Brendan Rodgers
Brendan Rodgers’ position as Leicester City manager appears to be hanging in the balance following the Foxes’ sixth consecutive Premier League defeat. Speaking after the defeat, the former Liverpool manager refused to be drawn into speculation about his future at the King Power Stadium.
Brendan Rodgers said: “Listen, whatever happens I’ll have a huge amount of respect for them (the owners) because they’ve given me a huge amount of support since I’ve been here. I understand the game, I understand football. Today, the scoreline, I don’t think reflected the game but the bottom line is we’ve had a heavy defeat and we should have been better. For me, they’ve given me brilliant support and whatever happens for me here at Leicester – whether I stay or whether I continue to fight on – I’ll always respect them.”
But midfielder James Maddison, who restored parity with a fine volley over the head of Spurs’ Hugo Lloris late in the first-half, jumped to the defence of Rodgers.
James Maddison added: “It’s a collective, it’s not just the manager. We’re the 11 out there. It’s painful and it hurts when you see a manager who you’ve got a lot of respect for and you’ve built up a relationship with get so much heat and so much negativity when ultimately we’re the players that have to do the business and we haven’t been of late. That hurts us.”
It was during the October international break in 2015 that Rodgers was dismissed by Liverpool’s owners Fenway Sports Group, with the Americans viewing the two-week break as the perfect time to act swiftly and appoint Jurgen Klopp.
Whatever happens between now and the Foxes’ match against Nottingham Forest on October 3, Srivaddhanaprabha has a serious decision to make on the future of his current manager. The humbling defeat to Antonio Conte’s side could force him to act in the same swift, yet brutal, manager FSG did nearly seven years ago
