Rodgers 'spent summer convincing players to join Leicester' before 'reality' hit

The Foxes have been among the quietest Premier League clubs in the summer transfer window having brought in just one player, Alex Smithies, who arrived on a free transfer from Cardiff City.

With Kasper Schmeichel leaving the club and intense speculation continuing to surround stars such as Wesley Fofana, James Maddison and Youri Tielemans, supporters of the club are being left frustrated at the lack of incoming activity, particularly when their divisional rivals are all splashing the cash for the season ahead.

But it's not just fans who have been caught off guard, with Rodgers admitting that even he was of the belief that Leicester were gearing up for a busy summer.

Speaking to talkSPORT about the club's transfer plans going into the summer, Rodgers said: "The communication here has always been very open between myself and the board.

"When I spoke towards the February/March time last year it was clear what we wanted to do was to improve the squad.

"Towards the end of the season, there was clearly going to be issues around that but still we go into the summer with the idea to improve. But obviously whenever I come back for the beginning of pre-season then it's pretty clear then it's going to be a challenge for us.

"In terms of the communication - it's open, but certainly back then I didn't envisage we'd be in the position we are in. But we're in it now and the game is changing all the time.

"Over the summer I was still speaking with players that we wanted to sign. Our recruitment team had done some great work over these last number of months.

"We were very clear of the positions we wanted to improve and all of that was going forward. I spent my summer holidays convincing players to come but when I come back the reality of the situation is there and we are unable to follow through with it."

Asked if it's strange to make transfer plans and then be told that nothing can happen, Rodgers responded: "I don't run the finances of the club.

"I run the football department and if they say we can't sign a player I trust the club that it's the case."