Leicester City: Sporting Director will support Rudkin & rediscover DNA

However, he has come in for heavy criticism from fans this season with the club struggling in the Championship and facing a points deduction for breaching PSR rules.

Srivaddhanaprabha explained: “The structure has changed. We have to bring in new people to help. It’s clear we need to find a new CEO which I’m trying to do. A new Commercial Director should be appointed soon, and a new Sporting Director to help Jon.

“Jon will be above the Sporting Director. Inside Leicester, there is a huge job to do. The world has changed. A lot of things inside the training ground are huge. I think he (Rudkin) needs support, and that is why I’ve come to my decision to change the structure to make sure everything is in the right way going forward.”

“The Sporting Director will take care of more of the day-to-day, work more on strategy and what we should play [like], what identity, what players should be brought in, and work with the young ones in the Academy.”

“We have to get back to what the identity of Leicester is. When the structure changes and we get the new Sporting Director in, we will make sure that we are seeing what the identity of Leicester is, what football we should play, what player we should bring in.”

Leicester have held talks with people about the Sporting Director role but have yet to find their preferred candidate, TGG understands. Recent research has shown that the average tenure of a Sporting Director in the Premier League is just 20 months, showing how remarkable Rudkin’s tenure is.

In his new column for TGG, Daunté Crawford highlighted how the traditional Sporting Director could be reaching his or her “operational limits.”

“Is the all-encompassing Sporting Director, who oversees recruitment, performance, Academy, women’s, player trading, pathways and executive alignment reaching his or her operational limits?

“For the last decade or more, football clubs have pursued the model of a ‘unicorn’ Sporting Director who is capable of managing vast operational breadth. This model may have become structurally fragile though.”

Crawford suggested that leadership teams could be the answer and Leicester appear to be following the example of Everton, Wolves and Tottenham in pursuing such a model.

Meanwhile, Assistant Xavi Calm, Goalkeeping Coach Javi Ortiz and Analyst Carlos Martinez Gil have all departed the club along with Head Coach Martí Cifuentes, who was sacked last week.

First Team Coach Andy King has taken interim charge of the side and will be assisted by Set Piece Coach Andy Hughes and Adam Sadler.

Sadler spent nine years at the club before leaving in 2023. The Coach-Analyst was first recruited by Nigel Pearson, promoted to First Team Coach under Claude Puel and continued in that role under Brendan Rodgers.

He took interim charge of the team alongside Mike Stowell following Rodgers’ exit, but then left City in the summer of 2023 following Enzo Maresca’s appointment. His most recent role was assisting Rodgers at Celtic.