Leicester City announced on Sunday that Steve Cooper, after just 12 Premier League matches in charge of the Foxes, had been relieved of his duties in a brief statement
Leicester City have sacked Steve Cooper – because the players weren’t convinced he could keep them up.
The Foxes dropped the bombshell that they had dismissed the Welshman a little more than 24 hours after they suffered a home defeat to Chelsea.
Early frontrunners for the post include ex-Chelsea boss Graham Potter, former Manchester United and Everton boss David Moyes while West Brom ’s Carlos Corberan is a well-regarded outsider.
Rumblings from inside the dressing room indicated that the 44-year-old had not been able to win over the squad – and an uneasy relationship with the club’s supporters meant that the board took the decision to axe the club’s boss. Leicester are just two points above the dropzone and with only two victories this season – back-to-back triumphs over Bournemouth and Southampton – the mood music around the King Power Stadium has been downbeat.
A statement read: “Leicester City Football Club has parted company with Steve Cooper, who leaves his position as First Team Manager with immediate effect.
“Assistant Manager Alan Tate and First Team Coach and Analyst Steve Rands have also left the Club. Steve, Alan and Steve depart with our thanks for their contribution during their time with the Club and with our best wishes for the future.”
Club chairman and owner Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, known as ‘Top’, was present at the game against Chelsea and it is understood that he was aware of the internal grumbling.
Having witnessed for himself the game against the Londoners, the decision was taken to act now, rather than wait until any later in the season. It was for that reason that the two-week international break wasn’t used to fire Cooper and effect change far sooner.
It has been an uneasy relationship between a coach who won the World Cup with England’s Under-17s and Foxes’ supporters since he was appointed as Enzo Maresca’s successor five months ago.
His connection to rivals Nottingham Forest – and Cooper shared a close relationship with the supporters at the City Ground – hasn’t helped breed confidence among the supporter-base. They turned on him during a Carabao Cup tie against Walsall where Leicester squeezed through on penalties and a 3-1 home defeat to Forest hasn’t helped.
With the squad unconvinced that he could maintain their Premier League status, the manager paid the price.
Cooper’s backroom team have departed with him but Leicester said they wanted to make a quck appointment ahead of crunch games against Brentford and West Ham.
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