Strangely for a football club, for the first 35 years of Leicester City’s existence, they had no official permanent manager. There was a nominal secretary/manager position but the board and selection committee were responsible for matters relating to the team. This changed in 1919 with the appointment of Peter Hodge, who became Leicester’s first proper manager. Many managers have come and gone since this point, as you can see from the lengthy list below.
Leicester City Managers: 1919 to 2024
*denotes caretaker manager(s)
Leicester City Permanent Managers
While the list above provides you with the full timeline of all Leicester managers, both permanent and caretaker, we wanted to provide a little more detail about each permanent appointment. So, here is a little information about every permanent manager the Foxes have ever hired.
Peter Hodge
The first proper Leicester manager and one of just two who had two separate, permanent stints at the club. Across the two, Hodge oversaw 410 matches, putting him as the second in the all-time Foxes leaderboard.
Willie Orr
Very close to giving the Foxes their first-ever top-division title, something they only managed to first achieve in 2016. Under Orr, Leicester missed out on the 1928/29 First Division title to Sheffield Wednesday by a mere one point.
Arthur Lochhead
Lochead was the first man to both play for and manage Leicester. As a player, Lochhead made over 300 appearances for the Foxes after moving for a club record fee. Upon retirement, he went straight into the managerial hot seat.
Frank Womack
Although Womack managed six different teams, he is best known for being the outfield player with the most games without a goal. Despite making 510 appearances (491 for Birmingham) the full back never found the back of the net.
Tom Bromilow
Took charge at the start of the 1939/40 season which was abandoned after just three games due to World War II. Proceeded to manage Leicester throughout the inter-war years, participating in regional wartime league and cup competitions.
Tom Mather
Although WWII had ended, English football did not immediately return to a normal schedule. For the 1945/46 season, England stuck with the regional leagues. The FA Cup did resume though, meaning Mather has two official matches to his name.
Johnny Duncan
As a player, Duncan was signed for Leicester by their very first manager, Peter Hodge. He spent 16 years away from Filbert Street but returned as manager and guided the Foxes to their first-ever FA Cup final.
Norman Bullock
Bullock arrived at Leicester with a “five-year plan” to get the Foxes back in the First Division. This he managed right on schedule as the Foxes were crowned Second Division champions during his fifth season in charge.
Dave Halliday
As a player, Halliday remains the quickest man to reach 100 English top-division goals, needing just 101 games (although his record is under threat by Erling Haaland). He enjoyed a decent managerial career too, the highlight at Leicester being a Second Division title in 1957.
Matt Gillies
Nobody has managed more Leicester matches than Gillies (508). During his long stint, which lasted just over a decade, the Scot won a League Cup in 1963/64 and was runner-up in another three domestic cup finals.
Frank O’Farrell
Irishman O’Farrell was the first non-British manager to take charge of Leicester. He had a fascinating managerial journey that saw him lead the likes of Weymouth, Torquay as well as Al-Shaab and the Iran national team.
Jimmy Bloomfield
Won Leicester’s first-ever FA Charity Shield (Community Shield) and despite a lack of more major silverware, is considered one of the club’s best-ever managers thanks to his exciting brand of attacking football built on a tiny budget.
Frank McLintock
The lowest win percentage of any Leicester manager having recorded five victories from 40 attempts. Despite this, he managed to land the job as Brentford’s manager in 1984.
Jock Wallace
Months after guiding Leicester back into the First Division, Wallace began an ambitious quest to sign to sign three-time European Football of the Year Johan Cruyff. The Dutchman was reportedly keen and negotiations went on for weeks, but no agreement could be found.
Gordon Milne
Milne enjoyed a decent but fairly unspectacular record at Leicester but he is something of a legend among Besiktas fans. At the Turkish club, the Preston-born midfielder guided them to three successive league titles.
Bryan Hamilton
Secured a move to Leicester after winning the Football League Trophy with Wigan but failed to impress and was sacked following a run of two league wins in 12.
David Pleat
Leicester’s poor financial state during Pleat’s tenure made progress extremely challenging. Despite managing over 150 Leicester games, Pleat is best remembered for his four spells (three as caretaker) at Tottenham.
Brian Little
Controversially denied Premier League promotion in 1993 after Swindon were awarded a dubious play-off final penalty with the game at 3-3. Managed to win the play-offs the following season though with a win over rivals Derby.
Mark McGhee
A managerial journeyman who has had 14 jobs (including caretaker and assistant positions) but has not been seen since he was fired from Dundee where he had a disastrous 7.14% win rate.
Martin O’Neill
One of the greatest Leicester managers of all time, he won First Division promotion and two League Cups while also serving the full length of his contract despite interest from elsewhere, including Leeds in 1998.
Peter Taylor
Scooped the Premier League Manager of the Month for September 2000 shortly after joining Leicester but he later oversaw nine defeats during the final 10 matches of the campaign.
Dave Bassett
Bassett managed over 1,000 matches during his career and his last permanent stint was at Leicester. It was one of his least successful jobs though as he endured four months without a league win.
Micky Adams
Club discipline was such a problem during Adams’ reign that at one point he introduced random breathalyser tests for players.
Craig Levein
Levein’s two years at Leicester is his only taste of managerial football in England to date, with all other roles coming north of the border.
Rob Kelly
Kelly made his professional playing debut at Leicester at age 19 and then took up the managerial position 22 years later after initially stepping in as caretaker following Levein’s departure.
Martin Allen
The shortest-serving Leicester manager, lasting just four games due to a falling out with chairman Milan Mandaric stemming from differences over transfer targets.
Gary Megson
Megson only lasted 41 days at the Walkers Stadium as he opted to move to Bolton mid-way through the season.
Ian Holloway
Rather incredibly, Holloway became the first Leicester manager in over 50 years to claim a victory during their first league game in charge. He also led the Foxes down to the third tier of English football for the first time in the club’s history.
Nigel Pearson
A manager who was rarely dull across his two separate Leicester spells. Some notable incidents include grabbing Crystal Palace’s James McArthur by the neck and calling a journalist an “ostrich”.
Paulo Sousa
The first Leicester boss from outside the British Isles. Prior to the appointment of the former Portuguese international, all managers had represented England, Scotland, Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland.
Sven-Goran Eriksson
The only man to have both permanently managed Leicester and the England national team (Peter Taylor was only caretaker boss of England).
Claudio Ranieri
Who could forget Ranieri as being the man who masterminded the Foxes to a hugely unexpected Premier League title in 2016?
Craig Shakespeare
He was not at Leicester long but did manage to become the only the third manager in Premier League history to win his first three matches in charge (and the first Englishman).
Claude Puel
Not a particularly popular figure at Leicester due to his poor win rate and negative football but is something of a Monaco legend having spent 22 straight years at the club (as a player and then manager).
Brendan Rodgers
Led the Foxes to their first-ever FA Cup triumph, ending a cursed run of four previous defeats in the final.
Dean Smith
Brought in late on in the 2022/23 season to keep Leicester in the Premier League but fell two points short after recording just two wins from eight.
Enzo Maresca
Boasts the highest win percentage of any permanent Leicester manager (67.9%), and by a large margin. No other manager with more than five games in charge has surpassed even 50% (Nigel Pearson did in his first stint but not overall).
Steve Cooper
Leicester’s first Welsh manager and one who last managed main rivals Nottingham Forest.