Leicester City proving not all foreign owners are focused on short-term gains

Leicester City's Thai billionaire Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha is proof that not all foreign owners in the Premier League are obsessed with short-termism, writes Richard Jolly.

Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha backed manager Nigel Pearson, pictured, during a downturn in form that saw the team sink to the bottom of the Premier Leaugue. Matthew Lewis / Getty ImagesShow less

Foreign owners keep sacking managers because they have unrealistic expectations and know little about football, particularly English football.

That, anyway, is the rather unwanted reputation they possess.

Yet there is a two-word retort to that simplistic and xenophobic suggestion: Leicester City.

Consider the circumstances. Leicester were promoted to the Premier League in April and their owner, Thai billionaire Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, started talking about securing a top-five finish within three years.

After five games City were seventh and seemed ahead of schedule.

They had also just beaten Manchester United 5-3.

Thirteen games later, Leicester had only procured another two points and were propping up the table, five points adrift of anyone else.

As if that were not bad enough, manager Nigel Pearson was banned by the FA for abusing a fan.

Had Srivaddhanaprabha sacked his manager then it would scarcely have been a surprise.

Wonderfully as Pearson did to get Leicester promoted, sacking him would not have ranked as one of the great injustices in footballing history.

Sticking with him seemed the bolder step – it is also looking the better one.

In their past four games, Leicester have won away at relegation rivals Hull, recovered from going 2-0 down at Liverpool – not to mention the psychological blow of seeing a penalty awarded against them when the ball hit Wes Morgan’s head – to draw, knocked Newcastle out of the FA Cup and deservedly defeated Aston Villa.

It does not qualify as a success story yet – Leicester are still bottom of the Premier League – but it is hard to imagine a change in management would have brought such an immediate response.

Pearson may have fallen out with one supporter, but not the entire fan base, and his side still show spirit.

Instead of giving Pearson the boot, Srivaddhanaprabha has offered him his backing in the transfer market.

Leicester are trying to conclude a club record £9.5 million (Dh53.1m) signing of the Croatia striker Andrej Kramaric.

This is not how many would have expected a Thai chairman to act.

While British owners at Tottenham, Crystal Palace and West Bromwich Albion have overseen a high turnover of managers, their counterparts from overseas tend to be intrinsically associated with institutionalised short-termism.

Second-tier Watford, under the auspices of the Italian Pozzo family, are on their fourth manager of the season, while Leeds, run by another Italian, Massimo Cellino, have their fourth since May.

Fulham had three last year as American Shahid Khan chopped and changed in a failed bid to stay up.

Perhaps most notoriously, Indian-owned Blackburn worked their way through three managers and two caretakers in a chaotic 2012/13 campaign.

There is a flip side to that argument.

The two most stable clubs in the country over the past decade have been Arsenal and Manchester United, while this is the seventh season since Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bought Manchester City and he has only appointed two managers.

Some might say it is easier for successful clubs to show continuity, but there is also QPR’s Malaysian owner Tony Fernandes who has been remarkably reluctant to sack underperforming managers.

Aston Villa’s Randy Lerner has never made the right appointment, but does try to stick with his choices.

Nottingham Forest’s Kuwaiti chairman Fawaz Al Hasawi has held off dismissing Stuart Pearce, despite a dreadful run of just two wins in 20 games.

Even Blackburn are strangely stable now.

Leicester once had a revolving door. They sacked Pearson once, in 2010, in a move that set them back, and his replacement, Paulo Sousa, only lasted 12 games.

Perhaps lessons were learnt as Pearson is now the 11th longest-serving manager in England and still has his job.

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