What's going on?

I know I have made my feelings about Sven quite clear in the days since his departure, how we had simply failed to show any improvement under his stewardship in the 12 months he was in charge, despite the heavy outlay for players. However, 2 things are concerning me greatly at the moment:

1) I’m amazed that no manager was lined up to replace him, which actually makes the timing of his exit all the more strange;

2) That, despite the apparent job description defined by the club, someone like Lee Clarke can seriously be under any form of consideration.

Whilst I will never change my mind about Sven, and I firmly believe that sacking him was the right decision, to appoint someone like Clarke would be a disaster. For me, Clarke is a very dislikable character. He has had run-ins with players, and in partucular has been quite vocal about Huddersfield supporters in the past. Something tells me he just isn’t ready for the pressure cooker of being Leicester City manager. Simply, he has absolutely failed to achieve anything of note with Huddersfield (and before people jump down my throat, I appreciate a 40 game unbeaten run is impressive, but its at a lower level first of all and it has also failed to result in promotion). The only way I see Clarke joining is if Keegan also joins – its either both or neither. Hopefully, it’s neither.

As a quick aside, I understand that Leicester City had been in discussions with Keegan since before the Forest away game. Initially, the discussions related to him taking up an ambassadorial role with the club, to promote the club globally. It was also discussed about the possibility of him taking up a more active role in the playing side should the need arise. This adds more weight to the Clarke rumours for me, which as I say, is a shame as I feel we could do better.

There are only 2 stand out names for me, aside from Martin O’Neill of course, and that’s Mark Hughes and Billy Davies. Whatever your view is of Davies, the man knows how to get teams playing good football and how to get teams winning consistently. Whilst Hughes has never managed in the Championship, I do believe he has the knowledge of the English leagues that Sven so badly lacked, and that he would command the respect of the players, and more importantly, wouldn’t stand for underperformers.

On Martin O’Neill, one thing surprises me still. That the man himself has not publicly stated that he has no interest in the role. Within 24 hours of Sousa’s departure, he issued a statement via the LMA that he was not interested. The reports we’ve seen so far, such as The Guardian for example, all fail to contain any quotes, just conjecture. Whilst I’m almost certain he isn’t interested, I’m very surprised he hasn’t just come out and put an end to it all.