Sacking Craig Shakespeare shows how Leicester City still lack a sense of direction

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Leicester City brought a quick end to the Craig Shakespeare era on Tuesday afternoon, sacking him after just eight months in charge. They may be able to save their season – as they did by bringing him into the club in the first place – but what they still lack, as they try to make sense of their post-title purpose, is a sense of direction.

It has not been a good few months at the King Power Stadium. They lost Danny Drinkwater at the end of the transfer window, another of their reliable title winners, to Chelsea. But when they came to replace him with Adrien Silva, the Portugal internatonal from Sporting CP, they lost him on a technicality, their papers submitted 14 seconds late.

In the football season itself, they have still won just one Premier League game. And that was at home against Brighton and Hove Albion, all the way back on the second weekend of the season. They are, at this very early stage, third from bottom of the league table.

And yet not all of this is Shakespeare’s fault. Results have been bad but performances have not been disastrous and there is still plenty of time for the season to be turned around. Shakespeare retains strong support in the dressing room and from the support staff, bonds that have been forged for years and that were expected to hold sway for longer than this. Which is why today’s sudden dismissal, after yesterday’s 1-1 draw with West Bromwich Albion, was such a surprise at the club, and felt harsh to many there.

Shakespeare is still the man who saved Leicester from relegation last season, sparking a reaction out of players who were sleep-walking into the Championship before he took over.

The fact is that after the most astonishing season in the club’s history, one that they never could have planned for, they do not know what sort of club they are trying to be. It is difficult to stay at the top table with clubs with many, many times their revenue. But it is also difficult to slink back into the ranks of the mid-table battlers when they have already had their taste of the big time.

That is the lack of direction that meant Shakespeare was always facing a losing a battle. It did not help either that while Claudio Ranieri benefited from the transfer nous of Steve Walsh, Shakespeare has been working with the signings of his replacement, director of football Jon Rudkin. His foreign signings have not exactly shone – not yet – and the failure to land Silva was not only deeply embarrassing but has also left this Leicester side deeply deficient in central midfield.

Now Leicester must confront where their 18 months of drift has left them, and the fact that this club needs steering in one direction or another.

The owners may well want a big name like Carlo Ancelotti or Rafa Benitez but the job is certainly less attractive than it would have been when they still had some of the glow of glory around them. Or do they look back at a more low-key coach who can stabilise a team that has had plenty of ups and downs over the last few years? But if they want that, why get rid of Shakespeare?