Can Leicester kick on and earn a play off spot?

 

By Tony Alvarez

At the beginning of the season the bookies favourites and many fans and pundits favourites to win the Championship was Leicester City. They had spent massively improving their squad in the summer and had a manager who was well regarded worldwide in Sven Goran Erikkson.

A look at the table shows just how wrong everyone was far from running away with the title the club are currently in 9^th place with 62 points from their 42 fixtures, the former England manager has long since departed and been replaced with a much smaller name in Nigel Pearson.

Should Barmby get the Hull job permanently?

By Laurie Fitzgerald

Hull City continued their promotion push on Saturday with a 1-0 win at struggling Coventry City, leaving them fifth in the Championship table.

The Tigers’ form has been all the more impressive considering the fact that manager Nigel Pearson left the club last month to return to Leicester City.

This is in large part due to the continuity being carried through by veteran player turned young caretaker manager Nick Barmby.

Under the former Tottenham, Middlesbrough, Everton and Liverpool midfielder, Hull have won their last two matches, and three of their last five, to move just four points adrift of the automatic promotion spots.

Despite the great position, the 37 year-old has continued to concentrate on the job in hand, instead of being drawn on questions regarding the vacant managerial position at the KC Stadium.

“All I am bothered about is how the players play and how the players react,” said Barmby after their latest win at the Ricoh Arena.

However, the way the players are reacting at the moment, Barmby’s chances of being offered the job on a full-time basis are growing by the week.

With such a distinguished career, it has allowed Barmby to step into the hotseat and instantly command respect of the players, making the transition from ‘one of the lads’ to suddenly being their superior seamless.

Having made such a good start, Hull owner Assem Allam has already confirmed that Barmby will be given funds to strengthen the squad in January, indicating his growing belief in his caretaker manager.

Unless an outstanding candidate comes into the frame, then all signs point to Allam putting his faith in Barmby guiding his boyhood club forward in the long-term.

Of course, the danger that currently exists is that this is just a ‘honeymoon period’ under Barmby, and that people shouldn’t get carried away with what he’s achieved in his time in charge.

But that would be doing a disservice to the former England player, who has already overcome a blip of back-to-back defeats by following it up with consecutive victories.

Whatever happens has to be in the best interests of Hull City – but Barmby has done his chances for the job no harm at all.

Source: Sky Sports

So what do you think? Should Barmby be given the job full-time? Or should Allam go for someone with more experience? Leave a comment and let us know your views.

Will Pearson’s second coming take Leicester to the Premier League?

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.