Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers said “this isn’t the club it was 2 years ago” and claimed the team “hasn’t had the help it needed” in the transfer market this summer after seeing his team remain at the bottom of the Premier League following a 1-0 defeat against Manchester United.
The 2015-16 Premier League champions, who offloaded goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel and defender Wesley Fofana, waited until transfer deadline day to make their only senior summer signing with a £15 million deal for Reims defender Wout Faes.
– Transfer grades: Leicester City get B for letting Fofana go
– Ogden: Rodgers, Tuchel or Gerrard next to be sacked?
Foxes chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha wrote a letter to the club’s fans in the match programme for the United game, saying that Leicester’s financial position is “entirely secure and underpinned by my personal commitment.”
Srivaddhanaprabha also said that transfer spending had to be restricted in order to ensure “compliance with the game’s sustainability regulations.”
But with Leicester making a winless start to the season and his position as manager coming under threat, former Liverpool and Celtic coach Rodgers risked a confrontation with the owner by criticising the lack of recruitment.
“With the greatest respect, we have not had the help in the market this team needed,” Rodgers said. “To watch clubs in the top five leagues add players and we haven’t been able to do has been difficult. We needed help and I haven’t been able to get that.
“When you want to compete — I came to Leicester to compete and I was initially able to do that — you have to add quality. But in the last two windows, we haven’t been able to do that.
“I would love to have added five or six players, but if you can’t do it, I have to respect that and work with what we have. But this isn’t the club that it was two years ago. That’s the reality. We haven’t brought any new players in, bar one late on, in the last two windows and that’s a replacement. So these players need the supporters. It’s a moment that’s really important.”
Having failed to stop centre-half Fofana from completing a £75 million move to Chelsea this week, Rodgers said he is glad that the transfer window has now closed.
“It has been a huge distraction,” he said. “It is destabilizing for the group and the mentality, but these are a good bunch of guys. Once we get the win, confidence will grow and they will be fine.
“We just have to get the win, but if we show spirit and attitude I am sure it will come quickly.”