LMA blast Sousa sacking

Mark Walker,Pa
Friday 01 October 2010 14:30 BST
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The League Managers Association have launched a scathing attack on Leicester owner Milan Mandaric's decision to sack Paulo Sousa after less than three months in charge of the club.

Six managers have now come and gone at the Walkers Stadium during Mandaric's time as chairman at the club and LMA chief executive Richard Bevan has taken a huge swipe at the business tycoon's stewardship.

Sousa was dismissed with immediate effect this morning following Leicester's poor start to the season.

The Foxes have won only one of their first nine games in the npower Championship and slipped to the bottom of the table after with Tuesday night's defeat at Norwich.

Bevan said: "How can a chairman expect to deliver success at a football club when a talented manager is recruited and dismissed within three months, at the start of the season and is given only nine league games to put his own imprint on the squad and the club?

"Knee-jerk dismissals and the chopping and changing of managers will not deliver success on the field and is incredibly destabilising to the entire club.

"Paulo's sacking is even more disappointing in light of the chairman's comments on Paulo's appointment, in the summer, when he stated he was 'delighted to acquire a manager of such great calibre.'

"Leicester City Football Club has had 14 managers since 2004 and six while the current chairman has been at the club.

"Clearly the club has to examine its manager recruitment strategy as their current approach does not work.

"It is damaging to the club and its fans and is an inappropriate way to treat talented managers and their careers."

Sousa, who steered Swansea to eighth place in his first full season in charge at the Liberty Stadium before switching to Leicester in the summer, expressed his disappointment at his dismissal.

He said: "To be sacked after being told that there was a long-term strategy at the club and after only nine games in charge is something that I find very surprising."

Former England coach Sven Goran Eriksson and Martin O'Neill have already been linked with the latest vacancy at the Walkers Stadium.

A club statement read: "The decision has been taken as a result of the club's poor run of results this season.

"The club would like to state that Paulo Sousa is a first-class individual, but that this decision has been taken in the best interests of the club and our ambitions to move up the npower Championship.

"The search for a new manager begins immediately and the club anticipates a quick appointment."

Current goalkeeping coach Mike Stowell and coach Chris Powell will take temporary charge of the first-team for tomorrow's home match against Scunthorpe.

Sousa was appointed at the Walkers Stadium in July following the departure of Pearson at the end of last season when the Foxes reached the play-offs.

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