Leicester's Van Nistelrooy limbo is excruciating and fuelling anxiety around the King Power

New York Times

5 hours ago

The opportunity to become Cardiff City head coach was one Brian Barry-Murphy could not turn down.
The highly-rated coach, who only joined Ruud van Nistelrooy's staff in December last year, has cut his coaching teeth with the Manchester City development squad, similar to former Leicester boss Enzo Maresca, and now has the chance to forge his own managerial career.
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Having only been with the club for six months and having never worked with Van Nistelrooy before, there was no preexisting bond that had to be broken.
Perhaps even more significant has been the interest from Brighton & Hove Albion in one of Van Nistelrooy's other assistants, Jelle ten Rouwelaar, who also looks set to leave the club.
As The Athletic reported earlier this month, Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler is keen to reunite Ten Rouwelaar with Brighton's first-choice goalkeeper and fellow countryman Bart Verbruggen, with the Dutch international having worked with him at NAC Breda in the Netherlands and Anderlecht in Belgium.
If Ten Rouwelaar — who had worked with Van Nistelrooy at Manchester United before arriving at Leicester shortly after the manager's appointment as Steve Cooper's successor — also decides to jump ship this summer, that could reveal a lot about the destabilisation behind the scenes at Leicester.
Many of Van Nistelrooy's staff and others around the club believed that Leicester were set to make another managerial change after relegation to the Championship was confirmed in April. They next thought the change would come after the final game of the season, but still nothing happened.
Until there is clarity for Leicester about the club's vision for 2025-26 and whether Van Nistelrooy is to get the opportunity to prepare for the new season, there will be remain uncertainty and confusion about what the plan that chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha mentioned in his matchday magazine notes before the Southampton home game on May 3 actually is.
And the clock is ticking.
Pre-season plans are being made, with friendly fixtures against Peterborough United, OH Leuven and Fiorentina already announced. The Championship fixtures for next season are revealed next week and the players who haven't been on international duty are set to return to pre-season training by the end of this month.
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The issue has to be resolved by then. The players have to know who will be leading them next season and what the manager has planned for them in the transfer window. Do they have a future at the club under Van Nistelrooy or whoever may succeed him?
As for possible new recruits, it would be bold for them to commit to joining a club when there is so little clarity over who will be leading the team, let alone the uncertainty over the profit and sustainability charge Leicester face from the Premier League for the 2023-24 season, when they were last in the Championship, and what sanctions the EFL could impose on them in conjunction with a charge from the Premier League.
So far the only changes to the squad have been the expected departures of the three senior players who were out of contract – Jamie Vardy, Danny Ward and Daniel Iversen.
There are eight players who are now entering the last year of their contracts in James Justin, Conor Coady, Patson Daka, Boubakary Soumare, Harry Winks, Luke Thomas, Jordan Ayew and Ricardo Pereira. Decisions have to be made on their futures.
Van Nistelrooy has repeatedly stated publicly that he has revealed what his plan is for Leicester's recovery, stating after relegation was confirmed with defeat to Liverpool in April: 'I know what my plan is to bring the club back but I am waiting on alignment. The quicker the better for the football club.'
Two months later, it remains unclear how aligned the club is with Van Nistelrooy.
Even after the final game of the season at Bournemouth, he was still unable to confirm whether he would still be manager come the start of pre-season and that he had received no word from the decision-makers at the club.
Since then, he has been on holiday with his family. Others at the club have taken the opportunity to recharge their batteries, including the chairman 'Khun Top'.
While other clubs are starting to get their ducks in a row for the new campaign, there has been radio silence coming out of Seagrave.
But it could still be quiet before the storm.
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If, as expected, there remains a desire to make a change, then it is a question of timing. Leicester could be waiting for the end of the financial year, June 30, to avoid having two managerial changes included in the same financial year's accounts, avoiding doubling up after the sacking of Cooper in November.
That would certainly help with PSR calculations but would mean Leicester start pre-season without a manager in place. Following Barry-Murphy's exit and the probable departure of Ten Rouwelaar, that would leave Andy King and long-serving fitness and conditioning coach Matt Reeves to oversee pre-season testing while Leicester worked to bring in a replacement.
It would also mean this summer would be the third consecutive pre-season in which the club have made a managerial change.
Who the next incumbent will be also remains uncertain and the club has yet to meet with any potential suitors. Sheffield Wednesday's Danny Rohl has been consistently linked but would be very expensive to prise out of his contract. Meanwhile, Sean Dyche has also been mooted and would be free, although his wage demands would be high. The former Burnley and Everton boss is a strong character who would want total control.
A young up-and-coming coach who plays a progressive, possession-based style, and who is available, malleable and cheap — with his own staff as well — seems to be the direction Khun Top would want to go in.
If that is the direction of travel, then the journey needs to begin now.