The mistakes of Brendan Rodgers/King Power - What are they and what can we learn?

[cityfanlee23]

So obviously Rodgers reign at Leicester is now consigned to the history books. And whilst we had obvious successes on the pitch and should not dwell too hard on the past, errors along this timeline have clearly put us into a very difficult situation and somewhat eroded the foundation of our club, many fans have noticed (and pointed out time and time again) over the last 4 years many aspects of our club and decisions made by those in charge that have fundamentally shifted in direction ultimately led directly or indirectly to us going from being a well run, "model club" in world football in 2015/16, to an absolute mess just 7 years later.
Now personally I am surprised to be still learning new things about decisions that Brendan and his team made that were clearly poorly thought out in some cases, and pure stupidity in others, so I wanted to get the opinions of fellow fans to curate a list of examples of where we have gone wrong over the last few years to see if there is anything we can learn going forward. I have to admit there are things I never knew anything about that I wish I'd known at the time. So I'll start us off with a couple of examples. (try to give sources if you can)

1) From the other thread that has recently been revived, Rodgers ignored key data analysts in the scouting department who advised Rodgers and his team against multiple signings including Vestergaard and Bertrand, but the moves were forced through anyway, leading to some of our key Data Analysts leaving the club having become "exasperated at the change in approach and felt their work and their previously trusted process were being ignored" 
Source: The Athletic https://theathletic.com/4386390/2023/04/07/leicester-rodgers-recruitment-finances-contracts/

2) Forcing out long time club Head Physio Dave Rennie (who had been at the club since 1999) which led to multiple and continued injury crisis scenarios that really harmed our chances of securing more points. Now I can't remember where I read this so take it with a pinch of salt, but I was under the impression that Rennie and his team had expressed opinions toward Rodgers that his training style would lead to injuries and were ignored (this could be wrong as I cannot remember where I saw this, it might have been FT but any source welcome). Leicester, of course, had an exemplary record on fitness and lack of injuries in the years before Brendan Rodgers arrived, Rodgers described this as the club heading down "a different path" 


So which decisions can you think of that you feel have played a role in the regression of Leicester City football club into this mess?

[Dan]

Don't deviate from a transfer policy that has been successful. Don't give one manager too much power to reshape things that are working, he can work within how we do things and if he can't, then we can replenish. He was never a Guardiola / Klopp and the club thought we had one.

[FoxinNotts]

Honestly, it really was all fine, apart from the two things;

 

-Transfers: Those two windows in which we did very little. Absolute shambles. And what we did do, was shite.

 

- The way we gave BR so much more time than was needed, towards the end of his tenure. He should have gone after we lost away to Forest, in the cup, last year.

Edited 12 April 2023 by FoxinNotts

[urban.spaceman]

Don't try and be ambitious and act within the rules, especially where there's a pandemic on.

[Mickyblueeyes]

Have some pride in the badge. Never is a player or manager too important.

 

Never should we be an option for either. 
 

Never should a player say we are an option and have us sit there watching his contract slowly disappear. That MF can be replaced. See Napoli and the arrogance they show. We give players just as much (if not more) than they give us. Start with Maddison in the summer - wish him well, offer him a contract and if he says no, tell him to get out or he won’t be playing.

 

Never let a manager tells us we should settle. Never has this club Settled. Brian Little didn’t settle when faced with big spending Blackburn or Derby. Martin never settled against….well….anything. This is a proud club and poor standards should never be accepted. 

Be proud. 
 

Business mistakes which I’ve touched on in other topics - I think we’ve got a poor leader at the helm but that’s obvious. The above two points are just as important.

[ParkerPen]

have a plan.

 

in *very* general terms, a plan for how you want the team to play football.

 

pick staff that can accommodate this

 

pick / buy players that fit the plan

 

train your academy players to be round pegs in round holes to fit the plan

 

dont break all the players

[HybridFox]

Brendans regrets are Smith's gain WOHOOOO (I've had loads of wine)

Edited 12 April 2023 by TK95

[Fox92]

Don’t trust players that are not good enough. 

[shailen]

His antics in the summer and pre season, calling out the ownership for not backing him and saying the squad was not good enough. It's a self fulfilling prophecy, as it demoralised the squad and it's now very low and not sure if we'll be able to recover. 

[LVFox]

The most important man at the club is a very competent director of football.

 

If you don't have one, it will catch up with you.

