Paul Jewell has branded Leicester City’s decision to part company with Sven Goran Eriksson with the Foxes just five points off the top two as “madness”.

But in the crazy world of football, it was something that didn’t surprise the Town boss.

On the day Roy Keane saw his odds on becoming the next City manager fall dramatically to 8/1, Jewell admitted the goings-on at his divisional rivals was sheer lunacy.

He said: “When the manager gets sacked when he is five points off the top two in a league that is so tight, you just have to shrug your shoulders – it’s madness.

“I don’t understand people who are out of the game who don’t really understand how football works. That’s why I am not surprised. I think it a wrong decision, a knee-jerk decision, but they might bring someone in who gets Leicester up the table and wins the league and the owners might be proved right.”

Jewell, who praised the patience shown by Town owner Marcus Evans, insisted that the former England boss should have been given more time at the King Power Stadium following a summer of spending.

The Town boss added: “If the owners don’t think it is working out, that is entirely up to them. But they have spent quite a lot of money in the summer and it takes time – it doesn’t matter who it is. Very rarely a team comes together and it clicks.”

Although Martin O’Neill and Lee Clark remain the favourites, former Town boss Keane yesterday saw his odds slashed from 25/1 to 8/1.