‘That’s what we want, we want to be up there challenging’: Brendan Rodgers confident he can make Leicester a permanent fixture among English football’s elite clubs as he approaches his first anniversary as Foxes boss
- Leicester can move to within a point of second-placed Man City on Saturday
- The Foxes have made rapid strides during Brendan Rodgers’ first 12 months
- The aim of Rodgers is to keep Leicester where they are season after season
Brendan Rodgers is confident he can make Leicester a permanent fixture among English football’s elite clubs as he approaches his first anniversary as Foxes boss.
Leicester can move to within a point of second-placed Manchester City if they overcome Pep Guardiola’s team at King Power Stadium on Saturday after making rapid strides during Rodgers’ first 12 months.
When Rodgers replaced Claude Puel on February 26 last year, Leicester had lost four consecutive matches. Although their form has dipped in recent weeks, it would still require a spectacular collapse in form for them to miss out on Champions League football next season.
Brendan Rodgers is confident he can make Foxes permanent fixture among English elite clubs
Yet the aim of Rodgers – who had talks with Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha as the chairman watched training on Thursday – is to keep Leicester where they are season after season.
‘That’s what we want, we want to be up there challenging,’ said Rodgers. ‘We don’t have the resources of those teams that are supposed to be up there, but we want to find a way, through good coaching and management, and developing players.
‘If we can do that, step by step, then we can grow. Can we sustain it? If we can bridge that gap to the top six this season, it would be an amazing start for us. Then we can keep pushing on.’
Leicester have made rapid strides during Rodgers’ first 12 months at the King Power
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When Rodgers arrived from Celtic, he found a club still recovering from the death of former owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, who was killed in a helicopter crash shortly after Leicester’s home game with West Ham on October 27, 2018.
Rodgers added: ‘I’ve been really pleased with the adaptation of the players.. When I came in towards the end of February, the feeling around everything – the team and Khun Vichai – it was hard for everyone.
‘What we’ve tried to do is create an environment where we can use Khun Vichai’s legacy to really propel the club forward in a positive way. We then have a team that we enjoy watching, are an aggressive team and a team that attacks.’
Leicester are again without midfielder Wilfred Ndidi, who returned to action less than two weeks after undergoing knee surgery last month, but he has not now featured since the Carabao Cup semi-final defeat by Aston Villa.
There could be a recall to the first-team squad for Matty James, who has not played for the first team in the league since March 2018, due to a series of injury problems.
The target of manager Rodgers is to keep Leicester where they are season after season