Rodgers disappointed with Leicester’s UCL failure but proud of club’s progress

LEICESTER City manager Brendan Rodgers was left with mixed feelings after the side ended the season with a 4-2 home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Sunday.

The loss condemned the Foxes to the UEFA Europa League but they will be happy with the campaign in general having won their first-ever FA Cup the previous week.

“I’m disappointed if I’m honest,” Rodgers told LCFC TV. “In this moment, for the players, I feel for the people who run the Club. We were so close. I know what it means, getting into the Champions League, and how it would have helped us going forward
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“Naturally, we’ll have toat disappointment, but over 38 games, we just fell short. The pride I have in the team, everything that went against them, how we’ve continued to challenge, working right to the very end… we just didn’t quite have enough today.”

Leicester City finished fifth but they would have been fourth and in the UEFA Champions League had they won, as Chelsea lost to Aston Villa.

Rodgers’ side were even 2-1 up at a stage of the match before letting in three second-half goals.

The Northern Irishman regrets that that the Foxes were so close yet blew their big opportunity to return to Europe’s elite competition.

“With 15 minutes to go, 2-1 up, we didn’t have too many problems,” Rodgers added.

“They obviously made substitutions that can change the game and we gave away two disappointing goals from our aspect today. We were then chasing the game that gives their players space and they have the quality to exploit that.

“It’s been nearly two years of football and this season especially has been really condensed. The players, the staff, everyone at the Club, will have a deserved rest. We’ll recover and then we’ll get back really excited and motivated to move on next season again.”

Rodgers however believes Leicester’s 2020/21 campaign should be viewed with perspective and feels the future looks bright for the club’s prospects.

“It’s been an incredible season for us,” he added. “We’re just disappointed we couldn’t make that extra step. After 24-48 hours, when you take a step back and look at what we’ve achieved, two years of playing football and really challenging at the top end of the table, making progress in terms of winning the FA Cup for the first time in the history of the Club, it’s obviously something we’re very, very proud of.

“At this moment in time, the disappointment will linger for a period of time and then we’ll get ready, come back and look to fight even harder.”

Nigerian stars Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi played big parts in Leicester’s progress, the former scoring crucial goals in the league and FA Cup, and the latter keeping the midfielder ticking.