Rodgers says Leicester City want to build on their FA Cup victory and challenge for greater honours next season despite the lack of budget.
LONDON: Leicester City want to build on their FA Cup victory and challenge for greater honours next season even though they lack the financial muscle to compete with the Premier League’s bigger clubs, manager Brendan Rodgers said yesterday.
Leicester are fifth in the standings ― level on 66 points with Liverpool and one behind Chelsea ― after dropping out of the top four for the first time this season following Tuesday’s loss at the London club.
“We want to fight for trophies,” Rodgers told a news conference. “If we could become a sustainable club in European football, that shows we’re successful. Commercially, we’re 10th. For budget, we are eighth.
“It will be difficult to compete with clubs three or four times our budget but it doesn’t stop us fighting. The lowest we will finish is sixth this season.”
Leicester go into tomorrow’s fixture against Tottenham Hotspur behind fourth-placed Liverpool on goal difference and, barring a huge win over Spurs, they will miss out on reaching the Champions League for the first time since 2016 if Liverpool beat Crystal Palace.
Rodgers said although they were ecstatic at winning the FA Cup for the first time in the club’s history, they would be disappointed if they did not finish in the top four as they fight “two of Europe’s biggest clubs” for the final two places.
“We would have no one (else) to blame. We take the responsibility ourselves, we’ll fight to the end,” he added.
“What we don’t want is for the door to be open for us and us not to walk through it. So we need to get a victory and see where it takes us.
“Our concentration is on winning the game against a talented Spurs team. If we finish on 69 points and don’t make it into the Champions League, we have been unfortunate.”
Rodgers confirmed injured defender Jonny Evans would miss the clash with Spurs.
