BOSSES DON’T JAV FAIR SHOT
Leicester City’s new boss has spoken to the Foxes’ leading attacker and told him that he is going to help him shoulder the burden up front.
And he is confident he can change the ex-England international for the better, as he did at Liverpool with their unpredicatable Uruguay star. Vardy cut an increasingly frustrated figure under Claude Puel, admitting that he would have to change his ways to prosper under the Frenchman. Rodgers says that he may modify Vardy’s approach – but only to improve his goal return – and has no doubt as to his quality. He said: “I’m so glad Jamie’s here – absolutely, I am – he’s a natural finisher.
“But he’s also one of the best strikers at pressing a game at the top end of the field. That’s where it will start for us.
“At Liverpool, I had Luis. He started the press.
“We changed Luis. He was playing with Andy Carroll but we told him to press the ball instead. Jamie can do that already.
“But, like Luis, he doesn’t need to be running into the corner flags. What we need ENGLISH football’s reputation for giving bosses a fair crack of the whip is well and truly dead. That damning verdict comes from Watford’s Spanish manager Javi Gracia (left) following another crazy week of managerial mayhem in the Premier League. The carnage started last Sunday with Leicester firing Claude Puel and replacing him 48 hours later with Celtic’s Brendan Rodgers.
And on Thursday Claudio Ranieri became the top-flight’s sixth casualty in three months as struggling Fulham cut ties with the Italian just 106 days into his Craven Cottage reign.
Little wonder Gracia, whose Hornets host Rodgers’ Foxes this afternoon, insists the days when British clubs’ loyalty was respected across Europe are long gone. Much-travelled boss Gracia said: “Many years ago in Spain it was the same. People in my country used to look at England as different to everywhere else.
“But now people want results immediately. They want you to win – always – and the clubs are not so patient.
“The pressure is different. Not only in football, but in life. Everyone wants everything – now, now, now.”
HARRY PRATT