Brendan Rodgers
Leicester City will always be at risk of losing their best players to bigger clubs, manager Brendan Rodgers has warned. With City third in the Premier League – defying their smaller budget to sit above Chelsea, Man United, Tottenham, and Arsenal – the performances of their star players will not have gone unnoticed, and the likes of Ben Chilwell, James Maddison, Wilfred Ndidi and Caglar Soyuncu could attract interest this summer. The latest figures show City’s revenue is less than half of Arsenal’s, the lowest of the ‘big six’, while the wage budget at the King Power Stadium is less than half of what it is at Old Trafford, Anfield and the Etihad Stadium.
Brendan Rodgers said ” Harry came in, had a good couple of seasons playing at the club, great guy, good man, then obviously one of the so-called bigger clubs offers him the opportunity to go and play and he goes. So that is always going to be there, especially when you have talented young players. But our organisation is very much based on the team. It’s having those youthful players, who are hungry to learn, who want to be better, then of course having really, really top senior players, which I’m fortunate to have. We have outstanding senior players here that are very concentrated, very professional and of course they have big talents. Our challenge is to continue along that route, retain the hunger. It’s always going to be difficult for clubs like ourselves to be up there but we enjoy the challenge and that’s what we hope to try to achieve. It was one of the key decisions to come into here because of that, the infrastructure and the organisation behind the football. That’s so important as a manager that you have that organisation and I think what’s great at Leicester City is the simplicity of everything. There’s lots of communication between board to manager and manager to board and individually as well on a day to day basis. It’s a really exciting club and there’s lots to be positive about: a new training facility on its way, expansion of the stadium and of course, where it matters, on the football pitch, the team is young and vibrant and exciting. So there’s a lot to be excited about over the coming years.”
City are likely to be able to offer Champions League football as a reason to stay put, but Rodgers doubts even sustained success at the top is unlikely to help the club see off suitors, such is the difference in budget. While City may not have the capacity to hold on to all of their key players, they do have plenty to offer prospective signings. Not only is Champions League football likely to return to the King Power Stadium, but they have a new state-of-the-art training ground to move into ahead of the next campaign, and a stadium expansion on the way.
