Gary Lineker wows Micah Richards as stunning new Leicester manager option named
Leicester City should look to Lee Carsley as they search for a replacement for Steve Cooper as manager, Gary Lineker has said.
The Foxes sacked Cooper on Sunday afternoon (24 November), a day after their 2-1 defeat at home to Chelsea, with Football Insider reporting dissatisfaction among senior players being the catalyst. They are currently 16th in the Premier League table, one point clear of the relegation zone.
David Moyes and Graham Potter are among those understood to be potential candidates for the role, although Lineker would like to see the club go down a different route.
He has suggested Lee Carsley, who has recently returned to his role as England Under 21s manager after a spell in interim charge of the senior side, to take over the role.
Speaking on The Rest is Football podcast, the Leicester fan was asked by fellow host Micah Richards who he would like to see get the job, and responded by saying: “I’d go with Lee Carsley”.
After Richards responded to the suggestion by exclaiming “what a shout that is, great shout!”, the former England international added: “Well maybe. I think he’s really got something and I think there’s a little bit of a reluctance in the Premier League, opposed to perhaps otherwise, I think with possible exceptions, Brentford, Brighton, who’ve brought in young managers that they think have got something about them.
“They’ve got a coaching ability that I think is there and you take a bit of a punt. Now it’s difficult with a club that’s obviously going to be fighting relegation. It would be a tough first managerial job, in terms of a club side, for someone like Carsley.
“But the way the England players responded to him you could tell that they respected him as a coach that they thought that he had good ideas, we thought that he was really imaginative and brave.
“So if it was down to me, which it’s categorically not, I would possibly think of someone like that, if they don’t go down the tried and trusted of someone like David Moyes.”
Lee Carsley would be a risky appointment for Leicester City
Football Insider Opinion
It’s hard to argue with anyone who feels like the appointment of Carsley would be a risky one for the Foxes.
Carsley did do a good job with England over the past few months, achieving the aim of securing promotion straight back to the top-tier of the UEFA Nations League.
Even so, the failed experiment without a centre-forward in the defeat to Greece at Wembley showed not every decision he makes works out.
Meanwhile, there will also be a question about whether Carsley could cope with the day to day demands of club football, especially with a Leicester side under pressure in the relegation battle.
Even so there can be no denying that he is an exciting coach and, as Lineker mentions, the likes of Brighton have shown that these sort of appointments can work out.
That could make it tempting for the hierarchy at The King Power Stadium to make an appointment such as this, given it is one that could help lift the squad as well as he did with England.
Whoever it is, given the fact that Leicester have taken this decision so quickly after appointing Cooper in the summer, the pressure is now firmly on them to get this appointment right.
In other news, Leicester are interested in signing a Brighton player in January.
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