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In the early 2000s, Paul Dickov was a goalscoring favourite at Leicester City. Now, the club have suffered their second relegation. This comes after a tremendous spell of winning unlikely Premier League and FA Cup silverware.
PD pulled no punches when running the rule over the Foxes’ immediate future – manager and players alike. Read his thoughts and special comments on different topics regarding Leicester with a lot of other aspects also discussed.
During this exclusive interview with BestBettingSites.com, he said the ‘silence is deafening’ amid uncertainty over whether Leicester City back Ruud van Nistelrooy to continue on as manager. He warned the club that delaying making a decision will only do harm.
Explained why he doesn’t think Steven Gerrard will be coming in to replace Ruud. Claimed that if Gerrard ‘wanted the Rangers job, he could have taken it’ and that ‘reasons away from football’ are why he didn’t gave his honest appraisal on Jamie Vardy potentially heading to Ibrox after leaving Leicester.
Praised Matheus Cunha as a ‘game changer’ for Manchester United, said he fancied Leeds to stay up this coming season despite ‘doom and gloom’ from the fans.
Full comments from Paul’s interview can be found below.
After missing out on the Rangers gig, would you like to see Steven Gerrard take over at Leicester City this summer? I think Stevie would be a good choice. But you know, reading between the lines, there are probably reasons away from football why Stevie couldn’t take the Rangers job. I think if he wanted it, and he could have taken it, he would have, I reckon he would have been the first choice for Rangers to go ahead and do it. And keep in mind on the back of that, I couldn’t see him really taking the Leicester job if he’s not taken the Rangers one. If it wasn’t for non-football reasons, I think he’d already be in place at Ibrox.
Jamie Vardy has been linked with a move to Rangers. Do you think he would rip up the SPFL? Jamie Vardy’s got a lot to give. You’ve seen him at the end of last season, still running around as if he was 25 years old, still scoring goals. So I think people look at his age and everything else, but he’s still got a lot of football and a lot of goals in him. Whether that’s the Premier League, who knows? But definitely if it’s a Championship or Scottish Premier League team, he’d be a hit. I think he would be a big success in Scotland, no doubt about it. Playing for a giant like Rangers, blue jersey, it would be a good signing for them.
Where do you think Vardy will end up? I don’t know. You know, I’m sure he’s got a lot of offers and they are probably at home and abroad as well. I think he’ll be able to take his pick. Maybe he’ll want an entirely new challenge, to take his family abroad for a couple of years. Perhaps he’ll want to drop to the Championship and take a club back to the Premier League. Moving to Rangers, there’s the challenge of taking on Celtic. It all depends on what’s going to motivate him next.
Back or sack RvN? The longer the rumours go on, and they’ve been around for a couple of months that he’ll be sacked, the worse it is for Ruud. The silence at Leicester is deafening. You have to let the fans know Ruud is the manager if that’s what you want, so people can start planning. If it’s someone else, you need to say. They need to get to work to get promoted from the Championship, and any delay stops the new manager doing what he needs. Whoever it is needs to get their own players in, assert their authority, and build for promotion. At the moment, the club feels like it’s in a state of limbo. It’s hard to look to the future when there is so much uncertainty over the manager’s position.
Do you think Leeds United could stay up next season? I was chatting to a few Leeds fans funnily enough the other day, and they were all doom and gloom. They’re expecting the worst already but I quite fancy Leeds to stay up. I think that with their investors in place, they’ll have a bit of money to spend.
We all know Elland Road is a difficult place to go when they’re up at and you. Sunderland and Burnley, it might be a bit different. Sunderland might lack the quality, and they have a young squad. They need to spend a lot of money to change things around. Burnley did exceptionally well under Scott Parker, but I’d back Leeds of the three to stay up.
What do you make of Sunderland selling Watson? You know, that’s not going to help them. It’s not going to help the fans and their expectations for the season as well. But at the same time, I don’t think anybody really expected Sunderland to get promoted. They’ve done exceptionally well to go up there. So are they looking at it as, ‘Let’s have a season in the Premier League and enjoy the ride and see where it takes us?’
