THE GYM AND I...
Foxes boss says he’s hooked on early morning fitness sessions
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BRENDAN RODGERS is cranking up Leicester City’s assault on the Premier League – with a pretraining boot camp.
The Foxes chief is determined to last the distance on a campaign that has started with a bang by toning himself up in the club’s gym.
Each morning, Rodgers and members of his backroom team put themselves through their paces at their Belvoir Drive base, before turning their attention to the first-team.
Rewards
And this ‘fitness of body, fitness of mind’ approach is reaping rich rewards, with the former champs flying high.
Rodgers, 46, said: “Every morning there will be a group of us in there, from about 7.30am onwards.
“It’s something I did at Celtic and Liverpool. It was towards the end of my time at Liverpool when I really got into it – because I wasn’t in such good nick five years ago. So I increased my training and changed my diet.
“It wasn’t for any reason other than personal pride – but it does give me energy to do my work – all the science behind it tells you that.
“And I feel much better when I’m training than when I’m not – you know what they say – that your stomach is your badge of honour.
“But obviously as you get older your health becomes increasingly important.
“And if you’re asking a lot of players and pushing them to work to their highest level then I think it’s important that the staff are also fit.
“I said to the players that it gives us energy.
“In football, you work long hours and if you concentrate and you are fit then hopefully you can do the job better.”
Rodgers’ side rose to third in the table following last weekend’s victory over Tottenham – and they have already played three of the so-called ‘Big Six’ this season.
James Maddison – who is an injury doubt for today’s clash against Newcastle – claimed after the victory over Mauricio Pochettino’s men that the Foxes deserve to be taken seriously. Leicester boss Rodgers stopped short of trumpeting something similar though, saying he has a collection of ‘muddied diamonds’ at the King Power Stadium.
He added: “Looking in from the outside, before I arrived, I always thought this group of players were diamonds in the mud.
“There’s a good core of players here. The senior ones, in particular, had been targeted by the big boys.
“All I did when I arrived was take them out of the mud and polish them.
“They are good guys. They are a strong bunch. But they care. Good teams have spirit.
“What we are doing at the moment is finding ways to compete. That’s what we aim to do.
“Look at the trend, where the top six have pulled away from everyone else in the past few years.
“We have set no targets on where we want to finish. We feel with the squad, the improvement and the spirit we can be competitive.”
It gives me energy to do my work – all the science behind it tells you that. I feel much better when I am training