Appleton in temporary charge at Leicester
Michael Appleton left Oxford United for Leicester City in the summer to become Craig Shakespeare’s assistant but I don’t think he could have expected taking charge, albeit temporarily, by mid-October.
Earlier this afternoon the speculation mounted that Shakespeare, who replaced Claudio Ranieri as manager in February, on a temporary basis until the summer, had been sacked, and at 6 p.m. that was confirmed by the club.
He confirmed that Appleton would be in charge as caretaker manager, supported by Mike Stowell and Adam Sadler.
Leicester drew 1-1 at home last night against West Brom and are currently 18th in the Premier League with just six points from their eight games. Their solitary win came in their first home game against Brighton while their four defeats have been at the hands of Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool.
They were hovering just above the drop zone last season when he took over from Ranieri. He won his first five Premier League games in charge, a record for an English manager, and that helped them to a 12th place finish and landed him the job on a permanent basis when he signed a three year contract in June.
It’s not good enough for Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker. He saw them lift the title in 2015/16 and said today: “Was always a miracle, but it’s even more remarkable really that Leicester won the league given the ineptitude of those that run the club although he insisted he wasn’t referring to Vichai and Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, the club’s owners so I’m not sure who he was blaming.
Sean Dyche, not surprisingly, has appeared in the betting. He’s moved up and down and is currently showing at 12/1 with Sky Bet, but the favourites seem to be Sam Allardyce, out of work since leaving Crystal Palace, and Chris Coleman the Welsh manager who is expected to move on after they failed to reach the World Cup Finals.
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