Managerial musical chairs has been replaced instead by a high-stakes game of management poker. And Khun Top (chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha) and LCFC director of football Jon Rudkin have immovable poker faces. Thankfully, though, ex-boss Marti Cifuentes departed; while Andy King merely holds the fort, Leicester City’s hierarchy is supposedly scouring a deck of familiar cards to save a season sliding toward the abyss. But the King Power house of cards is unstable, precarious and vulnerable.
Which gaffers are reportedly in with a chance at joining Leicester City?
​At the front of the queue stands Ralph Hasenhüttl. The so-called "Alpine Klopp" offers a high-octane, heavy-pressing identity; sharply pivoting stylistically for a squad currently lacking oxygen. Close behind in the bookmakers' running is Gary Rowett - the pragmatist's choice. Rowett could be described as the English Football League Championship’s ultimate safe pair of hands, a specialist in defensive solidity and "getting out of the building" with a result.
​Then there is Russell Martin, the purist. His 'death by a thousand passes' philosophy cuts through a fandom like a knife, polarising even the partisan. It is arguably a cheaper, romantic throwback to the Enzo Maresca era, though critics argue a relegation scrap requires a bayonet, not a conductor's baton.
Under Martin's hypothetical lead, the Premier League would be the ultimate nightmare. Although the former Southampton man is said to be out of the race for now.
Even Gareth Southgate has seen his odds slashed; his installation would represent the dream of 'elite-level culture-building' that may be too grand for the current reality. Unfortunately suggestions are that the ex-England head coach is uninterested in management right now.
The Sean Dyche factor
​However, a new "King of the North" has entered the frame in the LCFC Game of Thrones. Fresh from his exit at Nottingham Forest, Sean Dyche has been catapulted into the conversation.
"It’s also revealed that Sean Dyche is a potential candidate for the Leicester City job after he was sacked by Midlands rivals Nottingham Forest this week."The72 via Football Insider
The Kettering-born leader is the embodiment of 'maximum efficiency' hire. A man who builds teams out of granite, grit - presumably along with oxtail soup and hot bovril.
While some fans yearn for the 'Maresca Way', the bookmakers appear to suspect the board is finally ready for the 'Dyche Way': a blunt-force survival plan that prioritises points over aesthetics. In this game of survival, the man with the voice of doom might just have the winning hand. Much of the Blue Army believe the 54-year-old has an unclaimed type of manifest destiny on Filbert Way.