Leicester have cut ties with another component of their Premier League title win with the sacking of manager Craig Shakespeare.
The 53-year-old lasted only four months as permanent boss, following title winner Claudio Ranieri in being ruthlessly cut adrift by the club's owners.
Shakespeare has paid the price for a poor start to the season but, for a club who just 17 months ago were living the dream, how has it come to this?
No credit in the bank, no track record - anything but a shock sacking
The element of surprise that comes with a managerial sacking in the Premier League has long since been removed - even Frank de Boer's departure after only four league matches in charge of Crystal Palace carried an air of inevitability, despite many seeing it as an injustice.
And while Leicester's decision to dismiss Shakespeare after eight league games of the season will raise eyebrows once more, history tells us no-one should be shocked by the latest turn of events at the King Power Stadium.
If a universally popular manager and personality such as Claudio Ranieri can be sacked nine months after producing arguably the greatest story in British sporting history by guiding Leicester to the Premier League title, then all bets are off when it comes to measuring the job security of any successors.
Ranieri had won only five of his first 25 league games last season, and stood just one place above the relegation zone when the end came in February for a man who had, and has, written his name in the club's - and football's - history.
Shakespeare had none of that credit in the bank. For all the claims that he was the brains behind the stunning operation that brought title glory to Leicester, he had no track record of managerial success to fall back on. Ranieri was the manager, Shakespeare merely his sidekick.
Ranieri had taken Leicester to the last 16 of the Champions League, but that counted for nothing when the club's Thai owners came to the conclusion that they were facing the ignominy of following a title with relegation.
They acted and were rewarded as Shakespeare, pulling together a squad many felt had stopped playing for Ranieri, took Leicester to safety.
The owners demonstrated their single-minded ruthlessness, especially when the thought of Championship football strayed into their consciousness.
It seems clear they feared Shakespeare may lead them into similarly dangerous territory so he has suffered the same fate as Ranieri. No shock to the system given their track record and treatment of the Italian.
Shakespeare was forced to defend his players, and possibly himself, when Ranieri said: "I can't believe my players killed me. No, no, no.
"Maybe it was someone behind me. I had a little problem the year before and we won the title. Maybe this year, when we lose, those people push a little more."
Ranieri did not elaborate on who the figures behind him were - but Shakespeare certainly knew the price on the ticket when he was confirmed as Leicester's permanent manager in June.
Because he was there in the background when it happened to the amiable Ranieri, he will have known failure, or at least the very idea of struggle, would not be tolerated. He had seen the warning signs at very close quarters.
No comments:
Post a Comment