• The forums will be unavailable for a few hours on Saturday 6th June, when they do return they will initially be in a degraded state with some features missing, but normal posting/reading will be possible. The main website will not be affected by these updates.
    New user registrations are currently disabled.
    Some other features of the forum are also currently disabled.

How did it go so wrong for Leicester?

monty in command said:
As a Sunderland fan living in Leicestershire I'm thrilled to bits - their fans had become cocky, expecting them to kick on and become established, their management/owners expected they had done already, now they're back with the reality of a number of clubs (like ourselves, West Brom, Leeds (haha), Norwich etc.) fighting it out between the leagues. Not wanting to sound cocky myself, I would now like to think our management has a plan, a set up and a philosophy that has half a chance of getting us out of that fu**ing spiral, though time will tell.

Leicester will lose Maddison, Barnes, Tielemans plus they have something like 6 or 7 other players out of contract, with no manager and I'm not sure their owners (who reportedly are willing to write of nearly £200m of their debt) are now firmly behind the club as they were under the previous chairman.

Seven years after winning the league, a couple of years after winning the cup, finished 5th two seasons ago and the season before that, 8th last season - this game doesn't half bite you in the arse.
Click to expand...
The issue with our system and likewise with what Leicester were doing a few years back is consistency in the market.
They consistently struck gold in the transfer market, Mahrez, Fofana, Kante, Maddison.
However they seemed to switch their focus from talented young players to older ones with zero experience in top leagues.

That’s the issue we’ll likely have at some point too. Replacing players is no exact science and every transfer is a gamble.
 

Poor or just a lack of recruitment. The level the premier league is, if you stand still for too long you eventually fall behind. Add in it seems a few wanted away and a few defeats, that snowballs and you end up where they are. I'd imagine there's quite a few on big wages as well, especially for the championship. No guarantees at all imo they will bounce back next season. I think at least 1 of the teams that come down will be no where near going up again next season.
 
Wayne The Punk said:
OK, I thought something else had happened. Do the PL ever do anything about financial misdoings other than a paltry fine?
Click to expand...
I don’t think it would be successful but I can see them trying to take action
gipetto said:
I wonder if they try to hang onto players and hope they go straight back up like the mags or shift as much as they can.

Harvey Barnes will surely be away.
Click to expand...
Think they have load out of contract and will need to sell best players to survive.
 
They paid £15m for that donkey from Stoke in January. Leicesters defence was already bad but he somehow made it worse.
 
Grumpy Old Man said:
You must be logged on to see external links

Decent take on it here from Barney Ronay.
Click to expand...

The same thing could be said of the last time we were relegated from the top flight. There were players with genuine talent in that side; Pickford, Denayer, Januzaj, Defoe, Khazri, Van Aanholt amongst others have all had top flight careers either here or abroad with more than a smattering of European and international appearances.

But when priorities behind the scenes are dubious, management of the squad is poor and malaise sets in, the old adage of ‘top good to go down’ goes up in smoke. We’ve proven it before as have many other clubs. Leicester can join that club now.
 
Last edited:
Sea to Shining Sea said:
The same thing could be said of the last time we were relegated from the top flight. There were players with genuine talent in that side; Pickford, Denayer, Januzaj, Defoe, Khazri, Van Aanholt amongst others have all had top flight careers either here or abroad with more than a smattering of European and international appearances.

But when priorities behind the scenes are dubious, management of the squad is poor and malaise sets in, the old adage of ‘top good to go down’ goes up in smoke. We’ve proven it before as have many other clubs. Leicester can join that club now.
Click to expand...

Sky have also just said they've borrowed against payments from the PL, and their parachute will have to go on repaying that. They'll be stuck with paying inflated wages and transfers in from whatever they can raise in player sales. They're looking well and truly buggered.
 
There was a time when every signing they made seemed to come off. What happened to the bloke who signed the likes of Mahrez, Kante and Vardy? They signed a load of old shite after they won the league too but then seemed to get it right again when the likes of Tielemans and Pereiera came in.

I’m still kind of in shock. With most clubs you can see a relegation coming years in advance (Southampton and probably Everton sometime soon) but they’ve finished 5th, 5th and 8th in the last three seasons and won a cup.
 