 

Give your manager too much power and you're screwed.

[yorkie1999]

Some of the signings are obvious mistakes, but the pair from Southampton!! I’m fairly suspicious about there being something  dodgy about signing them, who in their right mind would actually sign 2 defensive players from a team we’d beaten 9-0!! I mean, if you were a scout, they’d probably be the last 2 players in the world to recommend. Stinks of back handers to me.

Edited 13 April 2023 by yorkie1999

[Mike1983]

Forced out Kasper Schmeichel, then gave Danny Ward 26 games while Iversen was just sat there rotting on the bench. It just never made any sense...

[sylofox]

44 minutes ago, Mickyblueeyes said:

Have some pride in the badge. Never is a player or manager too important.

 

Never should we be an option for either. 
 

Never should a player say we are an option and have us sit there watching his contract slowly disappear. That MF can be replaced. See Napoli and the arrogance they show. We give players just as much (if not more) than they give us. Start with Maddison in the summer - wish him well, offer him a contract and if he says no, tell him to get out or he won’t be playing.

 

Never let a manager tells us we should settle. Never has this club Settled. Brian Little didn’t settle when faced with big spending Blackburn or Derby. Martin never settled against….well….anything. This is a proud club and poor standards should never be accepted. 

Be proud. 
 

Business mistakes which I’ve touched on in other topics - I think we’ve got a poor leader at the helm but that’s obvious. The above two points are just as important.

🤣🤣🤣 so how do you get players to sign another contract?

 

How do you make a player leave that has a contract?

 

If you have answers to both of those questions you could make millions.

[Dan]

51 minutes ago, Mickyblueeyes said:

Have some pride in the badge. Never is a player or manager too important.

 

Never should we be an option for either. 
 

Never should a player say we are an option and have us sit there watching his contract slowly disappear. That MF can be replaced. See Napoli and the arrogance they show. We give players just as much (if not more) than they give us. Start with Maddison in the summer - wish him well, offer him a contract and if he says no, tell him to get out or he won’t be playing.

 

Never let a manager tells us we should settle. Never has this club Settled. Brian Little didn’t settle when faced with big spending Blackburn or Derby. Martin never settled against….well….anything. This is a proud club and poor standards should never be accepted. 

Be proud. 
 

Business mistakes which I’ve touched on in other topics - I think we’ve got a poor leader at the helm but that’s obvious. The above two points are just as important.

This is a big one for me in general - don't be scared to lose people. 

[The Quick Brown Fox]

Not sacking Brendan when he first called out the club. 

 

Letting Kasper leave without a decent replacement.

[foxile5]

In reference to David Rennie - I have no insider knowledge but I'll say this. If it isn't broken and working perfectly there should be no need to fix it. If you've fixed it and it starts working like shit then you've ****ed it up.

 

Our injury record post Rennie is suggestive that the working conditions and procedures have been interrupted and has resulted in an inefficient and counterproductive culture.

[Mickyblueeyes]

31 minutes ago, sylofox said:

🤣🤣🤣 so how do you get players to sign another contract?

 

How do you make a player leave that has a contract?

 

If you have answers to both of those questions you could make millions.

It’s called leverage, when you think about it, without trying to play it nicely nicely, you use what skills you have to get the best possible deal for your end. 
 

Youri Tielemans - as example. We were entering a World Cup year, if we sat him down the summer before last and said, Youri, you’re not playing this year. Suggest you find a new club. Youri Tielemans is not going out there to find “the best deal for Youri”. Youri Tielemans is telling his agent to get him in the shop window, even if that is a loan with a fee. 
 

We are not the first club who would do this. Of course there is risk involved but you’re losing millions by being quite frankly soft. A little bit of hardball doesn’t impact as much as people think - it’s a business. 
 

It’s common sense to play your cards when you have some leverage. What’s the alternative ? He leaves on free like he is this summer - surely you try to maximise the return when you can. Sorry, I thought it was basic. 
 

There is also the side that “it isn’t the right thing to do”. I don’t buy that.

Edited 12 April 2023 by Mickyblueeyes

[Corky]

Do not allow the manager to virtually take control of the place. Do not let them get away with publicly undermining and criticising their own players.

[Foxxed]

What can we learn?

 

When messages from the top are either bad or non existent then all hell breaks loose below.

 

There don't seem to have been safety mechanisms below to prevent this: Rudkin and Brendan certainly weren't that.

