Mandaric attacked by LMA chief over Sousa sacking

(PA)

The League Managers Association has 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 criticised the business tycoon's stewardship. Sousa was dismissed with immediate effect yesterday morning following Leicester's poor start to the season. The Foxes have won only one of their first nine games in the Championship and slipped to the bottom of the table after 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 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."