Simon Jordan issues Dean Smith warning to Leicester City | OneFootball

Former Crystal Palace owner and talkSPORT pundit Simon Jordan believes Leicester City should not allow Dean Smith to continue as manager in the Championship next season.

Smith arrived at the King Power Stadium on a short-term contract in April to replace Brendan Rodgers, but he was unable to prevent the Foxes' relegation from the Premier League, winning just two of his eight games in charge.

It was Smith's second consecutive relegation from the top flight after suffering the same fate with Norwich City last season. He was sacked by the Canaries in December, despite sitting fifth in the Championship table.

According to The Telegraph, the 52-year-old has held talks with the Foxes and has support from the hierarchy, while the likes of Ipswich Town's Kieran McKenna, Scott Parker, Enzo Maresca, Steven Gerrard and Graham Potter have all been linked.

What did Simon Jordan say about Dean Smith's Leicester City future?

Jordan has not been impressed by Smith's tenure at the King Power Stadium so far and warned that it would be a mistake for the Foxes to retain him, pointing to his struggles at Carrow Road as a cause for concern.

"I’ve got no particular issue with Dean Smith. I think he did a great job at Brentford, and he got Villa promoted and then kept them up. But we have to deal with the here and now," Jordan said on talkSPORT, quoted by Leicestershire Live.

"He was put into Norwich and got them relegated. He was removed from Norwich because he wasn’t pulling up any trees in the Championship. If that’s your blueprint, then by all means keep him at Leicester.

"You’ve got to look at the present. He had ample time to deal with the decline at Leicester City. With that in mind, he’s done nothing, nothing to suggest he should keep the job besides the fact his name is Dean Smith, and he’s managed a few teams. He’s got shedloads (experience) of getting teams relegated and leaving them in the middle of the Championship.

"I’m erring towards the fact that I don’t see the case for it besides the fact he’s been decent in the past. In the recent past, he’s not been great. There might be a whole raft of reasons behind that, but they might be the same reasons he’s going to have at Leicester City for being unsuccessful there, because he’s got a task on his hands there. "Have you seen anything from Dean Smith in that period of time at Leicester that tells us that he’s worthy? Did we see anything at Norwich City? Have we seen anything that says we must give him the job at Leicester?

"They went to Fulham when it counted, and they went 3-0 down. There was no real new manager bounce. Leicester City had good enough players to have got out of that situation. What was his most recent form in the Championship with a newly-relegated side? Norwich. What did he do? He got the sack."

Should Leicester City stick with Dean Smith?

It is difficult to disagree with Jordan on this one.

Smith has displayed little evidence that he is the right man to take the Foxes forward, albeit he inherited an incredibly tough situation with the club in the relegation zone and with limited time to turn around the fortunes of an underperforming squad.

As Jordan says, his disappointing spell at Norwich does raise doubts about his suitability to continue in the role at the King Power Stadium, although it could be argued he should not have been dismissed, with the Canaries finishing 13th under David Wagner after being fifth at the time of Smith's departure.

Smith does have a good track record in the Championship, but after his recent failures, it is too much of a gamble for the Foxes to keep him.