Craig Shakespeare admits he feels ready to replace Claudio Ranieri as Leicester City manager

The former assistant has stepped up temporarily, but indicated a willingness to do so on a more permanent basis

Craig Shakespeare was Leicester assistant manager under Nigel Pearson and Claudio Ranieri (Getty)

Caretaker manager Craig Shakespeare has hinted he is keen to succeed Claudio Ranieri as Leicester City boss on a permanent basis after learning of the Italian’s sacking last night just 10 minutes before the news was made public on Thursday night.

“My focus is really just to prepare the team for Monday night,” said Shakespeare, who will take charge for Monday’s Premier League game against Liverpool alongside goalkeeping coach Mike Stowell.

“Do I think I can do the job?” Yes,” he said.

“Does it faze me? No. But again, the focus is just on Monday night.”

After being handed the job temporarily, Shakespeare spoke to Ranieri but insisted the details of their conversation will remain private.

“He seemed fine, a bit shocked as we all were but his tone was no different,” said Shakespeare.

“He was very level-headed in terms of ‘that’s football’.

“Most of the conversation will stay private but his tone was fine.

“We had a conversation, he thanked me for my support, I thanked him.

“It was not a brief phone call, we exchanged views, a lot will remain private but we did thank each other.”

Shakespeare pinpointed the loss of key midfielder N’Golo Kante to Chelsea last summer as a key reason for the club’s poor title defence.

“There’s frustrations with everybody, coaching staff, players and I think there’s lots of reasons why,” he said.

“It’s been spoken about at great length.

“Missing a player of the calibre of N’Golo Kante was a massive miss.

“Of course it’s always harder. History tells us that it’s always harder the second year, it’s always hard to put finger on it.”