Paul Dickov pays tribute to King Kev 🙌👑 pic.twitter.com/DsiwxkPRLq
— Manchester City (@ManCity) May 22, 2025
Is there a Premier League side who should be moving for Jean-Philippe Mateta? Anybody that’s not playing in Europe, particularly in the Champions League, would love to go to a Champions League club. I think Mateta surprised everybody with his performances and his goals, especially last season and the season before. He’s a real handful. We talk about the need for a real No. 9 at Arsenal or Manchester United. I think he’d be a great fit for any of the teams that are on the lookout for a striker like that because he’s big, strong, and he holds the ball up ever so well. He gets himself in the box, you know. And there’s a real danger when he gets in there.
It seems that everyone apart from Man City with Haaland, and Newcastle with Isak, are on the hunt for a No. 9. I think Mateta would be a great signing for anyone. I think there’ll be a lot of clubs looking at what’s happening with them given the situation Crystal Palace find themselves in. I think European football – or its absence – is going to have a huge effect on which players Palace can keep, who wants to stay, and who are going to want to leave. Maybe, even, who will have to be sold for financial reasons.
Are Mbeumo and Cunha the right forwards to revitalise Manchester United? I think Cunha is a wonderful player. Cunha is a game changer. He’s showing that he has fantastic ability. He scores goals, gets assists, and has already experienced a couple of seasons in the Premier League. He’s a wonderful player. But I think it’s going to take a lot more than Cunha to make Man United better. Rasmus Hojlund struggled. In midfield, Bruno Fernandes has been outstanding, but is there anyone else in there with creativity? Harry Maguire was their best defender, but there wasn’t much help around him. So you’ve got to say that the one signing, the two signings if they land Mbeumo, is not enough. Very good players, but they need more.
What do Manchester United need to do to challenge for a European place? They’ve brought in Matheus Cunha already, there are rumours about Bryan Mbeumo as well, who’s a top player. I think they need to defensively be a lot better than what they have been. Ruben needs to have two, three, four windows to put his team together, but they’re a long way away at the minute. I just hope they give him time. I think they will give them time. They’ve got good people, you know, Omar Berrada, Jason Wilcox, who I know really well from their time at Man City, they’re really good people, top of their job, but very patient as well. They know it takes time to build a squad, to build a culture with what Ruben’s trying to do. He’s not really been given the opportunity to do that yet. Last season they were really poor. It was awful for them as well. So you would think they can only get better. But I still think that they’re a long way away. They definitely need another three, four, if not five to have any chance of pushing into the top six or seven.
Would you try and keep Marcus Rashford if you were Aston Villa? I think Villa’s problem is going to be with the PSR rules, isn’t it? Marcus is obviously on a lot of money at Manchester United, which is well documented. I think if Villa could afford to keep him, they probably would because he looked to be getting back to his best form before the injury. We all know the player he can be, but I think financially it could be really difficult for Aston Villa to do a deal like that when they want to strengthen elsewhere as well. They have to deal with PSR and they need to strengthen for another season in Europe. It’s slightly crazy that even with a year in the Champions League, they still can’t go out and sign the players that they want. They’re possibly going to have to sell players before they can bring in others. With Marcus, they’re probably going to have to prioritise different positions purely for financial reasons.
What do you make of Fernandes staying at United? Yeah, it’s a huge boost. And I think fair play to him. It would have been very easy, looking at the reported figures. The money the Saudis were looking to offer him was incredible. Lots of players have been happy to go there and take the money. But Bruno obviously feels very settled in Manchester. He lives locally actually. So you see him around, with his wife and family. Clearly, he loves the area and clearly loves the club and I think it’s a fantastic statement. He is setting the standards for everybody else at Manchester United – he’s staying loyal and wants to stay. He’s been the best player by a country mile since he came to the club.
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