Brendan Rodgers and his Leicester City team equalled a Premier League record by smashing Southampton 9-0 at St Mary’s Stadium on Friday night.

Jamie Vardy and Ayoze Perez both scored hat-tricks alongside goals from Ben Chilwell, Youri Tielemans and James Maddison to complete the biggest away win in English top-flight history.

It was always going to be an uphill battle for Ralph Hasenhuttl’s Southampton side after Ryan Bertrand was dismissed for a reckless challenge 12 minutes into the match.

While some might argue Leicester were disrespectful in refusing to ease off despite leading 5-0 at half-time, the result warrants attention beyond the astonishing scoreline.

The Foxes have collected one point more from their opening ten games than at the same stage of their title-winning 2015-16 campaign.

That said, it would require a monumental effort for Rodgers’ men to challenge Liverpool and Manchester City in the Premier League title race.

But with Champions League qualification already looking like a realistic target for Leicester, Gary Neville believes there’s no reason the former Reds boss shouldn’t be considered for the top jobs in England - even the one at Etihad Stadium.

"I think if you look at what he achieved at Liverpool and then Celtic and now what he is doing at Leicester, we always talk about international coaches having philosophies and values, but he improves teams and plays great football," said Neville on Sky Sports, per Goal.

"He is quite innovative and he does seem to be a great coach, the players enjoy working with him, and I'm asking the question now, why wouldn't he be seen as a coach of one of the big clubs?

"You look at Manchester City changing to Pep Guardiola and you probably won't see Brendan Rodgers' name linked with that job because people at the club will be thinking, maybe, someone else.

"But why not? If you look at what he's done in terms of the football he plays and the improvement he has on players on the pitch.”

A scarcity of major honours to Rodgers’ name undoubtedly hurts his potential to be recognised as of the best managers in world football.

However, according to Neville, that line of criticism is unjustified.

"People say he hasn't won that much silverware but then people talk about Mauricio Pochettino really highly,” he added.

“He's not won silverware in England and then people don't speak as highly of Brendan Rodgers - I know Pochettino got to a Champions League final.

"So in Brendan Rodgers' view - if he gets the top four this season - he should now be linked with the very best jobs in English football.”

While there’s an element of sense in Neville’s argument, one would probably put their money on City sticking with Guardiola for as long as possible.