Emile Heskey warns Leicester City against sacking Russell Martin despite poor results

Former Leicester City striker Emile Heskey believes the Foxes would be making a mistake by parting company with Russell Martin, despite admitting results have not been good enough.

Martin has endured a difficult spell in charge, with Leicester struggling to find consistency as they look to rebuild following their relegation from the Championship.

Back-to-back victories over Bromley and Doncaster Rovers were followed by a 2-1 defeat to Luton Town last weekend, leaving the former Premier League champions 13th in League One ahead of tonight’s clash against Wigan Athletic.

Heskey, who made more than 150 appearances for Leicester, believes the football Martin is trying to implement has been encouraging, but accepts the results have fallen short.

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Martin needs time to rebuild

“Russell Martin’s had a tough time because he wants to play a certain way, and the reality is it looks great, but the results aren’t giving us what we need,” he told BestBettingSites.

However, the former England international feels expectations of an immediate return to the second tier have been too high given the circumstances at the club.

Heskey warned Leicester to give Martin time to build rather than risk another change in the dugout.

“I do believe it was supposed to be consolidation in League One based on the transfer difficulties and where the club was at,” he added.

“A lot of people looked at it and said we’ve got to be pushing for promotion straight away.

“We didn’t have the squad for that – a lot of them were young lads coming out of the Under-21s or returning from their first or second loans.

“Leicester are on the long road. Chopping and changing managers isn’t going to help them get back to where they want to be.”

Blues targeting promotion

Heskey has a different view of the pressure on another of his former clubs, Birmingham City, who have been pushing towards the automatic promotion places in the Championship this season.

The former Blues striker believes the club’s investment mean manager Chris Davies is expected to deliver a promotion challenge, and he has been encouraged by their recent form, which has lifted them into the play-off places.

“I think Birmingham’s aspirations are to get up into the Premier League now, and I think that’s the pressure on the manager,” the 48-year-old said.

“He needs to really be pushing the play-offs, top end of the play-offs, into the automatic promotion spots because they’ve spent heavily, they’ve got new training facilities, and great aspirations for the stadium.

“The pressure is on him to produce that now, and to be fair to him, they’ve been doing just that recently.

“The Championship is such a tough league to compete in, but they’ve been doing well recently.”

Emile Heskey’s comments were made in an exclusive interview for BestBettingSites.co.uk.

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