By Laurie Fitzgerald

After several days of negotiating a compensation deal, Nigel Pearson has been appointed Leicester City manager for a second time in 18 months.

He leaves Hull City after just over a season in charge at the KC stadium, and goes back to a club in a very different financial situation to the one he left last summer.

One of the main reasons that Pearson left Leicester was due to the limited financial budget he had in place, meaning it was difficult to take the club forward with little room to strengthen the squad.

The 48 year-old did a brilliant job at the then-Walkers stadium, having got the club out of League One and then in their first season back in the Championship guiding the Foxes to the play-offs.

Now there is a new stadium name and a new financial climate to work under for Pearson, as the former Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough defender has a squad at his disposal that on paper is one of the strongest in the division.

With the likes of Matt Mills, Sean St. Ledger, Kasper Schmeichel, Paul Konchesky, Andy King and Jermaine Beckford available to him, Pearson will feel that he now has the players in place to take the club forward.

However, the main issue is creating a team out of this hugely-talented squad, and so far the failure to do this has already cost Sven Goran Eriksson his job.

Despite starting the season as promotion favourites, Leicester find themselves nine points off of West Ham United in second and a massive 14 points off of top of the table Southampton.

But while it has been a disappointing start, the main issue is finding consistency; even with the removal of their manager, there is only a three-point gap between them in 12th and those in the play-off positions.

Pearson will know it is a squad under-achieving and therefore getting the best out of them can reap serious rewards come the end of the season.

One question mark that Pearson will need to answer is can he live up to high expectations after a managerial career where he has continually impressed under clear restrictions.

When he took charge at Southampton, he managed to keep them in the Championship against the odds before working wonders in the Midlands.

Even at Hull when it seemed he would have more to work with, the club were counting the cost of relegation from the Premier League and had to strip the squad down – yet still managed a mid-table finish.

Now it seems that roles have reversed and Pearson is doing what few managers have done in going back to a club they have previously managed.

He will also have to win over Leicester fans that will have felt let down when Pearson left the club as it was viewed as a sideways move and done purely for financial reasons on a personal level.

There’s no doubt Pearson is a good manager and if he can get the best out of this squad then Foxes supporters can harbour realistic hopes of getting to the Premier League come May.

But he will need to get the squad and all the fans back on his side to ensure that his second coming to the Kingfisher stadium leads to Pearson taking the club to the next level – something he felt he could not do previously.

So what do you think? Are you pleased with the appointment of Pearson? Can he find consistency with the squad and launch a successful promotion push this season? Leave a comment and let us know your views.

About these ads