Sunday 26 February 2017 12:05, UK
Claudio Ranieri deserved the chance to finish the season at Leicester, according to the Sunday Supplement panel.
The Italian manager was sacked by the reigning Premier League champions on Thursday following a 2-1 defeat to Sevilla in the Champions League round of 16.
It comes after Ranieri masterminded a stunning surge to the league title last season, which the Daily Mail's Martin Samuels believes should have given a chance to stay with the club for the rest of the campaign.
"They didn't even let him finish the Champions League season, that he had given them. He deserved the chance to finish the season, even if they went down he deserved to have a go at it next season," he told the Sunday Supplement.
"Who are you going to get in who has on their CV what Ranieri did last season? Jose Mourinho said that it's worth all of his three titles, and I would agree. It's the greatest single achievement in the history of English football, and that wasn't worth a few more months to try and turn it around?
"It's a really depressing decision. Anyone saying, 'Well, Leicester would have gone down' - they're Leicester, that's what they do, they go down and they come back up.
"Burnley stuck with Sean Dyche when they went down because he's a good manager, and they came back up and they're doing okay again, better than they would have expected.
"The idea that you have to sack the manager when you're near the relegation zone, and this manager of all managers, really beggars belief. It will make the club unpopular.
"If Leicester came 14th last season, and 13th this year - he'd still be in a job. The money would be coming in, no one would have been startled by a sudden drop.
"If he had kept them up and is where Watford are now, people would say 'he's done a solid job hasn't he, no one knows them outside of Leicester, no one knows them outside of England, but what a fantastic job he's done'.
"But instead he's won the league, and that has bitten him. I find it staggering."
Fellow Sunday Supplement panelist Oliver Kay was also scathing in his assessment of the players' performances under Ranieri and believes they need a wake-up call now the manager has been sacked.
"Leicester look a worse team than they did two years ago. Their performances in the 'great escape' season under Nigel Pearson were often good performances," The Times chief football correspondent said.
"But their performances this season have at times been gutless, spiritless, heartless.
"It's where players lose direction, lose faith in each other and what they've tried to achieve previously. They look like a team that needed some shock treatment.
"It's awful that they've sacked Ranieri - disgraceful. I would have given him the right to fail, to go down if necessary, and the right to bring them back up if necessary.
"There is just this attitude these days that relegation is the end of the world, which is ridiculous. If you look at it from a cold-hearted business view, they all panic and sack the manager."
