Leicester, a good club and bad decisions
What has befallen Leicester City is a painful sequence of events that fans at other clubs beware: a naïve owner; a succession of bad decisions; stars sold; overpaid under-performing players; sluggish football; managerial churn; disconnect between fans and board and fans and team; a controversial director of football; and the tyranny of excessive, unsustainable wages leading to PSR woes. Today (Feb 5) the club were hit with six-point deduction for PSR breaches.
Five years ago this week, Leicester were proudly third in the Premier League, and were soon to win the FA Cup. Now they struggle in the Championship. Even geo-politics intervenes with the business belonging to Leicester’s owners, King Power, hit by a slowing of airport retail because of Covid.
Fans everywhere will also recognise the few rays of sunshine amidst the storm: the hope offered by some promising academy players breaking through at Leicester; the hope offered to society’s disadvantaged by big-hearted fans running a foodbank before this weekend’s game with Charlton Athletic; and, despite the many problems, the fans still turning up to support, albeit more in hope than expectation.
Leicester’s demise is still a warning to many and should also be a source of widespread sadness: a well-run provincial club that dared to defy the established order of London and the North-west, employed a charismatic manager and recruited brilliantly. Leicester’s title-winning squad was assembled for £72m, including such gems as £560,000 Riyad Mahrez, £1m Jamie Vardy and £5.6m N’Golo Kante, all scouted by head of recruitment Steve Walsh. Leicester overturned the odds and footballing tenets. They fought the lore – and won.
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Leicester currently celebrate the 10th anniversary of one of football’s greatest fairy-tales, their 5,000-1 title glory, all a counterpoint to their mess in 2026. They are 34th in the pyramid, looking for a new head coach, chief executive, commercial director and technical/sporting director, and are at risk of sinking into a relegation fight now a chunky points deduction has been imposed for breaking PSR rules.
And yet their chairman, Aiyawatt “Top” Srivaddhanaprabha, talks this morning in a series of interviews from Sky Sports to the BBC and print, of promotion back to the Premier League. He should focus on galvanising the club and team to confront the possibility of falling into League One. He should focus on rebuilding connections directly with fans, many of whom have lost faith in him for many reasons…
Since the title-winning Claudio Ranieri was dismissed in 2017, Leicester have had 11 managers (including caretakers). Brendan Rodgers brought the FA Cup, Enzo Maresca won the Championship but otherwise it has been sustained misery.
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All footballing woes are placed in total perspective by the tragedy that claimed Top’s father Vichai in 2018 when the helicopter carrying the Leicester chairman crashed outside the King Power. The pilot, Vichai and four other passengers all died. Top was bereft. The Leicester family of staff, players and fans consoled him, and there is inevitably continued sympathy for a grieving son. It must be unimaginably hard for Top going into the stadium – as he did for the defeat to Oxford United on Saturday and Leicester women’s loss to West Ham on Sunday - and passing the site where his beloved father died. There’s a statue of Vichai outside the King Power, and a beautiful, poignant shrine closeby. The stadium is a place of mourning and remembering for Top as well as a place of work.
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So there has to be perspective applied when considering Top’s relationship with the club. He’s also dealing with King Power issues in the duty-free market complicated by the pandemic and its after-shocks. But he’s made mistakes at Leicester. Many fans were surprised that a chief executive widely respected in football, Susan Whelan, was dismissed. It was Whelan who skilfully prised £80m out of Manchester United for Harry Maguire.
Fans question Top’s extraordinary loyalty to the director of football Jon Rudkin who has overseen some successes (the productive academy, getting Rodgers was a coup and Jordan Ayew gives everything) but also a series of disasters in recruitment of players and managers. Belatedly, Rudkin is being moved upstairs. Fans know Rudkin is part of the problem. Leicester’s recruitment has not been the same since Walsh left for Everton after the title.
On Rudkin’s watch, Leicester fans have seen Youri Tielemans casually playing out his contract before heading to Aston Villa on a free in 2023 with seemingly nobody at the club standing up to him. They have seen Harry Winks arrive and fail to deliver when on overly generous wages that don’t reflect performance. They have fretted as some prospects, like left-back Luke Thomas, haven’t continued developing after a bright start. Nobody appeared to be tackling the decline in standards.
Rudkin certainly doesn’t deserve the offensive abuse occasionally launched his way, like away at Carrow Road when the chants of some Leicester fans rightly drew strong statements from club and supporters’ groups afterwards. But Rudkin’s record does deserve to be scrutinised.
