CRAIG WAITS TO SHAKE ON JOB
Stand-in made to sweat before learning his fate
CRAIG SHAKESPEARE will have to sweat it out until Thursday to find out if he’s got the Leicester job.
The 53-year-old will spend a few days after the Hull game with his squad on a team-bonding break in the Middle East before returning to learn his fate. Leicester’s squad will fly out tomorrow and return on Wednesday. The caretaker boss is due to have talks with club bosses the next day. Shakespeare yesterday played down suggestions that today’s relegation battle could be make or break in his quest to succeed Claudio Ranieri. The popular Italian who won the title was sacked last week, with Shakespeare in charge for Monday’s 3-1 demolition job on Liverpool. A similar result at home to Hull can only boost his chances of claiming the job. Ahead of today’s relegation clash, Shakespeare said: “I sat down on Wednesday with the vicechairman and the director of football and was asked to take the game this weekend.
Shouting
“I’m very comfortable with what they have told me. I don’t see that it’s my job to lose. “I’ve been in football long enough to know that one or two defeats, people will be shouting for you to get the sack. “I’m not looking any further ahead than the Hull game. We will sit down and I’m sure the owners will give their views after that.” Former England boss Roy Hodgson has also emerged as a front-runner for the job, but a poll in the local evening paper saw Shakespeare emerge as the red-hot favourite with fans. More than 6,000 ® people voted, with 90 per cent wanting Shakespeare either permanently or until the end of the season, while 88 per cent were AGAINST Hodgson getting it.
Shakespeare refused to be drawn on the results, adding: “There are lots of names being mentioned. It’s not for me to speculate.”
One thing Shakespeare is confident about, though, is the magnitude of today’s game against his former club.
He said: “It’s bigger than the Liverpool game. This is now a 12-game season and we have to put in a good performance.
“We want to get back-to-back wins. I’m quite confident with the squad we have here that we can pull away from relegation.
“Nothing has changed – I’ve told the players to put the Liverpool result to one side and focus purely on Hull.”
Shakespeare said he has received a number of messages from managers he has worked with wishing him good luck. One of them had come from Sam Allardyce, who he worked alongside for his one match in charge of England. Former boss Ranieri was not one of them, however, and Shakespeare explained: “No, he wasn’t. “I spoke to him twice last week. I know he was going to Italy to spend some time with his family and out of respect, I wanted to give him that time.” Shakespeare believes their trip away will help team spirit. “I think it can help,” he said. “We have got a lot of new players. “Warm-weather training was something the owners have wanted to do for a while. “The squad just haven’t been able to socialise this season, what with everything, and this was a good opportunity to do that.”