There really has been some utter nonsense being spouted from certain quarters of City supporters in response to Sven’s departure. You would think, listening and reading comments, that City had just sacked a manager who had us playing free-flowing entertaining football on a consistent basis with us 5 points clear at the top. These responses are then fuelling non-City supporters’ views that Leicester have ‘yet again’ pushed the button far too quickly. My message is simple – it is not the case.
It would appear that many Foxes supporters have forgotten the final 3rd of last season, where Sven failed to motivate the players, let alone get his tactics right, and this resulted in us never really challenging for 6th spot and ending the season in a lowly 10th place. The owners, to their credit, stuck with Sven undoubtedly believing that the poor start under Paolo Sousa was to blame. This is something I disagree with. 10 games in, Sousa gets the boot and Sven has 36 games in which to claim a play off spot. No mean feat I grant you, particularly with the head start all other teams challenging for those places had. And credit where credit’s due, Sven guided us clear of relegation trouble when it looked for all and sundry that we were doomed under Sousa. However, whenever we got close to 6th, we blew it. Every time. And the moment it appeared it was lost (6th spot that is), Sven seemed to switch off and perhaps start to concentrate on the next season. After all, he had the poor start to point to as a reason for the team’s failure last season.
This season he didn’t have such a default position to fall back on. He had spent a lot of money - £10m (not £15m-£20m as the red tops would have you believe) but still not an insignificant amount. Having seen every home game and a few away games this season, I believe he had bought fairly well. A large squad more than capable of challenging at the top of this division. However with Sven it has always felt as though we were 2 or 3 steps away from even 6th, let alone running away with top spot.
Saturday is proof of this. Yes, had we won, we could have gone 3rd or even 2nd (in the end it would have been 4th, which would have been his highest position as Foxes manager), and playing against a team who hadn’t won away all season and were in the lower reaches. But we didn’t win. We lost. And not just lost, but were soundly beaten without so much as a fight.
Sven had demonstrated that he only has 1 way of playing. This style does not suit the Championship, something that he failed to learn in 12 months. For the record, I also had a concern over player fitness this season.
In simple terms, the good performances (Derby at home, Forest away before the ref helped them out) were far outweighed by the utterly dismal performances (Millwall, Watford (despite winning), Barnsley, Cardiff, Birmingham) and that’s just this season. Last season was littered with the same abject performances, particularly away from home.
The owners are not fools. They have invested heavily in ALL areas of the club. They want the same as the fans do – a successful side playing in the Premiership. Under Sven, he proved that he was not capable, and was not going to be capable, or learning his lessons and getting us promoted. Forget about all the nonsense about it being too soon and Sven needing more time. The writing had been on the wall for a long time and Saturday’s performance was just the symptom of what was going wrong, not the root cause.
To sum up, all those out there claiming that he was booted purely because of Saturday’s result, you are missing the point. He was sacked, sorry mutually terminated, because he had failed to demonstrate that the club was moving forward. A better manager, with the same set of players, can get an awful lot more out of them. For the first time this season, I actually feel we could now challenge (assuming we make the right appointment of course!)
On that note, forget about Martin O’Neill and all the other silly names like Ancelotti and Benitez. We need someone who knows the division. Billy Davies would be ideal quite frankly.
Why it was right to sack Sven...
posted on 25/10/11
I hate Billy Davies. He looks like someone from rogue traders!
Lee Clark for me, get someone in who knows about playing decent football and already winning with a team. Not sure he would come to us though as he is in a good position at huddersfield and is adored by their fans.
posted on 25/10/11
When listening to his post-match interviews, I always felt that SGE was maybe winging it. He never gave any real insight and he just said the most obvious things that anyone with a passing interest in football could have surmised after a match - and after the Millwall game he just didn't know what to say; 'Well, the players......looked tired.........they looked ok in training yesterday............maybe I should have changed one or two players after Wednesday.........'
If I'd just spent £xxxmil and I asked for an explanation of why we'd just been dicked 3 nil at home by a side in the bottom three and that's the kind of response I got, I wouldn't be impressed either!
Saying all that though, it does seem an odd one. Surely the owners must have someone lined up already to replace Sven or it does seem very, very knee-jerk.
posted on 25/10/11
An insightful article Fox1884. You have hit the nail on the head.
Whilst many of us truly wanted Sven to succeed, we also doubted his understanding of the Championship when he took the job.
I (for one) have been critical of his tactics and the fact that I do not think he has learnt enough from his 13 months in charge. Whilst we wanted to believe, the simple reality is as many have commented - one step forward and two backwards.
I think the phrase is "Et tu Brute". The Super Thai Guys have made a decision that perhaps the fans were too squemish to make themselves.
Sorry Sven - but business is business.
posted on 25/10/11
Whilst I agree Sven made mistakes, do you KNOW he wouldn't have got it right?
It takes time for a manager to create a "team". He lays the foundations, then tweaks a little, sees what's working and what is not, adds a player or two, tweaks a bit more and then it either clicks or fails. I will not judge Sven's time at Leicester as a success or failure, he was simply not given enough time to prove this either way.
In my view, there is no point in bringing any manger in, allowing him to build a team of his own players and not giving him a full season at least.
Whether he would have succeeded or not, we'll never know now. I just don't like this way of running a club with every manager given a few months to make it a success.
posted on 25/10/11
I'm not sure about his style of football being wrong - after all, Swansea got promoted playing brilliant passing football. He no doubt made some tactical errors that cost us but I still think it was premature to sack him.