Eriksson Sacked By Leicester

Sven Goran Eriksson was last night sacked from his £1m-a-year job at Leicester – just hours after telling his squad he was amazed to still be in charge. Sven Goran Eriksson paid the price for Leicester’s dismal start to the season with the boot and former manager Martin O’Neill has already emerged as the leading contender to replace him. The ex-England coach had called an emergency meeting with his entire Leicester squad yesterday morning and claimed he would have sacked the manager if he was the owner after their dismal 3-0 home defeat to Millwall. But Eriksson, 63, was given the grim news late yesterday afternoon by the club’s Thai owners and is set for another golden handshake – this time for around £1m with 12 months remaining on his current deal. Eriksson will walk out with another payout but his reputation tarnished after failing to fulfil the vast expectations of chairman Aiyawatt Raksriaksorn. Leicester coughed up a stunning £12m this summer in an attempt to build a squad capable of reaching the Premier League but Eriksson only managed five wins from 13 Championship games. Eriksson took steps to ease the tension by calling his players into a clear-the-air meeting yesterday. In the meeting he admitted he was surprised to still be in charge and then asked all the squad to write down what they thought was going wrong, after making them sit through a video nasty of Saturday’s shocking performance against Millwall. But hours later he was dismissed from his post, with assistant Derek Fazackerley also leaving the club. The club last night released a statement confirming the dismissals saying: “Leicester City Football Club has confirmed today that, by mutual agreement, Sven Goran Eriksson has ceased to be the first team manager, with immediate effect.