Tuesday 12 November 2019 09:33, UK
Brendan Rodgers has explained the timing behind his decision to leave Celtic and says he needed to join Leicester before the summer to prepare them for a top four tilt this season.
The Northern Irishman secured back-to-back trebles in his first two campaigns at Parkhead and laid the groundwork for a third before he departed for Leicester in February this year.
That decision was met with dismay by Celtic supporters, with some unveiling a banner reading 'You traded immortality for mediocrity. Never a Celt, always a fraud' against Hearts, while a video also emerged online showing fans allegedly chanting about Rodgers in a pub.
However, with Celtic securing another treble last season and Leicester now sitting second in the Premier League heading into the international break, Rodgers hopes fans will now understand the timing of his exit from Glasgow.
"I've said it many times, it was incredibly difficult," he told the Daily Record. "It was a really tough call from a personal perspective and a professional one because my relationship with everyone at the club was great from the boardroom to the dressing room.
"But perhaps now people will have a better understanding of why I made the choice to go when I did. I had a lot to think about at the time. The players were absolutely phenomenal for me in my time there. We were on this great journey together. We created a culture which I loved coming into every day. And we were winners.
"We won - we were relentless at it and relentless in our work - and we had success together. So for me to then make the decision to leave them behind was not an easy thing to do. But I felt I had taken it as far as I could in that time. I then had a decision to make about going into a new project at Leicester where there is an ambition there and there are challenges that I would be excited by."
He added: "We were 27 games into a league campaign. We were clear at the top of the league, we had already won a cup and I felt I was leaving the club in a good state. OK, the timing wasn't ideal for many people but I felt the club was in a really good place, the players' mentality, everything around the club was healthy.
"But, because of how quickly it happened, it was probably difficult for some people to accept. But we've both moved on since then. Celtic moved on and won the treble which was brilliant. Three trebles consecutively, which is incredible.
"And I was able to come into Leicester and assess players while they were under pressure because that's when you can really make judgements. I felt it would give me those last 10 or 11 games of the season to assess what Leicester had and what needed to be done. It gave me the time to prepare for the summer so that we were ready to make a challenge at the start of this season. I think it's worked out well for both parties."
