What Brendan Rodgers has said about becoming Man Utd manager

Brendan Rodgers is of interest to Manchester United should they need to replace Ole Gunnar Solskjaer any time soon, but the current Leicester boss appears to have already ruled himself out of contention - way back in 2016.

Solskjaer has come under intense pressure in the wake of last weekend’s 5-0 defeat to Liverpool at Old Trafford. He has survived for now, given a run of games to turn things around, but his time is limited as the club have started considering potential successors.

90min understands that Mauricio Pochettino remains a popular choice with several United officials. Zinedine Zidane and Antonio Conte are also under consideration, as is Ajax coach Erik ten Hag. Rodgers has also been mentioned, although contact so far has only amounted to agent enquiries.

On paper, Rodgers would represent a strong choice. His preferred style of play and proven track record of developing young players would be in keeping with United’s core philosophies.

The 48-year-old’s record at Leicester, establishing the Foxes as a top five Premier League side that has been disappointed to miss out on Champions League qualification in each of the last two seasons, has also gone a long way towards silencing critics who may have suggested he had it easy at Celtic or was dragged almost to the Premier League title at Liverpool by one player.

Rodgers was even Manchester City’s first choice to replace Pep Guardiola last summer had the Spaniard decided against signing a new contract, again underlining the level at which he is seen.

For United, Rodgers’ past connection to Liverpool, where he was in charge for just over three years, makes the issue considerably more complicated should they ever go ahead with an approach.

Rodgers himself has even previously spoken against the idea of ever managing United, for that reason, having been asked about it when Louis van Gaal was under pressure in early 2016. At that stage, he was only a few months removed from Liverpool and was yet to take another job.

“When you manage Liverpool, you know the Manchester United job is gone,” he told talkSPORT at the time.

Whether the passage of time and taking on other jobs in between has diluted his stance remains to be seen, although the sentiment came across as lasting and permanent.


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Source : 90min