RODGERS HAS GONE FROM HERO TO ZERO
...and he is under no illusions
BRENDAN RODGERS says he is not shocked at suddenly being under the cosh.
Dumped out of the Europa League, the FA Cup and being 11th in the table has quickly clouded the fact that his Leicester side were Wembley winners back in May.
The 1-0 victory over Chelsea gave Leicester the FA Cup for the first time in the club’s 137-year history.
But former Liverpool and Celtic boss Rodgers is now the bookies’ favourite to be the next manager sacked.
And he prepares his side for tonight’s Europa Conference League play-off first leg clash with Danish minnows Randers under no illusions.
Rodgers said: “It wasn’t so long ago that you are deemed an elite manager having won the FA Cup – then very quickly you’re not.
“I get that. That’s the game. What’s important to me is to do your very best.
“I feel I’m doing that here with what we have and together we have made some great steps.
“I love working with the players here. I love the people at the club and that’s all I will continue to do.
“I will do that with a smile until someone tells me differently.
“And if they do, I will have done my very best with the resources that I have and then I’ll move on.
“But until then I have a big energy for the team, for the club and for my contract.” The 49-year-old revealed that experience has taught him how to regulate the pressure when things are not going so well.
He added: “I’ve never really been one where my mood shifts based on what other people write or say.
“There’s always pressure in football but none more so than what you put on yourself.
“If I’m reading my local paper and it’s putting out polls to say whether I should be staying as the manager, of course that might affect me. But I stay calm, stay in control and try and enjoy it.”
Rodgers believes it is an increasingly impatient world.
“The nature of football is that there isn’t so much time,” he said.
“It has been a challenging season, there is no getting away from that, but I will just continue to be positive.” He takes an “in it to win it” attitude to the least important of the European competitions that Leicester now find themselves in. Rodgers said: “Every competition is important. We were disappointed to go out of the FA Cup, and with the way we lost to Napoli which put us here. “This is a real challenge now and we will take it on. This is an important competition for us.”
Wasn’t long ago I was deemed an elite boss