Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers has emerged as a strong candidate for Man Utd in the replacement for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, if and when the Norwegian is sacked at Old Trafford.
Solskjaer remains under immense pressure at Old Trafford, not least because the three games he was given to turn things around after a humiliating defeat to Liverpool included a disappointing performance against Atalanta and another embarrassing loss against Manchester City albeit an impressive win against Tottenham Hotspur – who ended up sacking their manager.
Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers has been linked to the Man Utd job for quite some time now, and is reportedly ready to accept should Man Utd make a move. | PHOTO: Naomi Baker/GettyImages |
Solskjaer, who should forever remain a club legend for his achievements as a player at the theater of dreams, has done all he can. He served a purpose when he was appointed manager, initially on a temporary basis at the end of 2018, and has developed a better squad than the one he inherited.
The danger is that the longer Solskjaer remains in charge, the risk of undoing that work increases.
Rodgers can be a huge asset for the club. Despite his Liverpool history, which is now well in the past as a result of incredibly successful jobs at Celtic and Leicester, reports earlier this week stated that the 48-year-old is ready to say ‘yes’ should United ask him to take over.
Ole Gunnar Solksjaer is an embattled man at Man Utd and Brendan Rodgers is said to be his expected successor at Old Trafford, should he get sacked. | PHOTO: Sky Sports |
What Rodgers can do is take United to the next level and he has enormous experience and football knowledge to draw upon. By his age, most might only have a decade or less of managerial experience – but he has been managing since he was 35 and coaching for a lot longer than most managers.
Rodgers is a career coach, a path forged by the sadly early end to his playing days through injury. He began as a youth coach in the early 1990s with Championship side Reading, where he had been a young professional prior to his forced early retirement and was academy director at the club by the time he was poached by Jose Mourinho to head Chelsea’s youth setup a decade later where his coaching abilities was spotted.
In those years, Rodgers combined coaching at Reading with part-time work and studying football. He is noted for having spent a lot of time traveling around Spain in particular to increase his wealth of coaching knowledge, even learning Spanish during that time as well.
His career hasn’t been constant highs, but setbacks are as important for building character and experience as successes. His first job at Watford had gone okay at best after a rocky start, yet after being poached by former club Reading in 2009 he was out of a job within six months.
Rodgers found success at Swansea when he built on the foundations laid by Roberto Martinez in south Wales, securing promotion and establishing the club in the Premier League. That led to Liverpool appointing him, where success and disappointment came in equal measure at Merseyside.
The former Northern Ireland international was much criticized at the time, even when a distinctly average Liverpool side was so close to winning the Premier League in 2013/14.
Cynics suggested he and the club were dragged to the brink of silverware by Luis Suarez, yet his reputation as a man manager and his success at Leicester in particular since would suggest it was Rodgers who was ultimately responsible for the Merseysiders almost breaking their league title drought several years earlier than they eventually did in 2019 under Jurgen Klopp.
Very poor recruitment from Liverpool’s notorious transfer committee following the sale of Suarez sold Rodgers short thereafter, and he was always fighting a losing battle.
But he re-established his reputation at Celtic, leading the club to an unprecedented level of dominance. Even without Rangers to challenge them in the league, Celtic won domestic cups more consistently than ever under Rodgers’ guidance.
And then onto Leicester, where he has turned the Foxes from shock once-in-a-lifetime Premier League champions into serial European qualifiers, missing on the Champions League spot last season by a mere point. The fact they have twice been disappointed to miss out on the Champions League shows the standard he brought to the club. The Foxes are also one of only three non-elite clubs to win the FA Cup this century when his side defeated Chelsea 1-0 in the 2021 FA Cup Final.
On top of that, Rodgers’ track record for developing young players fits like a glove for United. He worked with a 17-year-old Raheem Sterling at Liverpool, made Joe Allen a decent top-flight midfielder at Swansea, and has brought the best out of several homegrown youngsters at Leicester like Harvey Barnes. Several of his former Celtic charges are also now playing at a higher level, including Kieran Tierney and Odsonne Edouard.
Rodgers ticks all the major boxes that United needs from a new manager. He would be an outstanding choice, but the club needs to have the firm decision to make the change and support Rodgers the way they have supported Ole Gunnar should he get appointed as Ole’s successor.
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