2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (Jordan Blackwell)
Ruud van Nistelrooy looks set to take charge of Leicester City’s fixture at Wolves as rumours continue to swirl around his future. Van Nistelrooy has been asking the club for talks over next season for a few weeks, and he said following confirmation of relegation on Sunday that City would be “wasting time” if they held off a decision any longer. It is now expected that those talks will be held from next week.
The Dutchman has a contract until 2027 but after overseeing City’s fall into the Championship, as well as a record losing streak and a four-month home goal drought, there are considerable doubts that he will lead the club next term. But at the very least, he is expected to be in the dugout at Molineux on Saturday when City take on Wolves in what is now a dead rubber, with van Nistelrooy due to preview the game at a press conference on Thursday afternoon. Van Nistelrooy has previously said he would honour his contract and has started to prepare for next season, discussing in the aftermath of the Newcastle defeat that City were “changing course” and looking to the future, with selection changes and teenagers Jeremy Monga and Jake Evans handed debuts.
But City’s future may not include him, and names have already started to emerge as potential candidates to be his successor. In the past couple of days, former Southampton boss Russell Martin, Sheffield Wednesday’s Danny Rohl, England Under-21s coach Lee Carsley, and former Burnley and Everton manager Sean Dyche have been linked with the job. Suggestions that City may hold off on sacking van Nistelrooy because of concerns over Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) for this financial year do not appear to stack up.
City are close to the wire on PSR for this season, hence their January business being limited to one £3m signing, but waiting for the new financial year to sack van Nistelrooy would be leaving it too late. The accounting year runs to June 30. If City waited beyond that point to sack van Nistelrooy and appoint a new manager, they would be interrupting their pre-season preparations for the new Championship campaign.
If City do want a new manager in the hotseat to lead what they hope will be a Championship promotion charge, then they will need to make a decision on van Nistelrooy before June 30, and so in this financial year. Given those concerns around PSR, it would make unemployed managers more likely to be targeted, so that no compensation fee would be needed..
