NafisaFor years now – and through various ups and downs – Leicester City have taken pride in the standard of football that they produce.
Whether they’re lifting the league title or slipping into the second division, this became the team of Mahrez, Maddison and even Dewsbury-Hall, a side that sought to play bold, entertaining football. So should they genuinely consider hiring Sean Dyche?
That, reportedly, is a scenario being seriously evaluated as the club’s board looks beyond relegation and the disastrous spell under Ruud van Nistelrooy, which is not expected to extend past the off-season.
It appears at first glance to be a sharp change in direction for the club that once appointed Ranieri, Rodgers and Maresca… but it might well be a sensible decision given Leicester’s altered circumstances.
Will Sean Dyche be the next Leicester City manager?
The main source for the speculation that former Burnley and Everton boss Dyche is a candidate for the Foxes is The Sun’s Alan Nixon, and any claim originating from that publication will naturally provoke some healthy scepticism.
After all, earlier rumours had pointed to interest in managers such as Bristol City head coach Liam Manning or Sheffield Wednesday’s Danny Röhl – coaches, in other words, known for playing a more visually pleasing style of football than the one typically linked to Dyche, who has been unemployed since being dismissed by Everton in early January.
The rationale behind selecting a coach like Manning, Röhl or even Russell Martin, another name reportedly under consideration, aligns with Leicester’s traditional approach.
All strive to play an appealing style of football. Dyche, for all his clear success as a manager, doesn’t appear especially concerned with whether people enjoy watching his teams. He would be an unusual hire by a board that appears to value entertainment.
Perhaps it isn’t so startling to see a shift in philosophy, though. Director of football John Rudkin has been under immense scrutiny after a disappointing summer transfer window at the King Power Stadium and has been the focus of protests from supporters who view Rudkin as largely accountable for the club’s recent decline in standards.
It’s possible that chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha is beginning to take counsel from different voices as he reassesses Rudkin’s position along with that of Van Nistelrooy.
It is Rudkin, ultimately, who bears responsibility for the call to replace Steve Cooper with the former Manchester United forward in the autumn, a move which spectacularly backfired – and it is also on Rudkin that the club has failed to adequately replace Maddison or Dewsbury-Hall over the last two seasons, leaving the team in the Premier League without a clear creative core.
Rudkin, who has served as Leicester’s director of football since 2014 and deserves significant recognition for the extraordinary title triumph under Claudio Ranieri, has long focused on building sides that play attractive, flowing football – if Dyche genuinely is among the frontrunners for the looming vacancy, it may simply reflect a decline in Rudkin’s sway.
In essence, while Dyche would signify a shift, the conditions that might justify a move away from Leicester’s established identity are precisely those the club currently finds itself dealing with – particularly considering the financial outlook they seem set to face this summer.
Why Leicester’s financial problems may make Dyche an ideal appointment:
Having recorded financial deficits for six consecutive years, Leicester were charged last summer with a £24.4m breach of the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules for the 2022/23 campaign – avoiding penalties on a technicality after successfully arguing that, having dropped to the EFL, they were no longer under Premier League authority for the entire year in question.
Earlier this year, The Guardian reported that Leicester risked being charged with another breach of the same regulations – and while no action has yet followed the announcement of a £19.4m pre-tax deficit for the 2023/24 period, the loophole previously exploited has now been shut. Relegation might not be a disguised blessing this time.
In short, despite securing promotion, Leicester are probably in a relatively fragile financial state, at least through the lens of the rules governing the Premier League and EFL.
They’ll return with a wage structure which Capology estimates at £66.7m annually – roughly £30m more than the Championship’s top wage bill in 2024/25, which belonged to Leeds United.
In other words, budgets will have to be trimmed this summer as the club aims to get its finances in order. The financial results for their brief top-flight return won’t be published for several months, but barring a major turnaround, there’s unlikely to be a substantial transfer fund available, and key assets may need to be sold.
Trying to build a squad capable of executing expressive, dynamic football in such a climate might, therefore, be seen as something of a fantasy.
There’s already a shortage of creative talent in the squad after recent recruitment misfires, and it will take smart work in the transfer market to uncover another James Maddison or Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall – let alone another Riyad Mahrez.
If Leicester are compelled to take a squad that struggled in the Premier League, trim it down further and then identify a coach capable of shaping what remains into a functioning unit, then one can understand where Dyche becomes relevant.
If Dyche has demonstrated anything throughout his career, it’s his ability to mould a side that punches above its weight. He has secured promotion to the top tier twice and knows how to keep a team competitive even on a limited budget.
Given Leicester’s probable financial trajectory for the foreseeable future, that may be a more critical asset than what is offered by the tactically sophisticated coaches typically linked to the King Power’s halls of authority.
Dyche isn’t the coach for the Leicester of the past decade – the club they’ve aspired to be and, on occasion, managed to become. But he might be the coach for the Leicester they must now come to terms with being over the next few seasons.
If Leicester are indeed forced to try and claw their way back to Premier League stability with thrift and discipline rather than flair and finesse, then Dyche may be just about the best candidate available.
Nafisa