I always thought they’d get out of it.

But they’ve had too many players who haven’t turned up. Recruitment hasn’t been great. Vardy is the wrong side of 35 yet is still their most prolific striker. They’ve got Iheanacho and Daka as replacements but neither stay in form or fit.

They have riches in midfield in Maddison and Tielmans but again, both have been either unfit and out of form. Tielmans being out of contract and not committing to a new contract hasn’t helped matters.

At the back Jonny Evans is usually their stable centre half but he’s getting on and again is constantly injured. Soyuncu looked like being the answer alongside Faes but they’ve also really struggled.

Clearly there hasn’t been investment. They’ve bought a handful of signings in the past three or four transfer windows including free transfers. Brendan Rodgers wasn’t happy with how things were going and I’m amazed he didn’t quit. He’s a good manager and got a tune out of them for his first couple of seasons.

I think they’re in a lot of trouble. Big wages and reduced income at a club which seem like they don’t know what they’re doing. How much influence did their previous owner have and are the people now in charge up to it.

They’re going to lose a few of those players, simply to balance the books.
 
Cuddles said:
I know many think they'll walk the championship but it's going to be a difficult summer.

Loads of players out of contract in the summer including Tielemans, Amartey, Soyuncu, Evans and a few more.

They have a massive wage bill, players like Vardy on 100k+ a week who will be hard to shift. Daka and Iheanacho both on reportedly big wages.

Maddison and Barnes will definitely be off and I can see there being clubs interested in Dewsbury Hall and Castagne.

There's a decent core of youngish players there and they'd probably have a solid enough defence on paper with Faes, Souttar, Justin and Thomas but in front of that I think they'll need a complete overhaul of the side.

I can see them pulling a bit of Stoke and ending up mid table next season.
Click to expand...
I think they will struggle to keep Thomas and Justin
 
Squirrel said:
Schmeichel was the main one, Rodgers letting him go and then persisting with a pub league standard Goalkeeper for almost 30 games when it was obvious after 3 games that he is dreadful.

Persisting with the woeful Daniel Amartey at centre back for the same period and completely freezing out Soyuncu, whilst not a world beater comfortably better than the alternatives. On his way to Atletico Madrid now.

Attach no blame to Iheanacho, he's been criminally underused and always given his best when he's played.

You say Barnes has had a bad season but he's got 13 Premier League goals and put top scorer, he's had some off days but I wish more had off days and produced as much as him.

Maddison superb in the lead up to the World Cup, horrific since then and missed the penalty to put us 3-1 up against Everton a couple of weeks ago. He also set up the Bournemouth winner when they beat us at our place. Be happy to see the back of him more than most.
Click to expand...
Suprised that Barnes has 13 goals. Every time I watched you this season he was awful, but I do think he is a decent player
 
Voice of fair play said:
I lost any respect for them when they sacked a manager literally months after he guided them to the biggest achievement in their history and possibly the biggest achievement by a football team in this country!

Talk about lack of respect and thanks to a bloke who guided them to that
Click to expand...
Can't agree with that as they were going down under him. The following years with the Premier League run and FA Cup prove for me it was the right decision, even if they have since fallen as do most clubs outside the top six.

Respect and thanks he has from the fans no doubt, and the board at the time of his success but as a business they were hardly going to stand by and lose tens or hundreds of millions of pounds by not taking action.
 
the dude said:
Tried and failed to replace Vardy. Owners business was decimated by COVID so couldn't afford to keep putting cash in.

The owners business (something to do with duty free I think) was almost wiped out by COVID so they haven't been able to keep supporting them.
Click to expand...

This.
 
Kenna said:
From winning the league to relegated in under 10 years.

It seemed like with the right transfers they could have established themselves in the top 6 after winning the league yet it's all just gone tits up for them somehow.
Click to expand...

I’d take winning the league and FA Cup and a relegation like.

FWIW the helicopter crash was the start. Selling their best players and not replacing them hasn’t helped. Holding onto Schmiechal and Vardy too long probably didn’t help either.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top