Leicester job is Craig Shakespeare's to lose, say the Sunday Supplement panel
Sunday 5 March 2017 11:55, UK
Taking charge of Leicester until the end of the season is Craig Shakespeare's job to lose, according to the Sunday Supplement panel.
The 53-year-old has been the Foxes' caretaker manager since Claudio Ranieri's departure last month, and has overseen two successive victories against Liverpool and Hull City.
Under his tenure, Leicester have looked more like the title-winning side from last season than at any other point in the Premier League this term and are now five points clear of the bottom three.
Sunday Times football correspondent Jonathan Northcroft believes that Shakespeare is almost certain to be handed the role until the end of the season, with the players responding to the familiarity he brings.
"We've seen the old Leicester back in both of his games and before he became caretaker manager, I think Shakespeare had good chance of getting it until the end of the season. It is pretty much his to lose now," he said on Sunday Supplement.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he even gets it beyond that, but I think it will certainly be his until the end of the season.
"I think what we saw were players who had lost their way, who had lost faith in Ranieri, who had lost faith in the way Ranieri wanted to do things.
"Shakespeare is just bringing back the methods that are tried and tested, re-empowering the players and finding the spirit again. The owners would be stupid to try and meddle with that while they are still trying to fight relegation.
"It is a very strong dressing room. It is a dressing room where the key players have been there for six or seven years, put together by Nigel Pearson. They were handed a lot of power by Pearson to take ownership of key decisions.
"The players look after themselves, they always have done and Ranieri came into that. He was always a sort of visitor to the Leicester family as it were. His genius was not trying to change anything but put a focus on what he was brilliant at which was the tactical side, dealing with the media and maybe a bit of his extra knowledge.
"But as things started to go wrong this season, Ranieri went back to the more Italian ways that he wanted which aren't necessarily wrong but clashed with what Leicester are used to.
"Shakespeare for the players represents Nigel Pearson, who in an ideal world the players would have back. He represents the old ways of doing things.
"As a result, this six or seven year group have been encouraged to be like this and from their point of view, their strength of mentality and how they look after themselves was as big a part of the title win as Ranieri."
Fellow panellist Shaun Custis was reminded of a similar situation at Chelsea a few seasons ago, but questions if player power works over an extended period of time.
"It feels a lot like when Roberto Di Matteo took over at Chelsea after Andre Villas-Boas," the The Sun's head of sport added.
"The players didn't like that Villas-Boas was trying to be a manager when the players were supposed to be in charge of themselves. They were strong characters and they said to Di Matteo 'OK, take us along, but we can sort this out' and they won the European Cup.
"Of course, long-term, that didn't work. Eventually, you need a proper manager. I don't know if Shakespeare is a proper manager or not, but it feels like allowing the players to have more power is the answer at the moment but you have to ask if it will work next season or the season after."
