Leicester City’s hunt for Enzo Maresca’s replacement as manager has now concluded, with Steve Cooper the man to lead the club in their Premier League return.
Having guided Leicester City to the Championship title last season in his first campaign as manager of the Foxes, Enzo Maresca became the surprise new Chelsea manager just over a fortnight ago.
This was an unexpected move, with Leicester having placed a lot of faith in the 44-year-old to give him just his second senior managerial role.
However, the club have arguably taken much less of a risk with his replacement, with Steve Cooper the man who has been given the job.
Numerous managers have been linked since Maresca’s departure, with Graham Potter holding talks about the job, but it will be Cooper who takes the reins.
Steve Cooper Leicester City appointment good for Harry Winks
Harry Winks was signed by Leicester early in the 2023 summer transfer window, with the club paying Tottenham Hotspur £10 million for his services.
Maresca had identified Winks as the perfect player for his possession-based system in his time on loan at Sampdoria in the 2022/23 season and swiftly acted to bring him in.
Whilst Cooper’s tactics are not so obsessive in their demands for possession and dominance, he does tend to utilise a deep-lying midfielder in his favoured 4-3-3 formation who is comfortable in build-up.
Winks is exactly that, with his passing the strongest facet of his game and he should thrive under Cooper, who uses his other midfield players higher up the pitch to pin back the opposition and allow the holding player more space in which to play.
Things can change very quickly in football, with the previous links to Carlos Corberan as manager potentially negative for Winks with the West Brom coach preferring big, physical midfielders.
At 5ft 10in, Winks is not that. However, Cooper’s arrival should see the former Champions League finalist continue to be an integral part of the Leicester side; having played every league game last season.
Mauricio Pochettino labelled Winks ‘perfect midfielder’
Winks is a boyhood Tottenham fan and lived his dream by progressing through the ranks of the club’s academy before becoming a first-team player.
It was Mauricio Pochettino who gave him that chance, and speaking in 2017 -when Winks was 21 – the recently-departed Chelsea coach was effusive in his praise, saying: “For me he is the perfect midfielder, who can play box-to-box and as a holding midfielder,”
“He has the quality and the capacity to play, use the demands of the game and read it. He’s so clever and we are so happy that he’s started to feel better now, because he provides the team with qualities that we don’t have [in others].”
Unfortunately for Winks, Pochettino was sacked in 2019 and replaced by Jose Mourinho who in turn was replaced by Nuno Espírito Santo who quickly made way for Antonio Conte.
The diminutive midfielder gradually fell out of favour at Spurs and has undergone a career revival at Leicester.
Now, under Cooper, that looks set to continue in the Premier League.
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