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.
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 if a chunky points deduction comes in 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…