as “one of the most successful managers in the club’s history” while — in the same statement announcing his departure — saying it was a necessary move if the team was to stay in England’s lucrative top division.
Rodgers has been in charge for four years and led Leicester to its first FA Cup title in 2021 as well as back-to-back Europa League qualifications.
Such has been the drop-off this season that Rodgers leaves with Leicester having plunged to third-to-last place with 10 matches remaining after losing five of its last six league games.
“It had been our belief that continuity and stability would be key to correcting our course, particularly given our previous achievements under Brendan’s management,” Leicester chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha said.
“Regrettably, the desired improvement has not been forthcoming and, with 10 games of the season remaining, the board is compelled to take alternative action to protect our Premier League status.”
Rodgers, who previously managed Liverpool and Celtic, was hired in February 2019 to replace Claude Puel with Leicester’s ownership hoping he could get the team challenging the heavyweights of the league again — like they famously did in winning the 2015-16 title despite preseason odds of 5,000-1.
In a long statement, Srivaddhanaprabha said Rodgers gave Leicester “some of our finest footballing moments” and, off the field, “embraced the culture of the club and helped cultivate an outstanding developmental environment.”
But Leicester’s players were no longer responding to Rodgers and there was no sign of an improvement in performance levels. The decision to remove him was taken a day after a 2-1 loss at Crystal Palace, which itself was under a new manager in 75-year-old Roy Hodgson, and two days before a home match against Aston Villa.
First-team coaches Adam Sadler and Mike Stowell have been put in immediate caretaker charge, with Leicester giving no timescale regarding a full-time replacement for Rodgers.
“The task ahead of us in our final 10 games is clear,” Srivaddhanaprabha said. “We now need to come together — fans, players and staff — and show the poise, quality and fight to secure our position as a Premier League club.”
Rodgers was not helped by the club’s belt-tightening in the transfer market for this season, with only one outfield player joining in a summer transfer window featuring record spending by England’s top-flight clubs totaling about US$2.2 billion. Leicester actually made a profit of about US$65 million in that window.
“This isn’t the club that it was two years ago,” Rodgers said in September, when Leicester was in last place.
Only two teams have conceded more goals than Leicester (49) in the league.
- AP
