Who will be the manager tasked with instantly getting Leicester City back to the Championship?
At one stage, it looked as if Darren Ferguson was the frontrunner, with the Scotsman a serial promotion winner in League One with Peterborough United.
Yet, nothing has come of those rumours, as we head nearer to June.
Now, a new development has emerged to suggest that Leicester is making one last push to try and tempt Russell Martin to the King Power to finally win a brand-new manager, with the 40-year-old still out of work, after a disastrous stint at Rangers that lasted barely four months.
Leicester make late push to appoint Martin
EFL-focused journalist Alan Nixon has reported via his Patreon that the relegated side is planning an ambitious late swoop for Martin, who is also wanted by Blackburn Rovers.
Martin has allegedly been on the Foxes' list of potential managers for weeks, and with time of the essence, it is being reported that Leicester is willing to offer the ex-Southampton boss a bumper contract to try and tempt him to the League One giants.
Having managed both in the Premier League and Scottish Premiership in recent times, it remains to be seen whether a hefty contract would be enough for Martin to consider a drop down to the third tier.
If they can get him through the door, however, it could be a good appointment, even if his managerial reputation at the moment is on the floor, after a horrible few months at Ibrox.
Would Martin be a good appointment?
The hope will be that Martin can deliver under the weight of expectation better at the King Power, than he managed in Glasgow.
Indeed, instead of turning the Scottish titans back into challengers at the very top of the SPL, he turned them into a momentary laughing stock, with only five wins from 17 games seeing his Rangers reign be cut abruptly short.
Thankfully, he has fared far better in some challenging EFL climates in the past, with 62 wins next to his name in the Championship when managing the Saints and Swansea City. He even managed to lift the South Coast club into the Premier League during the 2023/24 season, with the likes of Adam Armstrong and Che Adams becoming goal machines under his tutelage.
Leicester fans will be praying he can turn the Foxes into a dominant force in League One, who also plays an easy-on-the-eye brand of football, after many Leicester fans were bored stiff by Gary Rowett's style of play during the close of the dire season just gone.
He has managed in League One, too, albeit briefly with Milton Keynes Dons, so he isn't a complete stranger to the trials and tribulations of the lower leagues.
Martin's managerial record in the Championship & League One:
League | Matches | Wins | Draws | Losses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Championship | 141 | 62 | 35 | 44 |
League One | 65 | 24 | 17 | 24 |
Collecting 24 wins from 65 matches, for a club that would slip to League Two not too long after he exited, it would be interesting to see how well he would fare at the helm of a gigantic club in the same division, having been a slight success story at Stadium MK.
He didn't endear himself to Rangers fans, and he did leave Southampton on a sour note when struggling big time in the Premier League.
But, with no other standout names out there, Leicester could have found their boss for next season in the 40-year-old, who will be hungry to bounce back from his difficulties in Scotland by leading the Foxes out of their League One pit and back to the Championship.
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