How Leicester set up Steve Cooper to replace Enzo Maresca as manager

VaselineJune 20, 2024

0 6 minutes read

How Leicester set up Steve Cooper to replace Enzo Maresca as manager

As the process that saw Steve Cooper emerge as their next manager demonstrates, Leicester City rarely rush into big decisions.

After Enzo Maresca completed his move to take over at Chelsea after leading Leicester back to the Premier League at the first attempt in his only season in charge on June 3, the club’s hierarchy began a methodical process of identifying a successor or. Leicester do exactly the same with player recruitment.

A long list of possibilities became a little shorter as the names were quickly dismissed as wrong fits.

Leicester were looking for a certain type of manager, one who had proven he could play the progressive style of football they wanted and which convinced them to hire then Manchester City assistant Maresca a year ago.

Discussions with several candidates have emerged as three main potential replacements: long-term Leicester target Graham Potter – who they have approached twice before, following the sacking of Brendan Rodgers last April and then the departure of interim manager Dean Smith two months later – the current West Bromwich Albion. head coach Carlos Corberan and former Swansea City and Nottingham Forest manager Cooper.

Leicester took their time and assessed the three on a number of simple criteria.

Availability

Potter and Cooper were ahead of Corberan because they were both free agents. Potter has been one since being sacked by Chelsea in April 2023 and Cooper’s spell at Forest ended with his sacking in December, while Corberan has a release clause in his contract at Championship club West Brom, which is believed to that is set at £4 million.

Potter was one of the favorites to take the Leicester job (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Willingness to do the job

Managing Leicester would not be straightforward for the successful candidate.

Having just been promoted back to the Premier League as EFL champions, it would be a challenge to keep up, even before their problems with the Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR). Leicester are facing a charge from the Premier League for breaching the PSR with consecutive annual losses of £90m, the latest being during the 2022-23 relegation season and a related points deduction, with efforts still needed to avoid a breach additional. .

Consequently, there is something to do and do.

Regardless of the problems to be solved, it remains an attractive job. Cooper, 44, was excited from the start. It’s a chance to return to the Premier League, where he feels he has unfinished business after being sacked mid-season by Forest. He has kept a place to live in Keyworth, south Nottinghamshire, which is not far from Leicester’s Seagrave training ground.

The chance to move up to the Premier League would have been attractive to Corberan after four successive seasons in the Championship, two with Huddersfield Town and then the last two with West Brom.

Corberan’s West Brom release clause is likely to have ruled him out (Adam Fradgley/West Bromwich Albion FC via Getty Images)

Potter will have needed a bit more convincing, with his reputation still high and linked with the likes of Manchester United and top Dutch side Ajax, and the prospect of more high-profile positions soon becoming available – including the England job . But the belief remained that he would come.

How much money does he want?

Potter would have been the most expensive in terms of wages, but you get what you pay for. Corberan would have been too expensive for the club’s taste to leave West Brom, but he didn’t have as high a salary, while Cooper was the cheapest option.

What does the back staff look like?

This became a stumbling block when it came to recruiting Potter.

To bring in the former Brighton and Chelsea manager, he wanted back his old coaching staff: Billy Reid (assistant), Bjorn Hamberg (assistant coach), Bruno Saltor (assistant coach), Ben Roberts (goalkeeping coach) and Kyle Macaulay (recruitment) . They went with him to Chelsea in September 2022 and most are staying there. Chelsea would like compensation for these staff members and it would have been a longer process to negotiate for them to be released from their contracts.

Cooper may choose to bring in his assistant Alan Tate, who is also a free agent, and with Leicester having lost six members of staff to Chelsea with Maresca, there is plenty of room for additions at the back. Cooper has a strong relationship with Steven Reid, who remains in the coaching staff at the City Ground. Cooper has previously worked with goalkeeping coach Danny Alcock and analyst Steve Rands.

What is his football philosophy?

Leicester wanted a manager aligned with the vision of their team continuing to be a progressive possession-based side and they have developed a clearly defined identity under Maresca.

