Lineker revealed he pushed Leicester to hire Emma Hayes as manager in 2023 — and was ignored

Gary Lineker privately lobbied Leicester City to appoint Emma Hayes as their manager following the club’s 2023 Premier League relegation, only to be rebuffed — a revelation the former Match of the Day host made public on the latest episode of The Rest is Football on Netflix.

Lineker said he called Susan Whelan, Leicester’s then-CEO, to put Hayes forward for the vacant role after the Foxes dropped out of the top flight. “I called her to say, ‘I think you should go for Emma Hayes as the Leicester City coach,’” Lineker explained. Whelan’s response, as he recalled it, was that it was “a really good idea” but that the owners were “not quite sure” they were ready to take that step.

Leicester ultimately appointed Enzo Maresca, who had taken over from Dean Smith, and the club went on to win the Championship before returning to the Premier League. Hayes, meanwhile, was still leading Chelsea Women at the time of Lineker’s call, a role in which she won multiple Women’s Super League titles before taking charge of the United States Women’s National Team.

Lineker was candid about his dual motivation. “Obviously, I think she’s a brilliant coach, so it’s not like it’s some kind of PR stunt — although PR-wise I think it would have been brilliant: the first female manager of a professional men’s team in our country,” he said. “And I think we had the players that you’d have done really well with.”

Hayes, who has been working as a pundit during the World Cup alongside Gary Neville, Roy Keane and Ian Wright, responded with characteristic directness. “I appreciate you saying that, but managers get asked this question — we’re the ones who have to sit through that in a press conference, and I always say: ‘You’re asking the wrong person.’ You have to ask those who own football clubs why they don’t do those things.”

Leicester, now preparing for life in League One after a second successive relegation, have since appointed Russell Martin as manager on a three-year contract ahead of the 2026/27 campaign.