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BRENDAN RODGERS WRITES ON HIS MISSION TO MAKE EMIRATES FA CUP HISTORY WITH LEICESTER

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Brendan Rodgers leads Leicester City into their first FA Cup Final since 1969

BY BRENDAN RODGERS, Leicester City Manager

There have been so many fixtures recently. As a general, rule you usually only focus on the next game, but if I take myself away from that, the overall feeling we have is excitement.

We’ve got the chance to win the Emirates FA Cup for the first time in the history of Leicester City – so of course that gives us an incredible opportunity.

We know how tough the game will be against an outstanding team, but we have an opportunity and that’s all we ask for. When it comes around on the day we’ll do everything we can to achieve that.

This competition has such a rich history, particularly for me having grown up and watched it for so many years.

Like so many, I sat down and watched the whole build-up as a youngster, seeing the various games, the glory of it all, the supporters and the happiness.

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If you add to that the opportunity to win it for the first time, as a manager, as players, as a club and as supporters, it’s an incredible and unique opportunity for all of us.

The FA Cup is steeped in history. Most players around the world understand it, and all those who have grown up with it really know the sense of importance.

In order to win one, you’ve got to act like a winner but also know that sometimes you need to fail. That’s something you trace back to top teams who have won trophies. There will be big games and finals that they will have lost, and you have to go through those experiences.

We went through that last season and it’s allowed us to really re-focus and learn, put it to bed and look forward. We’ve got to the Final, there’s a greater maturity in the team, and we’re very focused while staying calm throughout the process.

It’s just important not to get too emotional around it. We’ve been on a great run up to this point, and we don’t need to change. We just need to keep the process, keep believing in how we play, and that excitement to go and perform is still with us.

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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