Over the weekend, as Leicester City fans tried to process the unprecedented dual blow of getting knocked out of the FA Cup and slipping into the Championship’s relegation zone on the same day, two social media posts emerged rallying supporters to action.
The first post called for people to join a protest march to the stadium ahead of the game against Norwich on Saturday 28th February, beginning from F Bar on Walnut Street at 11.30am.
It was perfectly pitched, recognising the good times under King Power ownership while being clear that change is needed, in an attempt to placate and attract supporters who feel some kind of emotional debt towards our current owners.
If the best time for protest was three years ago, the second best time is now. Because it’s easy to suggest something. It’s hard to actually organise. So rather than in-fighting about the best form of protest, anyone concerned about the direction of our football club is obligated to support every well-considered movement like this which brings fans together.
The second post, in response, used the same template but dialled things down, calling for the removal of Jon Rudkin (albeit misspelled) and more vocal support for the team.
There were a lot of inherently ridiculous things about its content.
The idea of “standing with a family” who are in danger of bringing the club to its knees. The request for players’ songs to be heard as though these originate from somewhere other than one individual. The call for “exploring alternative investment opportunities beyond the current ownership structure” (you truly never will sing that). The notion that Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha “gave his life for the club” rather than being the victim of a helicopter tail rotor bearing seizure.
But despite how irritating or misplaced the post may have been, the central concept of backing the team is correct.
Crucially, that doesn’t contradict the march organisers who have tried to unite our divided fanbase by proposing a protest without proposing a boycott. The call to “unite for change” relies on supporters accepting that the current situation is going to lead to negativity. We just need to do what we can to ensure that negativity heads in the right direction.
To continue the dual theme, the response from both the fans and the players at the final whistle following last Tuesday’s first defeat of the week to Southampton didn’t make sense.
The players embarked on their usual trudge around the pitch clapping a set of supporters, the majority of whom had either left, not turned up in the first place or were greeting them with fury.
Don’t persist with these laps of dishonour. Just get off the pitch and think about what you’ve done. There is nothing here to be applauded from either side.
The immediate response to the calamity from the stands was a loud rendition of “You’re not fit to wear the shirt”.
Whether they’re fit to wear the shirt or not, this is who we’re stuck with for the next three months and we’re going to have to find a way to support the whole endeavour. Especially while perhaps the only player deemed fit to wear the shirt literally isn’t at the moment.
You’d be hard pushed to find a less united football club, to find a club that looked more like it was about to be relegated.
Even in victory at Cheltenham recently, the chants from the away end were about how shit Cheltenham must be for Leicester to be leading and a promise to spill onto the pitch if Patson Daka scored (he did; they didn’t).
It was possibly one of the worst victorious away ends assembled by Leicester City fans in living memory. There was no joy. No sense of hope. And no appreciation of the small role we can play as supporters in encouraging the younger players in this squad, many of whom played at Cheltenham and are being called on out of necessity now.
The matchday squad for the 4-3 defeat against Southampton last Tuesday contained a 17-year-old, an 18-year-old, a 19-year-old, a 20-year-old and three 21-year-olds. One of the latter, Abdul Fatawu, has only completed one full, injury-free season at first team level. He reached 100 first team appearances that evening and has essentially been thrust into a position of seniority by Rudkin’s desperate excuse for squad-building. The same is true of Ben Nelson, also 21, named as captain for the trip to the south coast on Saturday.
It won’t be the fault of the fans if Leicester City are relegated this season but if you want some level of certainty this football club will exist past this summer then it might be time to contribute to a more positive atmosphere for the likes of Louis Page, Olabade Aluko, Jeremy Monga, Ben Nelson, Divine Mukasa, Silko Thomas and Dujuan Richards to play in. They shouldn’t be in this position but they are.
A well-run football club would have the luxury of blooding these youngsters in more comfortable scenarios than suddenly being handed the armband because of the lack of senior leaders on the pitch, being seen as the answer to all our problems or given a start away from home having never played a minute of senior football before. But to quote the pre-reform Foxes Trust, we are where we are.
For now anyway. Because another relegation beckons. And there is a misguided belief among some fans that League One is just what this football club needs. The only other time we plunged to such depths, that was correct. We got the reset we needed.
The current financial scenario means it’s facile to suggest exactly the same thing will happen again. The club would enter the third tier of English football with the albatross of Seagrave around its neck, with a historic disregard for cutting its cloth when recruiting and retaining players, and with a new rule to adhere to: a maximum of 60% of turnover to be spent on player wages.
This is a club whose ownership thought it was reasonable to spend 116% of its income on salaries in 2022/23 and 102% in the Championship in 2023/24. But there would be no spending our way out of the hole this time.
If you haven’t been paying attention, the time for assuming we can trust in our decision-makers has long gone. We can only hope to help lessen the damage.
In fact, there are few wrong decisions fans can make now. To protest is right. To support the team is right. It is also impossible to criticise those who choose to stay away out of anger or apathy.
Three months, then. Still time for supporters to unite in the need to demand change, create a positive atmosphere for the players and try to attract back those who have stopped coming to games.
But the anger must be aimed at the people who put Leicester City in this position, not the only ones now tasked with avoiding the doomsday scenario this May.
The Fosse Way 