Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers not interested in joining Newcastle after Saudi takeover - reports

Brendan Rodgers is reportedly not interested in taking over at Newcastle United.

Various reports suggest that the Leicester City manager is content to stay at the Premier League club and is potentially under consideration as the next boss at the Etihad, if and when Pep Guardiola quits Manchester City.

If that is the case then it demonstrates that the widely-reported controversy surrounding Newcastle’s new owners is perhaps not the deal breaker, given Manchester City’s owners’ reported links regarding similar matters.

City are more established, and the direction Newcastle will take under their Saudi benefactors is not yet clear. Indeed, last night there were stories in the Telegraph, well connected to the club, that players and current boss Steve Bruce are enduring a dark atmosphere with no clarity from the owners about what will happen to the players or manager in the near future.

That lack of plan might be a problem for Rodgers, in contrast to City’s long-term vision which extends to a network of clubs across the globe.

The former Liverpool boss impressed at Anfield when he kickstarted work taken over and improved by Jurgen Klopp under owners FSG, and his next appointment at Celtic saw them hold off a nascent challenge from Rangers that his replacement Neil Lennon could not resist. Rangers boss Steven Gerrard, who won their first Scottish Premier League title since their bankruptcy and relegation, is now one of the favourites to take over at St James’ Park.

In two years at Leicester, he has followed up silverware at Celtic with an FA Cup last year and two Premier League fifth-placed finishes.

OUR VIEW: Rodgers is one of the few managers who appears to have recognised his weaknesses and worked on them, rather than simply focusing on what he is already good at. The same cannot be said for even the best in recent history, such as Arsene Wenger, who became more refined and less effective every year after 2003, or Pep Guardiola, who failed to win the Champions League without Lionel Messi despite ballooning transfer budgets and resources at Bayern Munich and Manchester City. Perhaps that is why City see Rodgers as the logical appointment as their next coach.