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Phil Thompson on Brendan Rodgers: "I actually thought he would have a chance at Chelsea"

Liverpool legend Phil Thompson joined Friday's OTB AM to discuss Brendan Rodgers divisive move fr...



Soccer

Phil Thompson on Brendan Rodgers: "I actually thought he would have a chance at Chelsea"

Liverpool legend Phil Thompson joined Friday's OTB AM to discuss Brendan Rodgers divisive move from Celtic to Leicester earlier this week.

The Northern Irishman was on course to lead the Glasgow giants to an unprecedented domestic treble-treble but opted to take over from Claude Puel just over halfway through the season.

The move has led to disillusionment among some Celtic fans who hit out at their former manager when they faced Hearts in midweek.

However, Thompson can understand why Rodgers decided to move back to the Premier League, telling Adrian: "He has done absolutely wonderfully at Celtic - absolutely wonderfully. It was great. He was always a good coach - I know he had to, sort of, go up there to resurrect his career but I think he was always a good manager - a very good manager.

"He's won a lot up there and it would the same thing down here with Liverpool - I'd be upset if my manager was to walk away when he did.

"Young Charlie Nicholas has been telling me for quite a while, going back to the start of the season that all was not happy between the board and Brendan - what Brendan wanted and what he saw as the vision for Celtic - so there was a divide there.

"So, maybe when the offer came, some of the Celtic guys will be saying: 'Why Leicester?'  Leicester is nowhere near as big - Celtic are a bigger club the way it is but the finance and the money down here, down south - is a lot to offer."

"I actually thought he would have a chance at Chelsea if Sarri, the talk was that he was going, I thought he would have a chance there and maybe his guys, his people, his agents or whatever had maybe tested the water at Chelsea and they've gone: 'No, we'd look elsewhere if we wanted a manager' and I think that's why he plumped for Leicester," he added.

Leicester sit in 11th spot on 35 points ahead of this weekend's trip to Watford.

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Brendan Rodgers Celtic Chelsea Leicester Phil Thompson Premier League