Leicester is no different from all other professional clubs in football as life can become heaven or hell over night, shifting from one manager to another. We have seen how Jannik Vestergaard this season has gone from being a player dropped to play in U.21 games, losing 7-0 to Fulham, and return to action as the most consistant player in this seasons team.
Easy to forget that Jannik Vestergaard played for Denmark in the 2021 Euro semi-final vs. England, and to see a fellow Scandinavian being trashed as useless and isolated by a manager that signed him for £15million a few months earlier, is just a disgrace. This shows great lack of man management and no respect for a professional footballer with skills you have no use for.
Current Leicester owners have over time been patient with their managers not really listened to the most angy fans, but having a toxic atmosphere at a home football ground is the worst an owner can experience, so with the present problems at OH Leuven, they decided to sack manager Marc Brys, who had been in charge since June 2020, having success in establishing OH Leuven in the top flight of Belgian football. This season early on looked a struggle, currently 14th among the 16 teams, with just 9 points in 10 games.
The shocking decline at Leicester last season and the belief in Brendan Rodgers, of course also having his massive contract sacking clause in there, stopped owners from doing the obvious early on, as all could see that everything looked out of balance, especially having so many players declining new contract offers. The situation regarding Wesley Fofana, selling him to Chelsea, probably gave everyone the idea of a situation out of control.
This is not the first time we have seen a manager at Leicester shuffling his players around like they have no value. To understand your squad, the hierarchy at a club and being able to get the best energy possible, you need to be sure that the correct mix is in place and that you have the balance needed to bring results to the table.
If you have too many unsatisfied faces at the training ground, you will be in trouble because you have to understand your job, to keep that balance in place. Certain fans believe footballers are just a group of machines getting paid and being fed as cows and horses, should just continue to play and stay humble, but that is so far from reality that total silence would be the appropriate.
Professional footballers are the best paid athletes in Europe, they are over competitive and hate to lose, if you not have that in place, you will not survive in the game. If a manager takes you down and show no belief in you, your self confidence will be reduced and if someone tells you that your future looks to be elsewhere, you just wait for a move to happen and if you are not allowed to play games, it will be difficult to keep your form. It’s a bit like driving a car, if you have not done it for a year or two, you will need a few hours in the traffic to get back to standard.
Watching the interview with Steve Guppy, listening to his talk about Peter Taylor, is sickening. As a grand fan of the player, Gups, had skills no other player at Leicester possessed. His crosses and eye for a pass was excellent, valued highly by Martin O’Neill, how on earth could PT, believe he had a better eye on the game than MON, making one of several errors as he destroyed a great football team.
Steve Walsh and Tony Cottee were similar errors, taking out the kidneys, heart and liver of the team and squad, not really honoring the fact that Walsh and Cottee had a year left on their contract. All three were of course coming to an age that did see them close to a departure, but it should be done in a different manner.
Brendan Rodgers made the same error with Kasper Schmeichel as his presence was so vital and would have in real saved Leicester from relegation, not being able to find a replacement with Danny Ward far from the capacity of the Danish international. Schmeichel was a great goalkeeper, but that was not the most important part, it was his leader capacity that was mostly missed and no plan was in place to cover for that.
Enzo Maresca hopefully will avoid having too many players on board that he believe have no place in his plans as his group will be balanced with positive energy established and what we did see against Stoke was a clear example of Enzo’s leadership capacity, hopefully bringing the correct mix to the group.
There are just the best men in the game that manage a regroup but what we have seen from Enzo Maresca this season, hopefully the club has this man in place, we certainly have the belief at present.
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