Jamie Vardy has admitted that he and his Leicester City teammates are desperate for Craig Shakespeare to be handed the managerial job on a permanent basis.

The 53-year-old was put in charge until the end of the season following the controversial sacking of Claudio Ranieri in February, helping to transform the club's fortunes in the two months since.

Leicester were sliding down the division and found themselves just one point above the dropzone when Shakespeare took over, initially on a caretaker basis before being given the nod to see through the rest of the season.

After winning his first six games in charge, Shakespeare quickly won the players over and has now been backed to remain in place come the start of 2017-18.

"I think he would be most of the lads' choice. It's not down to us, that's up to the hierarchy, but he's definitely put himself up there," Vardy told Sky Sports News. "It's been brilliant, a brilliant return for him, but we've got to keep that going until the end of the season.

"We've gone back to playing what we know. Everyone knows exactly what their role is, and what benefits the team, and it's managed to turn our fortunes around and drag us out of the relegation zone. Shakey been great, but he's been with us over the years. With some of the lads he's been there all the time.

"For him to know us, exactly how we are, he's just basically stayed himself. He's still there, we can still call him 'Shakey' even if some of the lads have started calling him 'boss'! He's got everyone geed up again, and everyone raring to go for every single game.

"It has definitely benefited us. Shakey, when he was assistant, was always the one you go to if you had any issues, and he'd relay it to the boss. He's still been exactly the same, you can go to him, and he'll say it exactly how it is. Which is perfect for us at the minute."

A five-match winning streak has since been followed up by a run of five games without a victory for Leicester, who are still not assured of Premier League safety.