Former boss Nigel Pearson explains Leicester City exit

Pearson left Leicester to become Hull manager in June 2010

Former Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson has explained why he left the club to take over at Championship rivals Hull in June 2010.

Pearson, speaking after his successor Paulo Sousa was sacked, with Sven-Goran Eriksson set to take over, was unhappy the club did not try hard to keep him.

"They could have kept me, but they didn't," he told BBC Radio Leicester.

"Leicester had an opportunity to deny any clubs that wanted to speak to me the opportunity, but they didn't."

Pearson, who won promotion in his first season in charge at Leicester, will take his Hull side to the Walkers Stadium on 16 October - and has taken a swipe at the way he was treated at his old club.

His successor Paulo Sousa, recruited from Swansea, was sacked by the Foxes on Friday after only nine league games in charge.

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And BBC Sport understands that former England manager Eriksson is poised to be appointed as Sousa's successor.

Pearson said: "The irony of what's happened doesn't escape me.

"I had a good time at Leicester, and I've heard one or two comments in the last 24 hours about my departure.

"People can say what they want, but the bottom line is that I resigned, and my decision was based on the fact that if they wanted to keep me, if they'd shown any inclination to do that - then they could have done."

At the time, Foxes chairman Milan Mandaric said they had "reluctantly" allowed Pearson to move on.

But Pearson added: "When you're on holiday and you find out that the consortium that subsequently takes over [the club] has been shown round while you're the manager and you don't know anything about it, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out what's happening.

"What I would say is that now I'm working for people who clearly want me to stay there and be their manager.

"The jury may be out in terms of the fans at the moment, but I have a good working relationship with my superiors, which I certainly didn't with the chief executive at Leicester City."

Pearson previously managed Carlisle and Southampton, and had spells on the coaching staff at Stoke, West Bromwich Albion and Newcastle.