Mandaric flies in to seal deal
By Bill Anderson
Milan Mandaric hopes to seal Martin Allen's arrival as Leicester City's manager in signing talks tonight.
The club chairman broke off a foreign trip to return to England today and, if everything goes according to plan, Allen could be unveiled as the boss by the weekend.
MK Dons manager Allen is expected to bring his assistant Adrian Whitbread and first-team coach David Hockaday with him, and supervise a complete revamping of City's infrastructure on the playing side.
Officially, City are keeping their options open, citing Allen as one of several candidates, but the move to gain permission from MK Dons to talk to Allen clearly suggests he is the man they want.
Mandaric, while committed not to rush the process too much, is known to be impatient to get a new manager in and, if those out of work, such as Neil Warnock and Chris Coleman, had been his choice, they would have been here already.
Those rumoured contenders who are still in the play-offs, Blackpool's Simon Grayson and Derby's Billy Davies, are now out of the picture unless something untoward happens.
Negotiations with Allen will still have to be completed, but it would now be a major upset if the former Brentford manager does not take over at the Walkers Stadium.
It would not only herald a new era, but also opening the way for new summer signings.
Mandaric has been holding off making any transfer moves until he could tell prospective players who the manager was going to be.
City have been linked with veteran defenders Arjan De Zeeuw and Bruno N'Gotty, and midfielder Lee Hendrie, but the final decision on players will be down to the in-coming manager.
If all goes well, Allen's hallmark determination to succeed will have a willing partner in Mandaric, who has always declared "I have not come here to fail."
