Leicester news: Ruud van Nistelrooy looking at long-term Foxes future

Ruud Van Nistelrooy remains committed to Leicester’s and insisted he still views his future at the club as long term.

The Foxes manager has lost 10 of his past 11 games, including Friday’s damaging 4-0 home defeat by Brentford.

They are second bottom of the Premier League and five points from safety – and could fall eight points behind 17th-placed Wolves if Vitor Pereira’s men beat Fulham at Molineux on Tuesday.

Van Nistelrooy takes his side to West Ham on Thursday and, despite the threat of an immediate return to the Championship, the former Manchester United striker is looking beyond this season.

He said: “I know what contract I signed and it wasn’t a contract for five months. It was, after this, [for] two more seasons. I was aware when I arrived what the challenge was and how difficult it could be. I was aware and committed to the future.

“I called it a mountain to climb [after Brentford] but life is about climbing mountains and mountains are there to be climbed. That challenge I take. We will keep climbing and we drop sometimes – we slip sometimes – on the mountain but we get up and start again.”

Leicester parted company with first-team coaches Ben Dawson and Danny Alcock on Monday and have no plans to replace the pair.

Van Nistelrooy plans to work with Jelle ten Rouwelaar, Brian Barry-Murphy, Andy Hughes and Andy King for the rest of the season and denied Dawson and Alcock’s departures were down to the team’s form.

He added: “It wasn’t always the plan. The plan was to start working together with the possibility to bring in my own people. From then, you evaluate and make your own decisions. It didn’t have anything to do with results.”