JibrinManagers, transfers, style – what we know about Leicester City’s potential new sporting director
James McCarron looks to be the man coming into the new role at the King Power Stadium, with plans for him to work alongside Jon Rudkin in key aspects of the club’s identity
James McCarron has emerged as the potential new sporting director at Leicester City.
McCarron, currently with Manchester City parent company City Football Group, is reportedly set to take over the new role at the King Power Stadium, which will see him work alongside City’s director of football Jon Rudkin and focus on building the club’s identity.
While his current position is as director of player development, McCarron has previously served as a sporting director, spending three-and-a-half years in the role at Belgian side Lommel. Here’s a deeper look at how he fared during that spell.
Promotion near miss followed by sour end
Lommel played in the second division of Belgian football for all of McCarron’s time at the club, with promotion to the top flight eluding them.
After small strides were made over the first couple of years of McCarron’s tenure, the club finished inside the play-offs in 2023-24, missing out on automatic promotion by two points.
In the play-offs, they came through a quarter-final and a semi-final, but lost the final in extra-time.
They made a solid enough start to the following season, but then went on a 13-game winless run during the winter, including a nine-match losing streak that saw them plummet down the table. They eventually finished 11th of 16.
McCarron left his position that summer, taking up the director of player development role inside City Football Group.
Following his exit, local paper Het Belang van Limburg wrote: “McCarron had been under fire internally and externally for six months after his abysmal performance.
“After lengthy discussions with City Football Group and Lommel SK, the verdict has finally been delivered. The media-shy Briton is no longer the head of the North Limburg club.”
Big profits made on transfers
Part of the remit of City’s new sporting director will be in the transfer market, not only securing the right players, but ensuring the club maximize the value of those they sell.
Lommel did make a couple of significant profits on players during McCarron’s time at the club, although the biggest sales came on players who arrived before his tenure.
Still, McCarron was in charge when defensive midfielder Vini Souza was sold to Sheffield United for £10.5m in 2023, having only cost the club £2m three years earlier.
The same summer, striker Manfred Ugalde was sold to Twente for £3.5m having joined for £750k.
In an interview in February 2022, after his first transfer window in charge at Lommel, McCarron spoke of honing in on the balance of the squad, and integrating more players in the 25 to 30 age bracket in order to complement the younger and older squad members already there.
Managers brought in from England
Lommel were in a bad spot upon McCarron’s arrival in December 2021. In his first interview, he said manager Peter van der Veen was not under pressure. Ten days later, the manager had been dismissed.
In terms of appointments, McCarron brought in English coaches who perhaps did not have a deep knowledge of Belgian football, but arrived with considerable experience.
He brought in former Arsenal assistant manager Steve Bould, who led the club to their promotion near-miss over two-and-a-half years in charge of the squad.
Following Bould’s exit at the start of last year, former Bristol City and Sunderland manager Lee Johnson came in. Having overseen the end of last term, Johnson now has Lommel in the play-off spots this campaign.
‘Controlled’ style preferred
As would be expected of someone working for Manchester City’s parent company, a possession-based style of play appears to be McCarron’s preference.
He said in 2022: “When I reflect on the first half of the season and the way we controlled games, we have shown a lot of maturity in the way we’ve tried to play. We’ve shown a lot of courage in that.”
City chairman Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha has suggested that that way of playing is his preference too, with a manager in the mould of Enzo Maresca likely to be sought by the club long term, with Gary Rowett only arriving on a short-term deal.
Jibrin
