Rodgers opens up on Leicester City transfer struggles but 'won't go to war' with club

[Hamilton Fox]

7 hours ago, Lesta2014 said:

Il take a comfortable non relegation scrap right now. 

I think so would the owners 

[st albans fox]

44 minutes ago, blue army 1988 said:

To be honest, I am surprised no one wants the likes of perez, soyuncu and Tielemans.

I thought them 3 would have been taken off our hands before now.

Maybe we have had enquiries but they don’t want to go to those clubs interested ….

[Guppys Love Child]

3 minutes ago, Aus Fox said:

Was this an excuse interview? Did he say anything here that we didn’t all know already? 
 

Yes, I think it was. 

 I agree he did say things that we already knew , but my point is he's finally come out and actually said it in an interview thats made it online for all to read.

Stating stuff like

He now says his plans will not be completed as fully as he had hoped

And

He added: “Hopefully we can improve the squad, but my honest opinion is that it’s not going to be the level I would have wanted. But that’s just unfortunate.

[The Doctor]

11 hours ago, SecretPro said:

I'd argue they've spent FAR too much on contracts, not on players. 

I mean that's not a distinction, investing in contracts is part of investing on players. It's not just the headline transfer fee that makes up the investment in the squad. King power have put a lot of money into the playing staff, just unfortunately on a lot of duffers that never made sense and obviously wouldn't strengthen the squad or on retaining players who aren't good enough for where we want to be. All that is part of the shitshow that has been our recruitment since 2019, and the fault there lies with Rodgers and Rudkin (and bare in mind this is what recruitment was like at Liverpool under Rodgers too, it's a massive weakness of his)

[Aus Fox]

9 minutes ago, Guppys Love Child said:

Yes, I think it was. 

 I agree he did say things that we already knew , but my point is he's finally come out and actually said it in an interview thats made it online for all to read.

Stating stuff like

He now says his plans will not be completed as fully as he had hoped

And

He added: “Hopefully we can improve the squad, but my honest opinion is that it’s not going to be the level I would have wanted. But that’s just unfortunate.

But wouldn’t most of us agree with those two statements?

We all know we need a little bit of extra quality to be able to compete where we have in his first two season? 
Those plans haven’t be completed as fully as we’d all hoped? 
I can’t see what wrong with what he’s said here

[Guppys Love Child]

1 minute ago, Aus Fox said:

But wouldn’t most of us agree with those two statements?

We all know we need a little bit of extra quality to be able to compete where we have in his first two season? 
Those plans haven’t be completed as fully as we’d all hoped? 
I can’t see what wrong with what he’s said here

Sorry my point is (and the reason I quoted a post I was originally replying too) Its not 'what' he said but more 'why' he said it, and the words he used. 

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

1 hour ago, PAPA LAZAROU said:

Yeah and did he get the ok from the owners before telling the world he was going to get 6 players and a major overhaul ?

Of course he didn't.

[Nick]

To be fair I think he's being open about the clubs and in turn, his situation.

 

Won't lie though, the 'I won't go to war' comment takes the pressure off him in terms of expectation and puts pressure on the club in terms of spending.

 

Let's see what happens.

[davieG]

53 minutes ago, An Away Move said:

This was a team capable of pushing for 5th with European commitments. It is not a bad squad. What I dislike about Brendan is how he talks the squad down to manage expectations about himself. We might be better if he talked them up. It’s difficult to believe he’ll get the maximum from them when he’s giving them the opposite message. Time to bring in some youth. That would excite me and mean we were trying something different. It could work too. 

I doubt he's giving the same message in the dressing room and training ground. Managers rarely say in public what they're saying to the players.

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

Weve approached this summer in a very naive manner.

 

Even top was saying we'd be trading players. No one at he club seems to realise we're paying several players far more than we should be.

[Fazzer 7]

The biggest most ridiculous mistakes someone made last summer was bringing in Vestergaard and Bertrand. They now can’t give em away. 

[westernpark]

At least the training ground looks good.

[Itsthejoeker]

I do wonder whether they don’t have the confidence in him to back him with finance. 

[Old Fox]

I think the situation is tricky for all clubs and we are not alone as despite the deadline being half way through most clubs outside the huge ones have not done lots of transfers - granted promoted clubs have but it’s a different financial dynamic.

 

Sadly however BR has a history of this as if you speak to Celtic fans he follows a trait - is successful at initially getting a formula go work However he is stubborn and refuses to adapt or change hence in Europe Celtic struggled and here we have some obvious things he needs to fix which is nothing to do with transfers - fitness, set pieces and plan b.

 

The rhetoric he calls out is always weak and he rarely takes any accountability whilst always protecting his own reputation. 
 

Personally he is accountable for a number of issues and some of the squad are his signings a number of which are poor.

 

I hate seeing our manager whoever is that’s been over the years stating in public that the players are not good enough or that we have no money to spend - I do not see how that helps the football club but may help his reputation only - if it needs saying strongly then say it behind closed doors firmly with the chairman etc..

 

I think this has BR traits all over it from Liverpool and Celtic it’s outside his control and any failings are not his - positioning to leave or maybe force a situation ….

 

The first six weeks of the season will be very telling and I fear we could easily end up in the wrong half of the table especially if certain key players have lost faith in him - time will tell.

 

This lack of accountability and taking responsibility is the difference for me between him being a good manager and an elite one!!

