Brendan Rodgers happy to improve Leicester 'step-by-step' | OneFootball

Brendan Rodgers sees Leicester’s Europa League campaign as another stepping stone to making the Foxes a regular feature at the top end of the Premier League.

Claudio Ranieri led the club to the unlikeliest of Premier League titles in 2015/16, but they were unable to repeat that success and subsequently became a mid-table club.

However, Rodgers got them firing again last season and for a long time Leicester looked a dead cert to land a Champions League spot.

That failed to materialise, as a post-lockdown slump saw the East Midlands outfit slip to a fifth-place finish.

But the prospect of playing in European football’s second-tier competition does not deter Rodgers, as he feels it’s where Leicester can continue their steady rise under his stewardship.

“I think that’s important – to understand that if you don’t have millions and millions and millions of pounds to throw in to get top-level players, and lots of them, you have to do it step-by-step,” the Northern Irishman told the club’s website.

“We finished ninth in my first season when I came in, in the half-season. So, the club had two ninth finishes, and then we were in fifth last season, so the steps are to keep improving.

“We want to keep developing, keep challenging and being competitive. We know who the competitors are. It’s huge, but for us, we’re very ambitious, we want to compete.”

Leicester will play in Europa League Group G alongside Braga (Portugal), AEK Athens (Greece) and Zorya Luhansk (Ukraine).