Who Could Replace Ruud van Nistelrooy At Leicester City?

Leicester City were condemned to relegation at the weekend, when they were beaten 1-0 by Liverpool late on. It comes as no surprise as the club have been on a downward trajectory ever since they sacked Steve Cooper at the end of November. Most of their positive results this season came before Cooper’s sacking, and now the fans have turned on the board, labelling them as clueless.

This comes just nine years after they remarkably won the Premier League against all odds and then proceeded to go on to register another few European finishes in the years that followed. In such a short space of time, Leicester have won the league, been relegated, won promotion and then been relegated again. Ruud van Nistelrooy is currently at the helm, however given how bad he has been this season, it is likely that Leicester will part ways in the summer. So who could possibly get Leicester back to their former glory?

Russell Martin

The bookmakers are predicting that former Southampton and MK Dons manager Russell Martin will be the next person at the helm at Leicester City. While his style of football might suit a team like Leicester while they are in the Championship, we saw what happened with his most recent club in the top flight. Martin’s managerial record isn’t the best, as Southampton is the only club that he has a better than 50% win rate.

Inspired by Pep Guardiola, Martin has fallen flat when it comes to top flight management. Even before that, Southampton only managed to scrape through the playoffs to reach the Premier League, but once they were there, they had a horrendous time. Martin has been without a job since he was sacked in December following a 5-0 defeat to fellow relegation candidates Tottenham Hotspur.

Following Sunday's 5-0 defeat to Spurs, Southampton and Russell Martin part ways pic.twitter.com/CpiEIlOWxd

— Premier League (@premierleague) December 15, 2024

Should Leicester be looking for a quick fix solution to their problems, then Martin would be the perfect option, however they will need a manager with more top flight knowhow in order to stay in the Premier League beyond just a single season. Despite this, bookmakers have odds of 11/4 on Martin becoming the next Leicester manager.

Liam Rosenoir

A surprising candidate to say the least, Liam Rosenoir has emerged as a favourite to switch Ligue 1 for the Championship this summer and take charge of a Leicester side desperate to return to the top flight. He has experience in the Championship, having led Hull City to a seventh place finish last season, but is now in France with Strasbourg and having the season of his life.

Strasbourg are currently in seventh position in the league table, but are level on points with Lyon in sixth and Lille in fifth, so European qualification is a real possibility. Should they reach Europe, I don’t see Rosenoir leaving the club for the Championship. He has become a bit of a legend in East France already, with the club on a 10 game unbeaten run that stretches all the way back to the beginning of February.

His style of play focuses more on the defensive aspects of the game rather than playing on the front foot, so that could be a turn off for Leicester fans who will be hoping for some exciting football next season, having just seen their team get battered week in week out. Even so, bookmakers are giving odds of 7/2 on him becoming the next Leicester manager.

Danny Rohl

The current Sheffield Wednesday manager, Danny Rohl is another forerunner for the Leicester City job in the summer, following two impressive seasons at Hillsborough. In the 2023/24 campaign, he guided them to safety despite coming into the job halfway through the season and this year he has now proceeded to solidify them as a mid table Championship club.

Despite being just his first time in football management, Rohl has impressed so much that Leicester are not the only club looking at him. Southampton, who are also without a manager after they parted ways with Ivan Juric, have him near the top of their list for next season too. He was a coach with the club before moving to the backroom staff at Bayern Munich and then the German national team.

🚨BREAKING NEWS

Leicester City have drawn up a shortlist of possible candidates if they decide to replace Van Nistelrooy - it includes Lee Carsley, Danny Rohl and Russell Martin.

Looks increasingly likely RVN will leave before next season, but more discussions will take place… pic.twitter.com/2jBMuxhK6o

— FosseHub (@FosseHub) April 22, 2025

Rohl would certainly be a more exciting manager than the likes of Martin and Rosenoir, as he prefers an attacking style of play over the defensive emphasis portrayed by the other two. This would make him more of an attractive prospect for Leicester City fans who would be looking at that sort of style. He has odds of 5/1 to become their next manager.

Sean Dyche

Sean Dyche is currently out of the job, having been sacked by Everton in January, however he could return to football management in the summer, with both Leicester and Southampton in need of a new manager. Dyche is clearly a very good manager, as he has just one relegation to his name despite being in the top flight for a lot of his career. Despite being under pressure for his entire tenure at Everton, they were never relegated under him, and were likely to survive this season too, even without him being sacked.

He made a name for himself during his 10 year stay with Burnley, even getting the club into European qualifiers, although they never managed to make it to the main competition. Like Martin, Dyche uses a style of play that many might see as boring, however instead of having the ball, Dyche’s teams prefer to play as a solid defensive line before catching the opponent on the break.

This type of play might not work when they are one of the best teams in the league, as they will be in the Championship, but it certainly would work, and has done in the past, in the Premier League. Dyche is a sensible, if boring, option, and that is why the bookmakers give him odds of 8/1 to be the next Leicester manager.

Steven Gerrard

Former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard was actually considered for the Leicester job back in 2023, before Enzo Maresca took charge and he is now once again emerging as a possible candidate following his departure from Al Ettifaq in Saudi Arabia in January. The 44-year-old has never managed in the Championship, however he has managed in both the Scottish and English top flights, with contrasting results.

He won the Scottish Premiership with Rangers back in 2021, with the team accumulating 102 points and conceding just 13 goals in total, without losing a game. This broke records in Scotland and had a number of English teams interested. In November 2021, he joined Aston Villa but was sacked just 11 months later, with the club 17th in the table having won just twice in the opening 11 league games.

✍🏻 Khalid Al Dabal puts pen to paper as English legend, Steven Gerrard signs with the club.#GerrardEttifaqi pic.twitter.com/FXa0ngCIas

— Ettifaq Club (@Ettifaq_EN) July 3, 2023

Gerrard is obviously a good manager, as he was able to win the Scottish Premiership over Celtic with such ease, however he needs a stable job where he can build his own team and implement his own style. Leicester will be in a promotion battle next season, and should they return to the Premier League, a relegation battle the season after that. That is not the environment in which Gerrard could comfortably take time in building his own team. Dispute this, he still has odds of 8/1 to become the next Leicester City manager.

Other Candidates

Other candidates include England Under 21s coach Lee Carsley, Bristol City manager Liam Manning and former Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick. The likelihood of Manning and Carrick joining Leicester hinges on whether or not their sides can win promotion to the Premier League via the playoffs, because it is very unlikely that they would leave a Premier League side to drop back into the Championship.

Further down the list, Gary O’Neil is out of work following his dismissal as Wolves coach earlier this season and Gareth Southgate could return to club management following 11 years as an international coach. Some of the wildest odds include Xavi (40/1), Jamie Vardy (50/1), and Claudio Ranieri (100/1).