Jamie Carragher believes Leicester City must have heaped big pressure on Brendan Rodgers for him to leave Celtic before the end of the season.
The Sky Sports pundit shared that he was confident Rodgers would have wanted to stay at the Hoops to add a couple of more trophies to his CV and suggested the Foxes issued him an ultimatum.
Carragher suggested that perhaps there were players who wanted to leave Leicester City in the summer and that Rodgers was needed at the club now rather than in the summer due to having to convince them to stay.
“Well obviously Brendan is well aware of what he could have done if he stayed there so it makes sense that everyone trying to work out why he has gone now and not the end of the season, maybe he got an ultimatum from Leicester to take this job or we will have someone else by the summer,” said Carragher on Goals on Sunday (10:51am, Sunday March 3rd).
“That type of pressure on him as you think he would have wanted to win the league and the other trophies they’re going for, obviously they won yesterday in the cup away at Hibs and they’re eight points clears, so he’s left them in a brilliant position.
“I’m sure Rodgers wanted to stay until the end of the season and add a couple of more trophies to his CV so there must have been big pressure from Leicester and maybe there’s something in the players wanting to move on in the summer and they needed him in now to ensure these players stay.”
OPINION
Carragher’s argument about the timing of Rodgers’ exit make a little more sense. As it stands on paper Leicester City have nothing really to play for in the games that remain and it felt odd that Rodgers would leave Celtic when he still had a chance of racking up more silverware. Yet perhaps the Foxes were fearing that some of their high-profile players were starting to line-up summer moves and that they needed a manger in place to sell his vision for the club to them. While Leicester may have cranked up the pressure on Rodgers, it still won’t have Celtic fans feel any better about his exit. The manager’s move to Leicester seemed to be wrapped up quickly and it was like he jumped at the chance to leave. While it may be debatable that this was the case, given that’s what it looks from an outsider’s perspective, the ill-feeling that is among Celtic’s fanbase regarding Rodgers won’t go away anytime soon.