The season of goodwill and peace on earth is almost upon us, however the Thai owners at Leicester City football club simply could not wait to give manager Sven Goran Eriksson his christmas present early...his P45. That's right, after a less than desirable start to the season culminating in a 3-0 home defeat to Millwall at the weekend Sven was given his marching orders along with coach Derek Fazackerley. In truth it was expected that Sven would either buckle under the pressure of expectation at the King Power stadium after being plied with millions never seen before in Leicester's club history or that the sneaky Swede would follow tradition and jump ship.
From the start the appointment of Eriksson divided opinion on the terraces, in true Top Gear fashion 'Some say he's a sucker for a sugar daddy with more money than sense......others say he's a tactical genius with an impressive C.V' I leaned more towards the former. Ever since the 'Fake Sheikh' scandal and the Notts County fiasco I've only ever seen Sven as greedy, a man living off his former reputation which yielded Swedish titles with IFK Goteburg and a Scudetto in Italy with Lazio. Which is where the worries and concerns began as soon as Sven was unveiled as Leicester City manager, the circus had finally come to town.
Signings and contacts proved a valuable asset of the Sven era at Leicester, bringing in talented individuals such as Michael Johnson of Manchester City and Sol Bamba from Hibernian who had played under Eriksson in his short tenure with the Ivory Coast. The excitement built around the club as Leicester finally had a side seemingly capable of walking the division and heading into the Premiership to battle it out with the big boys. Sadly this is Leicester, a club that does not thrive on expectation, as soon as the bookies announced that we were favourites to seal the title the writing was on the wall.
The search now gets underway for the new manager of Leicester City with names such as Alan Shearer *gulp*, Mark Hughes *thumbs up*, Carlo Ancelotti *what the f..* and even Claudio Ranieri mentioned. There is one name however that does stand out from the crowd, the messiah himself, Martin O' Neill. The question is, would he come back? In fact, should he come back? O'Neill is an icon to most who grew up watching City back in the years between 1995-2000, bringing the club back from disarray after relegation from the Premier League in 1995 and bringing them back with a bang, an exciting style of football, high work ethic, a 9th place finish and a trophy to boot.
In recent times O'Neill has produced the magic up in Scotland despite claims that 'my gran could manage Celtic and win them the league' ahhh yes but could she get them to the final of the UEFA cup? I suppose that's up for debate, your gran could be the tea lady at Old Trafford for all I know with a back catalogue of Sir Alex's finest tactical plans. Speaking of Old Trafford I'm pretty sure that is the one job that Martin is waiting for, Sir Alex isn't getting any younger and theres only so many more thrashings by Manchester City that he can take. Still it would be nice to have Messiah O'Neill back in the City dugout but its unlikely in my view. So I'd better get on for the time being with my 'Alan Shearer - Leicester welcomes you' banner.
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