Online Reporter
You can’t, because there aren’t any.
Plenty of the competition’s legendary players have had a stab in the dugout — Roy Keane, Patrick Vieira, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Vincent Kompany, Gianfranco Zola and Tony Adams, as well as Alan Shearer as Newcastle interim chief.
None lasted too long in English top-flight management and all of them failed. So the appointment of Ruud van Nistelrooy as Leicester’s new boss feels like a shot in the dark.
And a throwback to an era in which big-name former players were expected to walk into a dressing room, metaphorically thrust their medals onto the table and command instant respect from their new squad.
It is a theory which has been debunked by that illustrious list mentioned above.
Meanwhile, Wayne Rooney’s managerial career is threatening to disappear without trace at Plymouth Argyle – who have conceded ten goals in their last two matches – before he even gets a crack at a Premier League job.
And Lampard will be receiving a warm welcome at Millwall on Saturday in his new job as boss of Championship strugglers Coventry. Aged 48, Van Nistelrooy has had just one full season in management at PSV Eindhoven.
It was a decent campaign, in which PSV finished as Eredivisie runners-up and won the Dutch Cup, while Van Nistelrooy also enjoyed a successful couple of weeks as Manchester United’s caretaker — which mostly consisted of beating Leicester.
Still, it’s clear that Van Nistelrooy wouldn’t be getting a Premier League job right now if he hadn’t been a great player — a Premier League c hampion, Golden Boot winner and PFA Player of the Year at United.
And while the 37-year-old Jamie Vardy knows exactly who Van Nistelrooy is — having broken the Dutchman’s record for scoring in consecutive Premier League matches during the Foxes’ miracle title campaign — plenty of younger players won’t know much about a career which peaked more than two decades ago. Like most clubs, Leicester have tended to ignore a manager’s playing calibre — Brendan Rodgers and Steve Cooper are career coaches, Enzo Maresca a graduate of Pep Guardiola’s backroom set-up. — Sun.
