FLYING THE NEST?
Swans admit they could lose hot property Rodgers
“I can’t say if he will be here next season”
managers get recognition,’ said Jenkins. ‘Speculation is part of football. I can’t predict the future but we will do all we can to keep our manager and players at Swansea.’
Jenkins added: ‘ If there is an approach then I will sit down with Brendan and explain as well as I can why he should stay. As a club we can take the dream further. Brendan and the players have had a lot of credit and they deserve it, but I will be doing what I can to ensure no-one leaves.
‘The only thing that changes that is not an approach, it is if one of the players or Brendan come to me and say they no longer wish to be here. That’s a different scenario.’
That final point is key. Rodgers regularly credits Jenkins for saving his career, recalling how the Swansea businessman gave him a chance to return to management after he was sacked by Reading in 2009.
But the former Chelsea academy boss has also made no secret of his ambition to ultimately join a club capable of challenging for trophies and could view Tottenham, with their preference for stylish football, as the perfect step up.
Jenkins said: ‘I have experienced this before when Roberto Martinez left (for Wigan). He is a young man and I understand that if offers materialise he will ask himself questions about next season, can we compete?
‘I am probably one of the best people that can talk it through with him should that discussion happen. I know Brendan is very happy here but I also know that if an approach comes, then I will fight to keep him.’
SWANSEA chairman Huw Jenkins has vowed to fight to keep Brendan Rodgers in South Wales, but admitted he will be virtually powerless to stop one of management’s emerging stars from leaving this summer if his heart is set on a move.
The 39-year-old has been linked with Chelsea and Tottenham in recent weeks and fanned reports of a summer departure by claiming last week that he is ‘ready’ for the challenge of a big club.
He balanced that declaration by reasserting his commitment to Swansea, where he signed a new three- and- a- half- year deal in February, but his comments will have been especially interesting to Tottenham, who are understood to see the Northern Irishman as an exciting replacement should Harry Redknapp leave for England.
Asked if he believed Rodgers (right) would be in charge next season, Jenkins said: ‘I can’t give a definitive answer on that.’
Any move will have to take into account the compensation clause in Rodgers’ contract, thought to be worth as much as £5million, but Jenkins is also willing to dig deep to keep Jose Mourinho’s protege at the Liberty Stadium.
‘It’s what happens when you do well — players get recognition,