Leicester Fan View: Why Craig Shakespeare is the right man for the Foxes right now

Reports that Craig Shakespeare would secure the vacant Leicester City manager’s job, until the summer at least, began to break this week. While there’s been no official announcement from the club yet, this isn’t entirely unexpected. Shakespeare and the team only just landed back in the UK after a team bonding trip to Dubai and the club always said nothing would happen before that.

Many were left perplexed by how Foxes fans reacted towards the owners throughout this whole affair. It was a general feeling of understanding, tinged with much sadness that it had come to this for Claudio Ranieri, but fully expecting our owners to do right by us once again, we backed them. Whether through luck, or by knowledge gained and their investment into the club as more than just a business venture, the majority of their choices have paid off and proven to be the right ones. Perhaps we were a little surprised that they didn’t have somebody lined up and ready to fill the role given the timing of the sacking, but then as the results and performances have started to look more like it, it’s clear that there’s no need to rush. We can always re-evaluate once we know our league status in the summer. For now, it feels like things are back on track though, so why try and change it?

For Leicester fans, myself included, it would be a fairly unanimous and popular decision to hire Shakespeare so the treatment of our caretaker manager from some pundits feels a little harsh. So often you hear questions about why more English managers aren’t given chances in the Premier League, but when Shakespeare admitted he’d be keen to make the role more permanent and believed he was capable of doing so, he was criticised for saying so and accused of trying to usurp his predecessor. Such criticism or scrutiny would make Such finger pointing of course conveniently ignored that he was at the club prior to Ranieri’s appointment, having decided to stay when Nigel Pearson left during the summer.

Yes, he’s not publicly expressed an interest in this level of management before, but then when you’re second to two managers doing well, wouldn’t that have been incredibly disrespectful? He’s had years to learn from his bosses though, to build up his own idea of how to play and how to manage a set of players. He’s got an added advantage too that anybody we bring in from the outside wouldn’t. Shakespeare’s been at the club since 2008, ignoring one season spent alongside Pearson at Hull. He knows the club inside out, his knowledge possibly only bettered by long-term midfielder Andy King and closely followed by Mike Stowell, currently serving as Shakespeare’s assistant, but usually our goalkeeping coach. For a number of the squad, he’s worked with them for years now and seems to have their trust and belief. That’s not to say they never felt the same about Ranieri either, but it’s certainly important right now.

Despite bookmakers severely shortening odds on Roy Hodgson last week, that story appeared to, thankfully, have little in it and indeed, it was Shakespeare who guided Leicester to a very key home win over fellow relegation fighters, Hull City. Having steered the side to six points and six goals in a week, both more than we’d managed all year previously, the choice to give him a chance seems fairly clear. He’s certainly steadied the ship and returned some kind of harmony to the side who for the first time in months, look comfortable and confident in what’s being asked of them and how to execute it.

This looks vital given our next match. With our Premier League action postponed due to the FA Cup, it’s the second leg of the Sevilla tie in the Champions League and perhaps most surprisingly to nearly all, we’re still in with a chance having got the all important away goal in the first leg. While not wanting to get carried away, it seems likely whether a decision is made or not, Shakespeare will be the man setting the tactics and picking the team. If he could pull off a result, surely there could be no doubt in hiring him. Yes, his CV may lack the trophies and experience of others allegedly in the running, but he’d have earned his chance to see what he can achieve with this group of players even more than he already has.

Whoever we appoint will be the tenth manager in ten years, though only number three in the last six, showing that the owners have favoured stability where possible since some early missteps in their time in charge. If Leicester do give Shakespeare a chance, he’ll join the slowly increasing number of English managers in the Premier League, Swansea having seen their decision to hire Paul Clement, in a similar position previously, so far rewarded.