Trio in talks with City
by Bill Anderson
Joe Royle, Peter Reid and Graeme Souness have been interviewed for the Leicester City manager's job.
All three are currently out of football having left their previous clubs Ipswich, Coventry and Newcastle respectively.
Reid, 51, Souness, 54, and Royle, 58, are among the most experienced managers in the game. City chairman Milan Mandaric is set to move on a new boss this week because he does not want to write off promotion hopes this season.
The 1-1 draw at Colchester on Saturday means City are hovering just below the halfway point in the Championship table with a game in hand.
Mandaric is not losing sight of his target of City being around the play-offs, despite the traumatic events of the season with two managers leaving.
Before Saturday's game at Colchester, the City chairman hinted that, if the caretaker team of Frank Burrows and Gerry Taggart continued to steady the ship and pick up some wins, it would buy him time regarding the new manager.
But he was clearly disappointed that another lead slipped away at Layer Road in a game that was there for the taking.
That brought a return of Mandaric's impatience and concern that the season could be wasted.
And he is now unlikely to let things ride much longer.
Mandaric held interviews last week with Royle, Souness and Reid. They were all linked with the job through speculation, as were current bosses Iain Dowie, of Coventry, and Plymouth's Iain Holloway.
But Mandaric said: “At this moment, there is no one guy who I favour.
“But right now the table is wide open and I am not giving up on my ambition to be involved in the promotion challenge. I was disappointed with Saturday's game because I thought we should have won it, and that would have taken us closer to where I want us to be. I don't want to lose many more points.”
Considering what the squad have been going through - injuries as well as managerial changes - the last two league games have yielded four points, a fairly healthy return.
Indeed, Burrows said after the Colchester game: “If you had asked me last Friday (before the Barnsley win) about the week ahead and the week we had just had, with the manager going, I would have settled for four points. But we matched them and might have nicked it.”
*Midfielder James Wesolowski and striker Iain Hume both look doubtful for tomorrow's trip to Preston.