Sven Goran Eriksson gets the boot – again

IT HAS NOT been a good month for former England football coaches. First Steve McClaren was sacked as boss of Nottingham Forest at the start of October, and now it's the turn of Sven Goran Eriksson to walk the managerial plank at Leicester City.

Leicester's patience finally run out with the 63-year-old Swede following Saturday's 3-0 defeat to Millwall. A statement released on Monday night on the Championship club's website ran: "Leicester City football club has confirmed today that, by mutual agreement, Sven Goran Eriksson has ceased to be the first-team manager, with immediate effect."

Also following Eriksson out of the door at the King Power Stadium is his assistant, Derek Fazackerley.

The pair were recruited by Leicester in October 2010 shortly after the club had been taken over by a Thai-led consortium called King Power. Last summer Eriksson embarked on a £20m spending spree with the aim of getting the club back into the top flight of English football.

But things haven't gone according to plan this season and Leicester are currently languishing in 13th spot having collected 19 points from 13 games. Saturday's humiliating home loss to Millwall was Eriksson's 24th defeat in charge of Leicester and it proved too much for King Power.

It's not the first time Eriksson has fallen foul of the high expectations of Thai football club owners. In July 2007 he was hired by the country's former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, at the time the proprietor of Manchester City. Eriksson used Shinawatra's cash to bolster the Sky Blues squad but their ninth place finish in the Premier League was deemed unacceptable and he left the club in the summer of 2008.

The strong favourite to take over from Eriksson is Martin O'Neill. The former Celtic and Aston Villa boss managed Leicester for five years in the late 1990s during which time he guided them to League Cup glory in 1997 and 2000. In the meantime, academy director Jon Rudkin and coach Mike Stowell have been put in temporary charge of the first team squad.

For Eriksson the sacking represents another blow to his diminishing reputation as one of football's sharpest brains. Prior to taking over the England job in 2001, the Swede was considered to be one of the best coaches in the game having brought success to Sampdoria and Lazio. But his five years in charge of England produced only mediocrity and since then Erikkson has been similarly unsuccessful during short stints in charge of City, as well as the Mexico and Ivory Coast national teams. ·