Potter’s style of play at Brighton would have suited him and his reputation as a coach remains high. Corberan has a clear philosophy and both are committed to their approach, but Cooper’s is less easily defined.

He wanted to play more attacking and progressive football at Forest, but was pragmatic in understanding that they could not dominate the ball against the best teams in the Premier League, so he coached his players to sit deeper and look for counterattack. He kept them going in their first season back in the top flight (in 2022-23) by playing like that.

However, compared to the other two candidates, Cooper’s playing style at previous clubs Swansea and Forest is the most different to Maresca’s strict, choreographed style. Cooper likes his sides to be defensively sound and play with structure, but with a bit more freedom and focus on the individual in attack.

Had Cooper had more quality in his Forest squad, it would have been interesting to see if he turned to a more attacking style. When he took over at Swansea in the summer of 2019 – replacing Potter, who was at Brighton – there was resistance from fans who had grown used to Potter’s approach and were less enamored of the new manager’s more pragmatic approach .

Leicester’s hierarchy will have noticed this as they realize the reality of the challenge of trying to stay up next season.

So how did Cooper win this race?

Eventually, Leicester continued talks with Potter and Cooper. Potter was still heavily boxed in Tuesday, but it became clearer that getting Cooper was the easier deal to make. With two weeks until the players return to start pre-season, Leicester appeared to be running out of patience in their pursuit of Potter, where there were no guarantees of a positive result.

Potter may have been the original plan, but Cooper turned out to be the man.

This will be a collaborative decision, discussed at board level and then with the club’s Thai owner, Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha.

Leicester must be the right choice as Cooper has plenty of work to do before the season kicks off with a home game against Tottenham Hotspur on Monday 19 August. Marc Albrighton, Kelechi Iheanacho, Dennis Praet, Callum Doyle and Yunus are all gone. the club this summer, with no additions yet to come in the other direction.

For some Leicester fans, his association with Forest – their neighbors and East Midlands rivals – will have to be overcome.

Martin O’Neill, who won two European Cups and the title with Forest as a player in the 1970s and early 1980s, faced a similar situation when he became Leicester manager in 1995 and fans were quick to pounce he after a slow start. . He won them over with five years of success that included promotion to the Premier League and two League Cup final triumphs.

Leicester supporters will be hoping that Cooper, who has been handed a three-year deal, proves to have such a tenure.

How have Leicester fans reacted to Cooper’s appointment?

Cooper’s appointment brought a mixed response from Leicester supporters on social media.

Many who wanted a ‘big name’ manager are disappointed that the club have appointed one so closely linked to and still loved by their East Midlands rivals Forest after the work he has done to bring it to the Premier League – and keep it there – before the sacking. .

“I know the Forest fans absolutely love him and they’d get him tomorrow,” says Cliff Ginnetta, chairman of the official Leicester City Supporters’ Club.

“It will take a long time for the Leicester fans to feel that. It’s a Marmite date, isn’t it?

After emphasizing playing with a certain identity under Maresca, for some, Cooper feels like a departure.

“Obviously the chairman likes football played a certain way and he messed around last time and brought in the manager who played Manchester City style, playing from the back,” says Ginnetta. “We don’t think Cooper plays like that. Looks like it went out the window.

“We all expected something beautiful, something big, something to excite us – and we have the exact opposite.”

However, some supporters will look past the Forest connection, pointing out that Wes Morgan, who came from Forest and captained the team to the Premier League title in 2016, has been hugely successful, as has Martin O’ Neill as coach between 1995 and 2000.

And a more direct style of play may also please many who have grown frustrated at times with Leicester’s more patient approach under Maresca.

“The good thing is that he obviously wanted the job, and a lot of people will be pleased that we just appointed someone,” says Ginnetta.

“I think many will prefer a more British style of play. Last year, I stayed in block L. Some people around me were going crazy because they didn’t like the play style, and sometimes it was uncomfortable.

“We have to give it a chance, but the fans will have mixed feelings. It’s very 50-50.”