 

It shocks me that, seemingly, without Vichai's influence we've fallen so badly, and badly treated the two institutional pillars he helped to set in motion.

 

Edited 12 April 2023 by Foxxed

[MancFox24]

I've said this loads of times on this forum, but Rodgers was asked early in the season when he was told there was no money available for new transfers and he said not until he got back for pre season. Nobody from the club has ever disputed this as far as I'm aware. The fact that wasn't communicated earlier was ridiculous. I think he may have walked or at least looked for other opportunities had he known. Instead the negativity was allowed to set in and it's carried on throughout the season. 

[smudgerfox]

It shouldn’t need saying but the club needs to adopt a much more hard-headed business approach rather than that of a charity for chums it has come to resemble. Just a few but sadly not exhaustive list of examples 

 

Allowing the appointment of Congerton 

Allowing the departure of Rennie 

offering veterans contracts way beyond their useful life (Vardy, Albrighton, Morgan, Evans) 

offering new or extended contracts to the likes of Hirst and  Choudhury 

Retaining mediocrities like Ward, Sadler and Stowell who simply are not good enough at PL level 

Signing Vestergaard (mate of Kasper) , Bennett and Bertrand (ex colleagues. Of Brendan) 

Having a recruitment head on gardening leave in potentially transformative transfer window 

Failing to register a £30-million new signing on time rendering him unable th play for five months 

Signing new players then playing them in a different position to the one they were playing when you decided to sign them in the first place 

Having no succession plan for a manager whose sacking has been inevitable for at least 14 months 

And failing to secure a Champions League place (twice) by failing to invest in January window when the team only needed a couple of classy reinforcements (see Ryan Bennett) to maintain momentum 

 

Sadly I could go on 

 

 

Edited 13 April 2023 by smudgerfox

[Daggers]

Rule 1: anyone who claims to have all the answers should be ignored, no matter their track record. Mainly managers. Especially managers. A team game requires a team - and everyone should be allowed an opinion. Except for arsey players who are a bit shit. 

 

Rule 2: everyone is replaceable, plan for it. Sometimes just do it just for shits and giggles. 

 

Rule 3: ignore detractors, unless they agree with me in which case heed the detractors. 
 

Rule 4: everything that is wrong with the club could’ve been prevented by switching the kop with the family end. 

[volpeazzurro]

50 minutes ago, sylofox said:

🤣🤣🤣 so how do you get players to sign another contract?

 

How do you make a player leave that has a contract?

 

If you have answers to both of those questions you could make millions.

Difficult admittedly but, if they are players with any international ambition, if they don't play for us they won't get picked for their country. Their future transfer deals/money may also be effected if they've not kicked a ball for 18 months. Make them train with the u23s and fine them for any lateness or slight transgression. 

[21st Century Fox]

9 minutes ago, volpeazzurro said:

Difficult admittedly but, if they are players with any international ambition, if they don't play for us they won't get picked for their country. Their future transfer deals/money may also be effected if they've not kicked a ball for 18 months. Make them train with the u23s and fine them for any lateness or slight transgression. 

And how do we sign other players once word gets out that the club is run like a gulag?

[Guest]

30 minutes ago, Mickyblueeyes said:

It’s called leverage, when you think about it, without trying to play it nicely nicely, you use what skills you have to get the best possible deal for your end. 
 

Youri Tielemans - as example. We were entering a World Cup year, if we sat him down the summer before last and said, Youri, you’re not playing this year. Suggest you find a new club. Youri Tielemans is not going out there to find “the best deal for Youri”. Youri Tielemans is telling his agent to get him in the shop window, even if that is a loan with a fee. 
 

We are not the first club who would do this. Of course there is risk involved but you’re losing millions by being quite frankly soft. A little bit of hardball doesn’t impact as much as people think - it’s a business. 
 

It’s common sense to play your cards when you have some leverage. What’s the alternative ? He leaves on free like he is this summer - surely you try to maximise the return when you can. Sorry, I thought it was basic. 
 

There is also the side that “it isn’t the right thing to do”. I don’t buy that.

If I were Tielemans in that situation then I would be calling our bluff, hard. The guy's not an idiot. "You're not playing this year Youri" - yeah right, good luck trying to achieve your objectives for the season without me. Who you replacing my creativity and goals with, Dennis Praet?

 

I believe they call it cutting off your nose to spite your face.