Craig Shakespeare could replace Claudio Ranieri at Leicester – here’s what to expect if the former West Brom midfielder is appointed
Will Leicester opt for caretaker boss Craig Shakespeare over former England manager Roy Hodgson?
CRAIG SHAKESPEARE is the quiet man looking to become a big noise at Leicester.
Fiercely ambitious, he has already passed the first part of his audition to succeed sacked boss Claudio Ranieri with the thumping of Liverpool.
And if he can complete the second part against Hull then all the signs point to him being given the job.
Keep up to date with ALL the Leicester City news, gossip, transfers and goals on our club page plus fixtures, results and live match commentary
The 53-year-old has made no secret of his desire for it.
This is no caretaker happy to take care of the seat until someone like Roy Hodgson is handed the reins.
He has made that clear in his brief spell so far. He even went as far as to say he had “enjoyed” the job when he fronted up before the Liverpool game.
There was not even a pretence at pain over Ranieri’s brutal dismissal after earlier miracles.
It was expected that Shakespeare, still in place from the Nigel Pearson era, would lose his job when Ranieri came in but the Italian stood by him.
In truth, though, the pair never saw eye to eye.
Pearson, who worked with Shakespeare at West Brom, then took him to Leicester, then Hull, then back to Leicester again, liked his No 2 because he “challenged” him.
But it was Shakespeare’s challenging nature that may have been a factor in Leicester’s fall from grace. Last season, Ranieri needed Shakespeare’s input in his first season in charge.
The pair could often be seen conferring in the technical area as Leicester amazingly marched to the title.
This season, Ranieri decided he wanted to put his own stamp on the team and he led the way on the training ground.
MOST READ IN SPORT
But he under-estimated Shakespeare’s links with the players — and as the coach’s day-to-day role diminished, the more Ranieri alienated the players.
Now Shakespeare could find himself leading Leicester, not only to safety, but into the last eight of the Champions League.
Earlier this season he landed a part-time coaching role with Sam Allardyce when he was in charge of England.
Of course, that job was to be brief. But all in all it’s not bad for a family man from Lichfield in Staffordshire whose beginnings were humble ones at Walsall.
While there as a teen he played in a team that held Liverpool 2-2 in an Anfield League Cup semi-final — leading Graeme Souness to say he would ‘rather play Juventus’.
From there he moved to West Brom where he played under Bobby Gould before Alan Buckley — his old Walsall boss — took him to Grimsby.
He was often the target of the crowd’s anger. Many felt he was overweight and lazy, although in one game he upped the effort levels to give Ruud Gullit a run for his money.
As a Grimsby fans’ website puts it: “One game that stands out is the cup game against Chelsea in 1995/96.
“Craig was matched up against the Dutchman Ruud Gullit. ‘Shakey’ gave a fantastic performance in both games and virtually kept Gullit out of the game.”
Gould always felt that Shakespeare was coach material rather than manager.
The Ex-Wimbledon and Coventry boss says: “When I was managing West Brom, you never knew Shakey was in the room.
“He was the quiet man — but the respect was always there for him and I think it is now at Leicester from the players.
“He was never that kind of personality behind the scenes. I would look around the dressing room at players and you’d think, ‘He’ll be a manager, he’ll be a coach’.
“And with Shakey I always thought ‘coach’.
“He could always see what the picture was in front of him.
“He was what I always called a Steady Eddie.
“No, he didn’t play at the highest level. But he will have picked up little bits and he’ll have learned something from Claudio Ranieri too.
"But if his role had been cut back under Claudio, then he will have thought, ‘What am I doing here?’.
“You can see he’s tactically aware because he always wanted to learn.”