It looks like too much infamy had gone on at the King Power Stadium and that even Premier League security was never going to be enough to keep Nigel Pearson in his job at Leicester City.

Pearson was sacked yesterday after the clubs board came to the conclusion that they could no longer work with him at the helm.

The fifty-one year old boss deserves a huge amount of credit. He managed the almost impossible task of keeping the ‘Foxes’ in the top flight of English football, even though at times last term they looked certain to go down.

After winning seven out of their last ten fixtures during last season’s campaign Pearson and his side managed to secure a fourteenth place finish.

The bookies have now installed current Bolton Wanderers gaffer Neil Lennon as the favourite to land the hotseat at the King Power Stadium.

Other names like Sam Allardyce, Burnley’s Sean Dyche and former Foxes boss Martin O’Neill have also been heavily linked with the post so far.

But Lennon seems to be the intriguing one.

Neil became a Leicester City legend during his four year stint as a player with the Foxes during the late nineties. He helped the club win two League Cups during that period and that previous affiliation with the club would stand him in good stead with the home fans who still remember him fondly.

Before taking the job with the ‘Trotters’, Lennon had a rich spell as manager of one of his other former sides Celtic. He lead the Glasgow side to three league titles and two Scottish Cup triumphs in his four years as the clubs boss.

But it was his ability to get Celtic challenging against Europe’s best sides in the Champions League that won him plaudits from outside of Scotland.

In 2012-13 Lennon masterminded Celtic’s famous home 2-1 victory over the famous Barcelona side that contained the likes of Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Alexis Sanchez, David Villa and of course Lionel Messi. It wasn’t a fluke win either, Celtic were well disciplined and worked extremely hard for their victory.

During that same season Celtic would finish ahead of both Spartak Moscow and Benfica to finish behind Barca in the group stages and reach the last sixteen round of Europe’s most elite competition.

Also during his time in Glasgow, Lennon managed to get the best out of players such as Gary Hooper, Victor Wanyama, Fraser Forster and Ki Sung-Yueng who would all leave Parkhead to join English Premier League sides for big fees.

Quite a few eyebrows were raised when the Northern Irishman quit the Glasgow giants last summer. Those same eyebrows were raised even further when he decided to take the Bolton job as they lay at the foot of the Championship table.

But Lennon went to work and managed to turn things around and they managed to get out of trouble and climb up to eighteenth in the table, ten points away from the relegation places.

The key to Lennon’s success at both Celtic and Bolton has been his ability to convinced the players at his disposal to buy into his footballing philosophies. Neil seems to have the same ability as his former mentor Martin O’Neill in getting his troops to run the little bit harder and faster just because he has asked them too.

Lennon’s contacts with his former employers could also benefit Leicester if they chose to hire him as he’d no doubt look at the likes of Virgil van Dijk, James Forrest, Adam Matthews and Zach Clough as potential new recruits for the Foxes.

So in Neil Lennon the Leicester City board would be getting a young up and coming boss who has already enjoyed success both domestically and in Europe so far in his managerial career. He already knows the club and has a good relationship with it supporters and has shown that he can get the best out of his players in previous jobs.

It seems like a no brainer that he’d be the bookies favourite to take the job but will owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha decide to bring Lennon back to Leicester?

Well that’s the £120m question!

Posted on July 1st, 2015 by scott
Filed under: Article