Leicester City missed out on the top four after a 2-0 loss to Manchester Unite don Sunday – and boss Brendan Rodgers is in the firing line following a shocking collapse in the second half of the season as result.
The Foxes boss had led his team on a blistering charge up the table before Christmas, but 23 points from their final 19 games saw them throw away a place in the top 4 and a coveted Champions League spot.
And the run of poor results has not escaped the attention of Rodgers’ bosses, as emails seen by Paddy Power News reveal.
“We knew we what we were getting. He was managing in Scotland ffs.” one board remarked in correspondence between senior management at the club on Monday. “You can’t expect too much.”
But a representative of club chairman Khun Srivaddhanaprabha was not so forgiving, as he reported the owner’s dissatisfaction with the drop off in form.
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“This is WORSE than his bottle job with Liverpool. Worse by miles. He’s had six months to fix this. That fell apart in a few weeks.”
“And have you seen United? He’s been outwitted by Ole. It’s like being mugged off by the work experience kid. An embarrassment.”
“They even paid us £80m for Harry Maguire.”
“Maguire! £80m!? I’ve seen glaciers move quicker!”
“Chelsea ahead of us too, despite Frank Lampard dedicating half his time at the training ground to constructing a Marcelo Bielsa conspiracy wall.”
“It’s terrible.”
The Premier League champions in 2016, ambitions are high at the King Power Stadium and Rodgers will need to add at least three more bullshit corporate jargon terms to his repertoire is if he is to placate Leicester’s expectant owners next season.
Meanwhile, according to sources close to the Northern Irishman, this collapse has hit him almost as hard as Liverpool’s capitulation during their run-in in 2014.
“Brendan will put on a brave face – botox, fake tan, teeth shining, the works – but inside he’s gutted. And not for himself, but for the fans, the club, the great Leicester managers of the past like Martin O’Neill, Claudio Ranieri and… err, Peter Taylor, and most of all, for the reserve team players who could’ve been playing at the Bernabeu or Nou Camp next season.”
The former Reds gaffer selected a sub-standard side for their visit to Real Madrid in 2014’s Champions League group stage as his team were set to face Chelsea the following weekend, and he is said to be “devastated” that a number of Leicester fringe players won’t get to light up Europe’s biggest club competition next season.
“Guys like Eldin Jakupović, George Hirst, Luke Thomas, and all the fellas from the under-23s, they may never get a chance to play against Madrid, Juve or Bayern again. That’s who I feel sorry for, not me,” he was quoted as saying following Sunday’s result.
“It’s not like we’re going to be putting Jamie Vardy out there when we’re away at Burnley on Saturday, is it?”
Later that evening we also received reports of several trays of sliced-pans disappearing in the Leicester area, though rumours that Rodgers may be on a tea-and-toast binge as he frantically works to devise a new tactical plan for the Foxes’ 2020-21 campaign have yet to be confirmed.
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