We all hear you on transfers, Brendan – but the public reality check is doing no one any favours

If there’s one thing football fans really struggle to tolerate – beyond short corners and Richard Keys, that is – it’s when the rhetoric from their own manager is negative.

And when it’s coming in the middle of July, three weeks before the start of a new season? Well, let’s just say it hardly lights the fire for what might be to come.

Being a fan is a little bit like dealing with your sibling: you can say what you like about them, but outsiders don’t get the same privileges… even if they are close to you. So while Leicester City fans are understandably concerned with their summer so far, the last thing any of us are in the mood to see is Brendan Rodgers twisting the knife a little further.

No one can begrudge Rodgers his frustrations this summer – he threatened a sizeable refresh months ago and simply won’t be backed to achieve it in the next six weeks. There should be some sympathy for that. Until the deadwood in his squad gets cleared – an unenviable task for any club, albeit one his own team’s recruitment has unquestionably added to – then he’ll continue to be hamstrung in the transfer market. Post-COVID, with a shiny new training ground in place and significant stadium expansion to come… well, there’s a reality in the middle of it.

“It’s unfortunate,” Rodgers said of the tumbleweed summer so far, after a ramshackle 3-3 pre-season draw with Leuven. “Hopefully we can affect the squad, because if we’re going to compete anywhere near where we have been, then we need to be able to do that. If not, then it’s a different expectation.”

Stop right there, Brendan. Sometimes, honesty isn’t the best policy. It might be fine blasting a bunch of no-hopers after you’ve just been whipped by lower-league local rivals in the cup. It’s not when those same players – a perfectly decent squad, it really should be stressed – are back again and preparing for a new campaign.

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In terms of the messaging, it suits no one. Fans know the situation: in this scenario, they want their manager to allay fears as best he can, and tell them they still have a point of bothering with their Saturday afternoons for the next 10 months. When Rodgers says things like that, he’s effectively admitting defeat before a ball has been kicked – not just in his players, but in himself. Can’t do anything with this lot, sorry. We’re not Fearless any more.

You might be able to forgive Rodgers a miffed slip of the tongue, fielding difficult questions he himself would like some answers to. When the narrative is just a continuation of what’s gone before, however – how plucky little Leicester just can’t compete with those above them – it gets a little tiresome. More so, it doesn’t even tally with what he was saying in May.

As a reminder: “It’s about reminding the players that we’re very, very close to the level [top six],” he declared after the final-day trouncing of Southampton. “In terms of goals scored, we’re fifth in the league, so that’s a great sign that we can go into any game with confidence to score goals. Goals conceded, it’s purely set-pieces. If we can take care of that and get that side of our game right, we have a fantastic chance again to go and affect the top end of the table. We can disrupt it and we’re really excited by that opportunity next year.”

Less than two months later, that doesn’t appear to be the case any longer. Rodgers caveated his above optimism with a hearty nod to the fact he’d need some more quality this summer, but lest we forget that he probably didn’t expect to be keeping hold of Youri Tielemans at this stage either. When it all comes down to it, all 11 players that started (and won) the 2021 FA Cup Final against Chelsea are still at the club. James Maddison and Ricardo Pereira began that afternoon on the bench; a crocked James Justin wasn’t even available. It doesn’t say a whole lot for them that their own manager doesn’t feel them capable of doing much this time around.  

In all likelihood, Rodgers’ recent comments were most likely cloaked in self-preservation. At this point, though, that’s the only purpose they serve. Behind the scenes, once reality has truly set in, perhaps he’ll focus more on what matters now: inspiring the talented squad he does have at his disposal to punch above their weight, just as he did across his first two full seasons at the club. Solving the set-piece problem would go a giant way to improving City’s fortunes next term, and really shouldn’t require new personnel to make it happen. Good coaching will do far more for this team in 2022-23 than new blood. A new doctor might not hurt, either.

Maybe we’ll forgive Brendan this one – ultimately, the proof will begin to show itself when Brentford visit on August 7. For now, though, let’s leave hysteria to the forums.