[Alex_LCFC]

Starting the season with fofana Justin and a fully fit Ricardo is like having new signings anyway

[Tielemans63]

I'm a fan of Brendan but he hasn't seemed very happy at the club for over a year now. It can't be conducive to creating a happy camp when the manager appears frustrated and unsettled in a pretty open and obvious way.

 

That said, it works both ways, because he's right that it's virtually impossible to compete at the top without proper investment however I question the wisdom of repeating this message in the media. It must make a difference to players like Madders and Youri when the manager is saying we can't compete.

 

I'm not usually a doom-monger but there are lots of things that don't feel right at the club and this feels like a watershed season to me. A discontented manager, a lack of investment in the playing squad, a raft of players coming to the end of their contracts, talk of a refesh and then nothing....I think you'd be mad to think all is well.

 

Whatever happens, I'll be amazed if Brendan is still LCFC manager this time next year. He's done a great job imho but I think he's desperate for another club to make him an offer and maybe the club feel a new approach is needed too. All feels like a very awkward impasse right now.

 

 

[Greg2607]

1 hour ago, willie-bell-in-rothley said:

100% wrong, 

I could well be. I'm just positing an alternative theory. 

[FoxFossil]

19 minutes ago, Itsthejoeker said:

I do wonder whether they don’t have the confidence in him to back him with finance. 

Yes. Wondered this myself. Rodgers started with 'lack of investment' line at Liverpool and Celtic, so what price gone by Christmas as Foxes struggle.

[mozartfox]

Once all the injuries cleared up, we ended up with a much better squad at the end of last season to that at the start. We finished 8th. With less games we could have a reasonable season and may be one surprise will come U23’s and breakthrough?   The fact we have so much dross that nobody else wants is a testament to our recent recruitment strategy. It has been truly disastrous.  The recruitment team may need an overhaul along with some of the coaching staff At least freshen that up ffs.

[Babylon]

34 minutes ago, Itsthejoeker said:

I do wonder whether they don’t have the confidence in him to back him with finance. 

If they didn’t they would just sack him. Pointless situation to be in otherwise. 

[Bob Hazels shorts]

Its like sending er' in doors out to buy a washing machine and she came back with a tall fridge that doesn't work and you've your already got 10 

 

He's critical of the players he inherited from Pearson, Claudio and Puel yet buys dross.(JJ was scouted under Puel, Wes forced a prem move from Puel) Look at the vast majority of his LFC signings

 

The club won't allow him to spend without a H O Recruitment in place,

 

We won the league with misfits, he needs to make best use of what he's got

[An Away Move]

1 hour ago, davieG said:

I doubt he's giving the same message in the dressing room and training ground. Managers rarely say in public what they're saying to the players.

I think that would give him an integrity problem. The players might wonder which of his sentiments are true or not. 

[Scotch]

Ok, so Brendan has laid it out. We won't be making many signings, if any at all. Fine. Its crap but it is what it is and he now needs to get on with it. 

 

What he needs to do now (and I'm not suggesting that he hasn't already) is focus on finding a system that fits our current squad/a way of playing that the team buy in to and drilling it into them. We're always going to have a player or two playing in a position they aren't completely comfortable with, its just minimising that and getting them as comfortable as possible. 

 

My personal opinion is the diamond. I think it suits who we have at the minute, the most.... It only plays with 2 CBs which is good because we only have 2 good ones. It makes use of our Fullbacks were I think we are strong. It puts Wilf in his strongest position with Mendy a decent back up. Similarly, it puts Maddison in his preferred position at 10 with Perez being most comfortable there when needed. It plays to the strength of Daka and Nacho who are both better in a 2. If Youri stays, we have a strong CM partnership with him and KDH, Praet is a good deputy if we can convince him of the role and between Soumare, Hamza and our promising youngsters... we should be able to find another squad player. 

The only first teamer it doesn't suit is Barnes who will maybe have to work at filling in as a striker, maybe as a Vardy sub with Daka and Nacho competing for the other spot. 

[Nick]

2 minutes ago, Scotch said:

Ok, so Brendan has laid it out. We won't be making many signings, if any at all. Fine. Its crap but it is what it is and he now needs to get on with it. 

 

What he needs to do now (and I'm not suggesting that he hasn't already) is focus on finding a system that fits our current squad/a way of playing that the team buy in to and drilling it into them. We're always going to have a player or two playing in a position they aren't completely comfortable with, its just minimising that and getting them as comfortable as possible. 

 

My personal opinion is the diamond. I think it suits who we have at the minute, the most.... It only plays with 2 CBs which is good because we only have 2 good ones. It makes use of our Fullbacks were I think we are strong. It puts Wilf in his strongest position with Mendy a decent back up. Similarly, it puts Maddison in his preferred position at 10 with Perez being most comfortable there when needed. It plays to the strength of Daka and Nacho who are both better in a 2. If Youri stays, we have a strong CM partnership with him and KDH, Praet is a good deputy if we can convince him of the role and between Soumare, Hamza and our promising youngsters... we should be able to find another squad player. 

The only first teamer it doesn't suit is Barnes who will maybe have to work at filling in as a striker, maybe as a Vardy sub with Daka and Nacho competing for the other spot. 

I see the logic, but a formation which excludes Barnes and his scoring potential doesn't sit right with me.

[Fox1norfolk]

15 hours ago, alanf0x said:

Honestly. What does he expect. You can’t just stock pile players. Fair play to the board for staying strong and wanting players out first. Also if we are stupid enough to put bang average players on £50k + a week, we have ourselves (or the DOF) to blame!! 

If the want to play regular games, then they have to move and take a cut in salary. Otherwise we are stuck with them.