5 managers Leicester City must eye as Russell Martin sack update emerges | OneFootball

We have taken a look at five managers that Leicester City should be considering to replace Russell Martin.

Leicester City have endured a woeful start to the campaign and it could well be that they are searching for a new manager already quite soon.

Having succumbed to back-to-back relegations from the Premier League down to League One, Leicester have collected just five points from their opening five games back in the third-tier.

Russell Martin, who endured a tough time of it at Rangers and was sacked early on in his stint at Ibrox last season, has received immense criticism from Leicester supporters and now appears to be under immense pressure already.

According to Graeme Bailey, Leicester are understood to be considering the future of Martin as they languish in the bottom half of League One and playing some dire football.

City were hammered 4-0 by Oxford United at the King Power Stadium at the weekend and there is a suggestion that the time has already arrived for Leicester to make a change, especially after what has been quite an impressive summer transfer window in terms of incoming signings, at least on paper.

As Leicester reportedly consider their options, we have taken a look at five managers that they must be considering to replace the former Swansea City and Southampton boss.

Dave Challinor

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Perhaps top of the list in terms of out of work managers that Leicester should be looking at is former Stockport County boss Dave Challinor.

Linked with Blackburn Rovers after leaving Stockport this summer, Challinor has opted for some time out of the game after an extremely impressive decade or so in the managerial hot seat.

He led Stockport to the play-off final last season after reaching the play-off semi-finals the year before – in what was their first season back in League One after Challinor had led them to the League Two title in the 2023-24 campaign.

In fact, that upward trajectory over the last three seasons goes further back with Challinor arriving at Edgeley Park in October 2021 and leading them to the National League title that season before the League Two play-off final in the 2022-23 campaign.

Challinor had previously been in charge of Colwyn Bay, AFC Fylde and Hartlepool United – where immediate and sustained success was also brought and the time to step up to a bigger club with greater ambitions seems natural – and well worthwhile for Leicester to take that plunge.

Scott Parker

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Scott Parker was most recently in charge of Burnley but left The Clarets in April with the Lancastrians struggling to be competitive in the Premier League, where he had taken them to after gaining promotion in his first season in the 2024-25 campaign.

Parker led Fulham to promotion via the play-offs before then getting AFC Bournemouth into the top-flight ahead of amassing 100 points with Burnley a couple of years ago.

In all three jobs, though, he has failed to last the season, and even failed to last the first month of the campaign after leading Bournemouth back to the Premier League.

Reservations over his style of football in the Premier League will persist and his conservative approach is at complete odds with what Martin has attempted to implement – to no real success thus far.

However, when given a squad that would appear too good for the level that it is at, Parker has ensured his teams are difficult to beat and do more than enough to be among the best in the division – and that would likely suit where Leicester are at the moment.

Steven Schumacher

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The first of three managers we suggest Leicester may well be seeking to poach from another club comes with Bolton Wanderers boss Steven Schumacher.

Schumacher has been left frustrated by Bolton’s transfer business this summer and there is a feeling that The Trotters are too light to be competitive in the Championship this season, following their promotion via the play-offs last season.

That was the send time that Schumacher had gained promotion from League One, having previously done so with over 100 points and as champions at Plymouth Argyle, finishing above an Ipswich Town side that would go on to earn back-to-back promotions to the Premier League.

Schumacher, pragmatic but with a largely attacking and proactive mindset, may well be tempted by what is a strong Leicester squad and a club that, should they naturally gravitate back to where they should be at a minimum, the second-tier, would be able to back him more than what appears to have been the case in Lancashire this summer.

Adrian Siemieniec

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More of a left-field suggestion for Leicester to look at but perhaps in-keeping with some of their recruitment which has looked towards Europe this summer, such as striker Admir Bristric from Olimpija Ljubljana and defender Ilari Kangasniemi from Inter Turku, would be Jagiellonia Bialystok boss Adrian Siemieniec.

34-year-old Siemieniec did not play professionally but took charge of Jagiellonia’s reserve side in January 2022 before taking on the first-team role a few months later after the dismissal of Maciej Stolarczyk, becoming the youngest manager in Polish Ekstraklasa history at the age of 31.

In his first full season, Siemieniec led Jagiellonia to their first ever Polish title, which was backed up by a run to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa Conference League the following campaign.

Jagiellonia balanced domestic and European commitments to again qualify for the UEFA Europa Conference League in the 2024-25 season, where they again reached the knockout stages before losing to Fiorentina last season, again remaining strong domestically with a third place finish.

Concerns would have been that the departures of Milosz Piekutowski, Bartosz Mazurek and Afimico Pululu would majorly disrupt or derail them this season but they have instead gone one further in Europe by qualifying for the league phase of the UEFA Europa League, courtesy of victories over Rangers and Iberia 1999.

A front-foot coach and still a very young one with a burgeoning reputation; it may feel rogue right now but Leicester poaching Siemieniec could actually prove to be a real coup for The Foxes.

Richie Wellens

Back in England, another manager in work that should perhaps be targeted is former Leicester midfielder Richie Wellens, who is in charge of City’s League One rivals Leyton Orient.

Wellens led Swindon Town to the League Two title in the 2019-20 campaign before an underwhelming stint with Salford City – albeit one of many managers to have failed to get Salford moving upwards again in the last seven or eight years.

At Leyton Orient, he led The O’s to the 2024-25 play-off final, losing to Charlton Athletic by a goal to nil at Wembley Stadium, and has again been backed this summer to overhaul their squad after underperforming last season.

With a squad of the quality of Leicester for League One level, someone who knows the division inside and out and has been able to get good results with a team nowhere near the quality of Leicester would be a good fit – and an association to the club, given his 147 appearances for the club as a player, would be no bad thing either.