'This model is not working - it is broken and needs to change'

23-04-2025

The Athletic's Leicester City correspondent Rob Tanner says there has been "collective" failing in the Foxes' hierarchy and suggests hiring a new director of football to allow Jon Rudkin to change roles.Rudkin has been in his role since 2014 - and has overseen the most successful period in the club's history - but has been the subject of fan chants calling for his removal throughout this season."Criticism should be there - there has to be accountability," Tanner told BBC Radio Leicester's When You're Smiling podcast. "He [Jon Rudkin] has been picked out as the one figure that will be accountable for all the mess at Leicester but I think it is a collective. "There is more than one person involved. We had the Brendan [Rodgers] era where the contracts got out of hand and some of the transfer spending increased without selling assets. We had success for a number of years but it wasn't sustainable success. Leicester's relegation was confirmed on Sunday with five games still to play after a miserable period involving a club-record run of home defeats without scoring.Tanner believes the executives at King Power Stadium need to take responsibility."It's the decision-making at the club as a whole and a lot of that rests on Top [chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha] but certainly Jon needs some accountability," Tanner said. "Director of football? Just focus on the football, nothing else. Let the people from other departments focus on those because from what I gather Jon can be involved in a lot of things inside and outside the football club.""There needs to be clear focus. If he is going to take this more general overview then perhaps he should move to an advisory role with Top and then have someone who is totally and utterly focused on the football aspect to put in place a strategy."We need to to have a strategy on who to recruit that goes beyond the manager because the manager is changed so often. "This model is not working. It is broken and it needs to change."Listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds

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BBC News

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