The Fosse Way

We’ve had visions of Tallinn, that infamous episode when the Scottish national team turned up in Estonia only to find Estonia hadn’t turned up. Visions of Leicester City players limbering up just in case their opening day opponents emerge from the tunnel at the last moment.

As it turns out, the Owls will, somehow, fulfil today’s fixture. There will be Sheffield Wednesday players on the pitch to begin the final game of the Championship’s opening weekend. There just might not be any Sheffield Wednesday fans in the stands to watch them.

Five minutes into the game, Wednesday fans will file in from the concourse and many Leicester fans will rightly support their actions. This is a historic football club being brought to its knees. It could happen to any of us.

The peculiar thing is that our own club – so conservative, so risk-averse, so undynamic – has seemingly approved these protests, in as much as they can have a say. Perhaps it is thought the bigger risk lies in trying to shut them down.

This is the backdrop to Leicester City’s big kickoff. It has clouded preparation slightly, but the Wednesday saga will roll on beyond this Sunday without as much relevance for our own club. The more interesting question over protests on Filbert Way this season is: what about us?

There were times last season when the atmosphere turned truly toxic. When failure on the pitch meant fury towards the board – and Jon Rudkin in particular – tipped into something that was impossible to ignore. This wasn’t just a few grumbles from one corner of the ground, a claim the club could probably have made in private prior to last season. This went further. This was loud.

Looking back now, it was naive to think that meant change was inevitable. After all, this club doesn’t do change at the best of times. And it certainly doesn’t do change based on what fans want.

But what do fans want? Was this still just a larger and noisier minority of Leicester supporters voicing their frustrations at an epically bad season? Will it all blow over now we’re back in the Championship and will, please almighty deity, win a few more games?

We have this summer’s Foxes Trust survey as a benchmark – 9% of respondents thinking the club’s owners are doing a good job; 4% having confidence in the senior management to effectively manage the club day-to-day; 93% calling for a refresh of the senior management.

Those numbers are the result of Leicester City not winning enough football matches at the highest level. The strength of the squad at the second highest level surely means more goals, more wins and more good vibes in LE2 this season. 

And surely means it will be harder for people to find a collective voice of protest about all the issues that aren’t solved by an exciting new manager, Academy prospects and £5 Chang for a limited period.

It barely bears repeating but the senior leadership remains from the catastrophic 2022/23 Premier League relegation season. If it feels to some like that failure should be disappearing in the rear view mirror by now, more than two years down the line, that fans should move on and accept our new reality, the truth is that it looms as large as ever. 

There will always be reminders of our fall from grace, such as moves this week for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to the club who should have gone down when we did and Mads Hermansen to a club we were streets ahead of in recent times.

There are positive signs in that same leadership team’s current decision-making with what looks like a sensible managerial appointment and a clear focus on promoting youth prospects from Seagrave to seniority.

But huge underlying issues remain, summed up beautifully seven days ago by the sight of Abdul Fatawu flicking the ball over his opponent and racing away down the right to score being undermined by our football club being used for a Thai political protest.

We’ve become used to Jeremy Monga flying down the flank in a sponsorless shirt but now everyone is sponsorless, another situation that reflects poorly on the club’s executive function.

What effect will any impending points deduction have on the relationship between the fanbase and the club hierarchy? Siege mentality or more fuel to the fire?

Communication issues remain, despite the thin veneer of improved social media output. For instance, there doesn’t seem to have been any major acknowledgement that the club’s online shop was down for months in the United States.

The club have even played the fan engagement framework card and threatened to allow a few stale dissenting voices to spoil Union FS tifos for everyone else.

Foreseeing potential problems with wider digital ticketing, Union FS have constrained today’s tifo to the new safe standing corner of the stadium. This area remained the source of the most vocal protests last season despite complaints spreading throughout the ground.

The importance of the collective is clear in SK1, as Union FS collects more voices to support the team as well as hold the club to account. The Foxes Trust, too, is building respect among supporters with a bolder approach while still balancing the need to reflect the views of its members and the wider fanbase.

The latest FCC meeting minutes show how difficult that can be, with some bizarre comments from a tiny minority about tifos making their way into written record and official communication from the club.

Meanwhile, the fleeting Project Reset protest showed how effective action can be without having to make decisions by committee – while also highlighting how vulnerable a one-person movement is to time demands that prevent prolonged commitment. 

So will protests continue? Or has Rudkin ridden it out to rise again next May with another lap of a pitch in Lancashire? Have the club weathered the storm or are we getting ready for round two?