Leicester owner slams players and makes huge accusation before Van Nistelrooy appointment
Ruud van Nistelrooy is expected to become manager of Leicester, but only after their owner is done accusing the players of getting Steve Cooper sacked.
Cooper was sacked on Sunday after five months and 12 games in charge of Leicester, who he left 16th in the Premier League table.
His last match was a defeat to Chelsea, now managed by the coach who guided the Foxes to their Championship triumph last season, Enzo Maresca.
The Italian seemed to have an even bigger part to play in Cooper’s demise as Leicester players including Harry Winks and Conor Coady were caught on video during their Christmas party in a Copenhagen nightclub next to a sign which bore the words: ‘Enzo I miss you’.
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While the party was sanctioned by both Cooper and the club, owner Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha was said to be furious and ‘bitterly disappointed’ with how it came across.
He ‘launched an angry broadside’ at the players when they returned and ‘accused’ them of ‘letting down’ Cooper, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Srivaddhanaprabha alone made the decision to part with Cooper but he ‘felt that the players were partly culpable by producing a number of poor performances’.
The player sat ‘in silence’ during the confrontation, accepting the responsibility before being told that Cooper’s replacement would be a “free agent”‘ with ‘no compensation’ required to appoint them.
Van Nistelrooy is expected to be installed at the King Power Stadium imminently, having been linked with the Leicester job in the summer before taking up a role as Erik ten Hag’s assistant at Manchester United.
When the doomed Ten Hag was finally sacked Van Nistelrooy stepped in as caretaker manager for four games, two of which were wins against Leicester.
That and his availability after being released from his contract by Manchester United might well have appealed most to Leicester, who hope to have the Dutchman in place before Saturday’s game against Brentford.
BBC Radio 5 Live pundits Gary Cahill and Chris Sutton are unconvinced by Van Nistelrooy’s acumen in a Premier League relegation fight.
“His career from a players’ point of view takes care of itself, but it is really interesting for Leicester fans,” Cahill said.
“He did well at PSV, was interim at Manchester United and did well recently in the couple of games he had, but there is going to be a slight unknown around him. At the same time, I think it will be exciting.”
Chris Sutton added: “I have got sympathy for Steve Cooper. Twelve Premier League games in, 16th in the table and they haven’t had the worst start.
“I think the Leicester players are an entitled group of players who possibly played a large part in Cooper getting the sack. I think it is a really difficult job to go into.
“As Manchester United interim boss, he beat them twice and I don’t know whether that had any bearing on him getting the job. But, at the start of the season it would have always been about Leicester just staying in the Premier League.
“Maybe their expectations are higher.”
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