Wednesday 26 October 2011

Sven Leaves the King Power Stadium for the Last Time

  The news on Monday evening, that filtered slowly through Twitter at first but then proceeded to shock the footballing world, that Sven-Goran Eriksson was sacked from Leicester City was a bit of a surprise to me.  Sven had brought a level of limelight that I don't think Leicester City have experienced before, bringing in some top names, claiming to have come to Leicester purely because of the manager, and arranging a glamour pre-season friendly against Real Madrid, presumingly because of his status once again.  However, the Thai owners of Leicester City had obviously had enough.



  This was such a shock as Leicester had not exactly had a 'Forest start', struggling to stay above the relegation zone.  In fact, they were just two points from the play-off positions and just five from the automatic promotion positions when Sven was given his marching orders.  And Sven was such a nice guy, loved by the majority of the Leicester staff, players and fans.  Indeed, he left with these words:

"Being the manager of Leicester City was an absolute pleasure and I wish everyone connected with the club the best of luck. Leicester City is a great club and I am certain that with the current owners in charge the club will go from strength to strength.
"To the players; old, new, everyone in the squad, I would like to say thank you. You are a talented group and I am hopeful that you will achieve success very soon,
"To the staff at the club; both at the stadium and the training ground - you treated me like a king and I shall miss working with you all.
"Last but not least, to the fans; I want to say a huge thank you for your support. You are fantastic people and I will never forget the way you welcomed me in to your club. I am just sorry that I won't be on the bench the day you reach the Premier League."
  However, gain a bit of perspective and you can see the reasoning behind the owners' decision. From the last 81 possible points, Leicester have managed to gain just 35.  There have been some shocking performances and some very bad home defeats this season.  Having spent a good amount, Sven has not led City to any better a place than 12 other teams in the division so far.


  A post on an online fans' forum says it all really and Foxes fans are now starting to look to the future.
"To those who are shocked by the owners decision to remove Sven following a kneejerk reaction to a solitary defeat Vs Millwall.  Stringer just tweeted ahead of his interview that it's been the fact he's only accrued 35 pts from a possible 81 is the reason. 
"As I said in other threads when you remove the emotion of Sven being a nice guy crom the equation & look at the facts we've been locked in a manager induced paralysis of the team for a long long time as we shuffle 1 step forward, 1 step sideways & 1 step backwards on an eternal basis destined to be nothing more than the midtable as the mediocrity of our 1 good game in 3 deserves. 
"I applaud the owners for not allowing their hearts to rule their heads & make a decision based on facts of simply being not good enough as we lie in effectively 14th. Yes we may only be a couple of points from playoffs but so is most of the league & they've not had the same level of investment that Sven has had at his disposal. 
"Of course the Thai's tough decision will be for nothing if the next appointment isn't right, but as they've shown above they can make correct decisions, so hopefully it's onwards & upwards now that they've made the tough call."

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