Planet Swans ArchivesRodgers was speaking at the end of the week in which he succeeded Paulo Sousa as Swans manager having watched his new side win their pre-season game 1-0 at Yeovil yesterday.
He told Wales on Sunday “Twelve months ago I was supposedly the up-and-coming top young British manager
“Nothing has changed for me in that sense.
“Reading was a very short period of my career. I have learnt from the experience and it will make me a better manager for Swansea.
“I’m not arrogant enough to think there will never be a question mark over me.
“But I became a manager of a Championship club at 35 and I did that because I was pretty good at it.
“It’s football and you always know there are three types of supporters.
“There’s the loyal supporters that will back the club and any manager.
“There’s the second group that want to accept you into the club but you have to prove yourself to them.
“And then there’s the third group – the critics. Those are the guys that would say Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho and Carlos Ancelotti aren’t great.
“You can never change them. The only way you silence them is by winning games and winning them in the way they want you to.
“When it comes to my spell at Reading, I suppose my heart took me back to a club and a place I knew well,” he explained.
“But it was probably the wrong time to do what I was looking to do there.
“People will have seen here at Swansea that it takes longer to coach players to win games by playing good football.
“It takes longer than six months, especially if that isn’t how the club have played before.
“I know, having spoken to Roberto, there were times in the early stages here when it didn’t work. It took time.
“So, for me, 21 games wasn’t long enough. The sad thing for me is that we were starting to turn the corner when I left.
“The ethos and principles on which I coach are already in place here,” he stressed.
“It’s just a case of developing that. So I suppose, if there’s a message for the fans, it’s that I will hopefully be judged on what I do here.”
