Simon Jordan is backing Manchester City’s Premier League-winning assistant coach Enzo Maresca to follow in the footsteps of Vincent Kompany at relegated Leicester.
The last few seasons of Championship football have certainly put a pin in the belief that, in order to thrive in arguably European football’s helter-skelter division, you need a manager who – as they say – ‘knows the league’.
Marcelo Bielsa, Nuno Espirito Santo, Marco Silva and the aforementioned Vincent Kompany all secured promotion from the second-tier in their first ever Championship roles.
Who is to say Enzo Maresca cannot do the same at Leicester City?
An assistant to Pep Guardiola at treble-winning City; the Daily Record say that 43-year-old Maresca has been interviewed for the King Power post. He is now leaning towards taking over from Brendan Rodgers despote further interest from Celtic and Southampton.
Leicester City hold Enzo Maresca talks
“They’ve got Vincent Kompany as proof of concept,” former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan tells talkSPORT (15 June, 11.40am); drawing comparisons between Maresca and another former City coach.
Burnley dropped in at Burnley and turned the Clarets almost immediately into the division’s dominant force.
“You’re not going to get coaches coming from out underneath these people (like Guardiola) and suddenly land a Premier League job, like Mikel Arteta did,” Jordan adds.
“On the whole, these guys are going to have to accept a lesser opportunity. If, indeed, they want to be a manager.
“Leicester would be a decent job. If they get themselves together and get rid of the players who don’t want to be there, Leicester will be a distinct possibility of getting promoted again.”
Like Kompany at Turf Moor, Maresca would likely have to embark upon a substantial overhaul of the playing staff. Leicester have already lost Youri Tielemans to Aston Villa.
Caglar Soyuncu, Tete, Nampalys Mendy, Ryan Bertrand and Daniel Amartey have departed too. There further doubts over the futures of Jonny Evans, James Maddison and Harvey Barnes.
According to the Daily Mail, Tottenham Hotspur saw a very Daniel Levy-sounding, £50 million double-bid rejected for Maddison and Barnes on Thursday.
Leicester reportedly like Scott Parker, Steven Schumacher and Carl Hoefkens too. Former boss Rodgers, meanwhile, is closing in on a shock return to Celtic.
The Scottish Sun say that Rodgers is on the ‘verge’ of an emotional – and controversial – Glasgow homecoming.
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