Brendan Rodgers
Brendan Rodgers believes he cannot win over every Leicester City fan no matter the club’s results on the pitch amid a rise in “witch hunts” for managers to lose their jobs. The City boss has begun to regain support from large sections of the crowd after a turnaround in form, one that has seen the team rise from the bottom up to mid-table, claiming big wins and drastically improving their defence. But, perhaps naturally after such a poor start, there are still doubters. However, Rodgers says he understands that there is a section of the support base who he will never convince. But his experience as a manager means that does not affect him.
Brendan Rodgers said: “You can walk on water one game and do nothing wrong and the next game you lose you’re the devil. I have always tried to approach it that you’re always going to have critics. You’re always going to have different types of supporters. You get the supporters who will always support you because you’re the manager of their club. They will respect you, you’re the custodian of their club. The second group is let’s see how he does and we will take it from there. The third is the critics. So when you win a game 4-0 you should have won by five or six. So as a manager when you have experience you understand that with that group you’ll never ever change their mind. No matter what you do. Sir Alex Ferguson, the greatest manager, would have had people in that third group. It’s the people in the first two groups you want to influence and you learn that through experience. It’s patience in life but in football clearly it isn’t there so much. Thankfully if you have clever owners that use their common sense then you can benefit for sure.”
Rodgers feels he has those owners at City. Their trust in him to turn the club’s form around has been repaid in recent weeks, and he believes that patience is one of their strengths, particularly in an age where there is a clamour for managerial changes.
Brendan Rodgers added: “The nature of the game now I think there is a real witch hunt for managers to lose their job. I don’t see that changing too much. It takes the strength of the board to trust a manager. It feels like as a manager you can’t have any downturn of results otherwise the cry is to change. Things won’t always be moving forwards every single day but for whatever reason there seems to be a lack of trust. As soon as there is a little sequence of results it is all about a change. How do you get better as a manager and a coach? By getting through that. For that you need strong owners. Owners need to have evidence and the confidence that you have shown them in the time you’ve worked at their club that you can get through the difficult periods. The pressure can come onto you and the team, but thankfully, the club have never wavered here and given me any indication of anything other than support. Of course, as a manager that gives you great confidence. But they also know that I know that if you don’t get results and there aren’t signs you can change your results it can affect your position.”
