Steve Cooper close to being named Leicester City’s new head coach | Football news

Steve Cooper is close to being named Leicester City’s new head coach.

Negotiations are in the final stages after the 44-year-old became the Premier League club’s preferred candidate.

Cooper was on a shortlist that also included former Brighton and Chelsea boss Graham Potter.

The Welshman has been out of work since being sacked by Nottingham Forest last December, who he was in charge of for just over two years. The club were 17th in the table after a run of just one win in 13 games when he left.

Leicester won promotion back to the Premier League when they first claimed the title last season, but are looking for a new head coach after former boss Enzo Maresca recently joined Chelsea.

Cooper has previously been in charge of England’s U16 and U17 international sides, winning the World Cup with the latter in 2017, before managing Championship side Swansea City from 2019-2021.

Heskey: The new manager’s aim must be to stay in the Premier League

The Leicester City legend Emile Heskey says the next manager’s aim is simply to try to stay in the Premier League amid a limited ability to sign new players.

Speaking at the launch of Husqvarna’s Victory Dance campaign, he insisted that the best way to achieve this would be to continue the style of football implemented by Maresca.

Heskey said Sky Sports: “Leicester have gone down the path of having someone in Maresca who has revolutionized the way we think as a club in terms of the way we play.

“It would be crazy to change everything around. Even when you look at the U21s, they started to implement a lot of the fundamentals that Maresca had.

“You’d like to think the next manager will take that and go on and play a lot of the younger guys because the reality is I’m not sure how much we can spend to really get the team up to par with what it takes to stay in the league.

“I went through the championship quite easily, with a bit. If we can keep Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall it would be remarkable and incredible because he really is the main player.

“The aim has to be to stay in the Premier League. We have to reset and work again. Staying in the league is essential and then you build from there, especially if you’re not able to spend the money you have to spend on bring the team to a tie.

“The reality is that the team is quite similar to the team that went down. Yes, in the forward line, Jamie Vardy has re-signed, but who else do we have? This is a key position that needs to be rectified.

“I would say defensively, the centre-back position would be important and then possibly a midfielder.”