Foxes job is turning poisonous
BEFORE Leicester’s latest half-hearted debacle against West Ham, owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha used his programme notes to revisit the qualities behind their fast-fading success. There is a ‘unique spirit of togetherness that defines this club’, he said. Yeah, right. Leicester are together in the way the Borgias were. Nobody gets stabbed in the back because it saves time to go round the front. The players stop playing, the board side with the players against the manager. Nobody is safe: miracle workers, mates, certainly not some out-of-town stranger like Claude Puel — destined to be the latest victim of a dressing room still living off a wonderful event two years ago. Puel is thought doomed and already names are being linked with his job. David Wagner, Rafa Benitez — but why would they want it? Leicester have money, but not money to compete consistently with the elite. They also have a squad that downs tools and spits poison if a manager so much as considers playing differently to Claudio Ranieri in 2015-16. As for the board, if they can sack Ranieri, they can sack anyone. And do. How much of a chance did Craig Shakespeare really get? If Puel goes in the summer, he won’t even have had the opportunity to mould his own team. Leicester are shaping up like Chelsea without the upside. We all know why managers keep signing up at Stamford Bridge — but Leicester? Carry on like this and they’ll have to make the pay-offs extremely appealing. They can’t simply rely on all that lovely togetherness.