Leicester fans could see that whoever was manager this season would struggle given squad issues. So it proved with Marti Cifuentes, now dismissed with Leicester 14th in the Championship and sliding with only two wins in eight. Cifuentes made mistakes, the football was uninspiring and predictable, and he paid the price. But fans knew Cifuentes never really had a chance. He lost Conor Coady, Mads Hermansen, James Justin, Kasey McAteer and Wilfred Ndidi in pre-season as the club scrambled to meet financial rules. He lost Jamie Vardy, ageing, now 39, but with five goals in 18 Serie A games for Cremonese, including one against Juventus.
I spoke to Marti when he got the job (I’d met him when he was at QPR, gone for a coffee, and we’d got on). I mentioned he’d have to rely heavily at Leicester on academy kids like the exciting winger Jeremy Monga. But Monga’s 16. He’s bound to be inconsistent.
Asmir Begovic, a good character, came in on a free along with loans like Jordan James and Aaron Ramsey. PSR shapes every move, and past excesses (three charges from 23-24) could see a points deduction announced soon. Leicester need new energy and a stronger hand on the tiller to negotiate more troubled waters ahead.
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Some Leicester fans, including influential local businessmen, want Top to sell the club. But, first, for how much? Forbes valued the club at £630m in 2023 when Leicester were in the Premier League with all the attendant broadcast and commercial riches. They invested £100m in the Seagrave training complex in 2020. But no buyer is going to fork out even half the club’s 2023 valuation especially if they are in League One.
The attractions are an enduring (if frustrated) support (still 30,000+ at the King Power) as well as the academy, Seagrave, the special feel of a one-club city, a strong community operation and great staff who care passionately about their club. Some high earners are out of contract this summer which will help PSR. Changes to the Foxes Trust lead to more confidence amongst fans about working with the club.
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Leicester look in place for a re-boot except, judging by his interviews, Top gives no indication of wanting to sell and that has to be understood and respected. Top would not just be selling bricks and mortar. He would be selling the place with so many memories and connections, the club his revered father built up. So he stays on.
Top has to honour Vichai’s memory and rebuild it himself, improving his decision-making, limiting Rudkin’s influence, employing the right people, and listening to Leicester’s fans. They have to go forward together, taking the latest PSR pain in their stride, recovering and remembering that Foxes Never Quit.
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Six years ago City were flying high in the Premier League and looking certs for the Champions League. Then COVID struck, the squad were badly underprepared for the restart (cheers Brendan) and ended up outside the top four on the final day. When a similar collapse occurred the following season serious questions should have been asked of the management. Instead, a long awaited (albeit highly fortuitous) FA Cup success was allowed to paper over serious weaknesses that were already evident.
Meanwhile, despite the lack of Champions League revenue the club invested vast sums in the Seagrave training complex. Nearer to Nottingham than Leicester, the venue is a powerful symbol - both geographically and emotionally - of the current gulf between the club and its fanbase, especially as it has yet to deliver the benefits that were promised when it opened. Indeed, its running costs have been a significant factor in our ongoing financial woes.
When the manager turned toxic during his third season, most notably during an ill-advised player-bashing outburst following a painful defeat at Forest, the club had the chance to act. Instead, it persisted for another 14 months, while key players Wesley Fofana and Kasper Schmeichel moved on and were not adequately replaced. The owner's recent admission that he didn't see relegation coming in 2022-23, despite a start which saw 6 defeats in the first 7 games, is a reminder of how easily key figures at City became detached from reality.
Enzo Maresca's search for a convenient stepping-stone to launch his English managerial career coincided nicely with City's search for an inspirational figure to revive their fortunes. For a while, Maresca brought belief back to the club and city. But as opponents started to counter his one-dimensional approach, tensions resurfaced and only nerves elsewhere enabled City to clinch promotion and a league title.
Chelsea's swoop for both Maresca and key midfielder Kieran Dewsbury-Hall resolved dilemmas that certain parties may have faced. However, it also created vacuums on and off the field that have never been properly filled since.
Although Steve Cooper's arrival was accompanied by a sizeable transfer budget, the players recruited were conspicuously unable to meet the challenges that faced them. Cooper also fell foul of a volatile dressing room and was replaced by Ruud Van Nistelrooy after barely three months of the season, only for the Dutchman to join the long list of underachievers from the Manchester United school of management.
Enter Marti Cifuentes, a journeyman with a modest managerial record in various countries that aroused scepticism from the start. A series of deeply disappointing displays, culminating in the terminal home defeat by lowly Oxford, did absolutely nothing to dispel such sentiments.
The five years since Leicester's Wembley triumph seems like a generation ago. It's hard to see the toxic clouds currently engulfing both Seagrave and the King Power Stadium being dispelled any time soon.
The trouble with Winks and to a lesser extent Skipp, is that with Lloris, Rose, Walker/Trippier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Dier, Alli, Kane, Son, Eriksen and most importantly Dembele as fellow squad members, he looked a world beater and got England caps as a result. You or I would have looked good in that company - and I was a keeper!