Should Leicester City appoint Dean Smith as our new manager?
With the Telegraph reporting that Leicester City are considering appointing Dean Smith as our permanent manager, we ask whether this news should be welcomed.
Yes
As I watched the curtain fall on the domestic season at the weekend with the blue half of Manchester lifting the FA Cup at Wembley, I wondered whether we’ll be there for the Championship playoff final in little under 12 months’ time and if so, who will take us there?
The Championship is a hard league to crack, and Leicester will need to turn to a manager who has experience of succeeding in the division.
Dean Smith’s success in the Championship came via the play-offs as Aston Villa were victorious over Derby County in the 2019 final. His ability to keep Villa away from relegation the following season was what appealed to Top when he brought in Smith as Leicester’s interim manager with eight games to go.
Smith’s backroom staff of Craig Shakespeare and John Terry already have an insight into the workings of the club and must have strategies to plot a successful bid to get out of the division at the first attempt.
If Smith stays hopefully Terry will too because the next iteration of the Leicester City squad needs to be built around a strong defence and Terry’s coaching will only be a benefit to the back line. Smith has built squads before and there will need to be some canny business in the off season to have a squad ready for the new campaign.
This squad will need to be hungry for success with a combination of new signings looking to making a mark with last season’s players wanting to make up for the relegation.
Between Smith’s time at Villa and Leicester he was the manager of Norwich, a partnership that started well but ultimately saw them relegated and being sacked the following season after only winning three games out of 13, seeing them slip from first to fifth in the table.
Former Huddersfield Town manager David Wagner was drafted in, but the slide continued, and Norwich finished the season in 13th place. This blot on Smith’s copybook should be looked in context in how Norwich continued to nosedive despite the sacking and how Smith wasn’t given a full season to turn the results around.
While Norwich fans were apparently unconvinced by Smith’s style of play, there was a pressing of the ball from Leicester after he joined with success against Wolves. However, Smith identified that confidence and belief was “low” and the Leicester players brought pressure on themselves when they made unforced errors that were rightly punished.
Smith now needs to draw a line under the 2022-23 season and bring confidence back to the remaining squad. There were highlights among those last eight games with a much-needed formation of three at the back away at Newcastle United bringing a clean sheet.
The 2023-24 squad has to be built from the back and I would back Smith to start laying that foundation.
Adam Hodges
No
This period in Leicester City’s history should be seen as an opportunity. What a chance for change. While it was shocking to end up letting £100million of “talent” go for free this summer, we need to look on the positive side and embrace the year-late rebuild ahead.
Therefore, the final whistle at the end of the season should mark a full stop and we should be looking at starting a new chapter that doesn’t contain any continuity from the previous failures.
Now it turns out we’re showing no signs of holding anyone senior accountable for what’s happened, we’re still in contract talks with Jonny Evans and we’re considering Dean Smith as our permanent manager.
Some of the names mentioned as possible replacements have been intriguing. What would Kieran McKenna do with this opportunity? What would Enzo Maresca do? We’ve already seen a little of what Smith has to offer and it lacked purpose.
When Filbert Way bounced to the rhythm of Gala’s Freed From Desire in the aftermath of the win against Wolves towards the end of April, it was sadly the high point of Smith’s time in charge.
We’d fail to beat either Leeds or Everton. We’d bomb spectacularly at Fulham. We wouldn’t win again until the final day when it was too late.
Yet somehow, despite relegation, it turns out Smith has “admirers in the boardroom”. To be fair, if there’s one boardroom it wouldn’t be flattering to hear that about, it’s this one. I’d have more confidence in my abilities if they wrote me off.
This is an executive that seems to have grown terrified of change, of taking difficult decisions. It mirrors the niceness we’ve seen for so long on the pitch.
And as nice a bloke as Smith seems, appointing a man who failed in his task would reek of the same acceptance of second best and indecision that saw him arrive in the first place and that has driven us off the cliff.
It might work. But so might a bit of boldness.
David Bevan
