Brendan’s second coming: Rodgers to resurrect Premier League career with Leicester

“My biggest mentor is myself,” was just one of the memorable utterances to emerge from Brendan Rodgers during his first stint in the Premier League, but more than three years after his sacking by Liverpool he has returned to England in the latest step in his bid to rebuild credibility.

The Northern Irish manager has a reputation for being overly confident in his own abilities but looked to have lost the opportunity to manage at the highest level of the game after his departure from Anfield, where he failed to build on the title challenge of 2013-14.

On Sunday, Rodgers will take charge of his first game as Leicester City boss and return to Watford 11 years after taking his first steps as a manager there.

Best of the rest

Since Liverpool he has enjoyed success with Celtic, leading them to two domestic trebles and leaving them on course for a third. But with another opportunity at a club in the Big Six not emerging – Chelsea and Arsenal replaced managers last summer while Manchester United have also looked elsewhere – a team fighting to be the best of the rest was perhaps as good an offer as was likely to come Rodgers’s way.

In Leicester he has found a club with an abundance of talent and resources at their disposal, and are as likely as any club – along with the likes of Everton and West Ham – to break into the European positions.

“We are a top seven team,” said Mike Stowell, who took temporary charge of the Foxes for a 2-1 win over Brighton on Tuesday.

It was a victory that – along with Rodgers’ appointment – has helped revive hope around the club after a disappointing end to Claude Puel’s reign. The Frenchman was sacked on Sunday with Leicester having taken just one point in six league games since New Year’s Day, as well as losing to Newport County in the FA Cup, but Rodgers is already planting seeds of optimism.

“He just spoke to the lads in the dressing room. He was proud of them and liked the spirit and he promised them there are special things on the horizon,” said Stowell.

“The atmosphere has lifted with a win and with the new manager because I’m sure he’ll bring a lot of good things and he’s got a lot of staff with him. It’s exciting times.”

Back where it began

Rodgers’ first challenge will be to beat a side currently occupying that seventh place in the league – and who also happen to be his former club.

The 46-year-old left his coaching role at Chelsea to take on a first managerial role at Watford in 2008 when they were a Championship side.

He managed to steer the Hornets clear of relegation with a 13th-place finish but left that summer to join Reading, forcing a move a through after initially distancing himself from the job, much to the disappointment of the club and fans.

While Watford have fallen upon happier times in the top half of the Premier League under Javi Garcia, there may still be some resentment toward the way Rodgers handled the situation, and now as one of their main rivals for seventh, he will likely make for a pantomime villain come Sunday.

A new project

Leicester sit just five points adrift of Watford and this weekend’s clash could prove pivotal in that race for seventh, after Wolves slipped up away to Huddersfield on Tuesday.

While that may be the most that Rodgers can aspire to this season, there is a long-term project at Leicester that will have added to the job’s appeal.

The 2016 champions are currently building a new training ground and the King Power Stadium is set to undergo an expansion. Meanwhile the squad has an abundance of talent in Demarai Gray, James Maddison, Ben Chilwell and Harry Maguire complemented by the experienced heads of Kasper Schmeichel and Jamie Vardy.

“It’s a young squad, a very dynamic squad, it’s got huge potential and you’ve got some of the players with good experience also,” Rodgers said.

“It feels great. I know I’m joining a fantastic club that has grown so quickly over these last few years.”

The haste with which Rodgers left Celtic for Leicester speaks volumes for the allure of even the Premier League’s mid-table teams, but also the demise of Scottish football.

Had Rodgers held out a matter of months to the end of the season he could have quite conceivably won a third consecutive treble. Instead, he is back in England and returning to where it all began as he hopes to resurrect his Premier League career.