Leicester City were relegated to League One just 10 years after lifting the Premier League trophy, but the signs of the Foxes’ demise have long been clear to supporters.
Leicester relegated to League One (Image: Getty Images)
“If you think Leicester can get into League One, you’re out of your mind,” were the words of midfielder Jordan James in December when asked if Leicester City could be relegated again.
And I can kind of see where the Welsh midfielder is coming from. The club won the Premier League title just 10 years ago under manager Claudio Ranieri.
Just five years ago, the club won the FA Cup for the first time in their history under manager Brendan Rodgers. This is a club that has given dreams to others.
That dream quickly turned into a nightmare as they slipped into League One after a miserable season, their fate officially sealed with a draw with Hull City. Leicester are now being warned not to run a competent football club.
alarm bells ringing
Indeed, alarm bells have been ringing ever since 2020, when the Midlands side collapsed late in the season, failing to secure Champions League qualification and the riches that come with it.
This loss of income, combined with the coronavirus pandemic, has hit the Foxes’ Thai owners hard. Leicester fell at the final hurdle the following season, but continued to pursue Rodgers closely.
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That glorious day under the arches at Wembley against Chelsea will remain in our memories for a long time to come. But the club’s disastrous failures since then will probably be remembered more vividly.
In the disastrous 2021 summer transfer window, the club wasted huge amounts of money on Patson Daka, Boubakary Soumare and Jannik Westergaard, without selling any key players to offset that splurge. Leicester are still paying financial penalties for that operation to this day.
The holders’ 4-1 defeat to local rivals Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup in February 2022 stands out as the clear moment when the foundations of the King Power’s ownership began to crumble. Rodgers was put in charge and warned the team needed a “refresh”, while also insisting Leicester were “not the same club” just a few months later.
The sending-offs of title heroes Wes Morgan, Christian Fuchs and Kasper Schmeichel led to a shocking drop in standards, and the situation only worsened. The Foxes were inevitably knocked out of the Premier League the following season and Rodgers was sacked at the end of the season, replaced by Dean Smith, a decision perhaps too late. Of course relegation happens, but not to a team as talented as Leicester.
Leicester’s downward trajectory dates back to 2022 (Image: Getty Images)
repeated mistakes
There should have been an investigation into how the club got into such a position, especially from a team of such strength. One was indeed promised by the club’s owners, with owner Ayawat Srivaddhanaprabha acknowledging an “internal review” but it never materialized.
All club leaders, including much maligned director of football John Rudkin, continued in their roles as if nothing had happened. Leicester should have learned their lesson. They simply didn’t.
However, there was a brief moment of relief when the Foxes made an immediate return to the Premier League under manager Enzo Maresca during the 2023/24 season. Even that successful campaign has now been tainted and will seriously damage Leicester in the long run.
The club spent a lot of money in their bid for promotion, signing big-money signings such as England internationals Harry Winks and Conor Coady for a whopping sum of around £18 million.
deduction of points
This put Leicester in breach of the EFL’s PSR regulations once again. Although they survived their previous accusations of post-relegation technical issues, they were not able to escape lucky again (but more on that later).
Enzo Maresca takes Leicester back to the Premier League in 2024 (Image: Getty Images)
Leicester made the same disastrous mistake again after returning to the top flight. Maresca left for Chelsea and was replaced by former Forest manager Steve Cooper. He was the wrong man from the start – some players revealed their love for former manager Maresca in a Copenhagen nightclub soon after his arrival.
The signings of Oliver Skip, Jordan Ayew, Bobby de Cordova-Reed, and Caleb Okoli also did little to inspire confidence that this was a viable team.
Cooper was ultimately sacked in November and replaced by Ruud van Nistelrooy. The Dutch manager’s spell couldn’t get any worse, as he lost 18 of 25 Premier League games and ended up relegated. This proved that Leicester’s relegation two seasons ago was not just a blip, but a symptom of a larger problem.
Boardroom delays
It was also abundantly clear that the former Manchester United forward had no future at the King Power Stadium, but it took until June 27, more than four weeks after the final game of the season, for Van Nistelrooy to be officially relieved of his duties. A further three weeks passed before his replacement, Marti Cifuentes, was appointed just 26 days before the start of the season, but this delay was a major disruption to the club’s pre-season preparations, as was the departure of the legendary Jamie Vardy without a suitable replacement being signed.
Despite a strong start, Cifuentes proved to be another disastrous appointment, winning only 10 league games and being sacked in January. It then took Leicester almost a month to find a replacement for Gary Rowett.
Gary Rowett has failed to pull Leicester out of the relegation zone (Image: Getty Images)
During that time, Leicester suffered three consecutive defeats, giving up a three-goal lead to Southampton and coming back 4-3. The defeat appeared to have caused irreparable damage to the dressing room, with a six point deduction for a previous PSR violation, making it the first time in history that a club had been stripped of points. The appeal was rejected by an independent panel and Leicester were embroiled in a relegation battle.
But anyone who thinks off-the-pitch governance is the main reason for their slide into the third tier is gravely mistaken. Rowett seemed unfazed by the club’s plight, failing to improve on the team he had spent so much money on, leading to similar results to many of his predecessors.
The former Millwall manager has just one win left, and his form has seen Leicester fall to League One for the second time in their history. Even if no points were deducted, Leicester would still be in the relegation zone and under real threat of staying in the third division.
Anyone who thinks Leicester don’t deserve to be in League One, given the club’s trajectory over the years, would be insane.
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