Welcome to the best part of the football season, when there are games in which every single tiny decision can matter. It should be wonderful. As a Leicester City supporter, it is instead incredibly frustrating.
Spending Monday evening flicking from the Premier League game between Tottenham Hotspur and Leeds United to the Championship playoff semi final second leg involving Millwall and Hull City, what was specifically frustrating was all the running.
In south London, Hull players counter attacked brilliantly by continually running into space and exploiting gaps. Meanwhile in north London, Leeds players flew into tackles and sprinted after their relegation-threatened opponents like their lives depended on it.
In fact, unlike for their Hull counterparts, nothing rested on the outcome for Leeds. Yet there was a sense that their style of play is now so ingrained that it’s all they know.
This is, of course, frustrating and galling and soul-destroying because you get the feeling if Leicester players had found it in themselves to run a bit more during the season, we would still all be supporting a Championship club rather than one returning, 17 years on, to League One.
Because this was not a classic Championship season. There was not a glut of impressive squads like we saw in Leicester’s 2023/24 title-winning season. And still the only club we managed to finish above was a trainwreck that had been deducted 18 points.
What will become of us now? Our previously famous work ethic has been stripped away to the point where our squad is renowned across the country for its lack of effort.
It’s generally agreed among Leicester fans that a return to the club’s natural underdog status is the way to reclaim our identity. Relegation to League One plays into this narrative from a Premier League perspective as the long road back to the top begins again.
But in the immediate future, 23 teams await who will relish the opportunity to topple the former Premier League champions. How do you go from what we have now to a team that can match that kind of desire?
The past couple of weeks, when some evidence of an approaching reset would have been nice, we’ve been forced by circumstance to wallow in nostalgia. Some of it has been enjoyable. Any Leicester fan watching the Jamie Vardy documentary released by Netflix this week is defied not to feel emotional when Nigel Pearson appears on screen. And although it is Vardy-centric, the documentary does an excellent job of building the picture of that remarkable rise for our football club.
The problem is that so much of this nostalgia plays into the narrative that it was a magical moment in time, which existed solely to be remembered fondly by neutrals, and Leicester City has now returned to its rightful place – when actually, none of this decline was inevitable. Sadly, neither is the recovery.
As we pass the ten-year anniversary of Leicester’s Premier League title and the five-year anniversary of lifting the FA Cup at last, this is the perfect time to draw something of a line under the successful recent period in the club’s history. It’s great to reminisce. But in our current state, it’s unrealistic to draw parallels between what’s required now and what was built five or ten years ago.
We can still look to the past for inspiration and to the future for hope.
With the presumed exits of Patson Daka and Jordan Ayew, Leicester will need a new striker or two and it’s time for someone who gives defenders something to think about again. Obviously, every Leicester striker will be compared unfavourably with Jamie Vardy but we’ve also had plenty who ensured defenders knew they were in a game in a more physical way: Steve Walsh in striker mode, Iwan Roberts and Steve Howard spring to mind.
Leicester suffered all season from half-hearted, weak challenges in midfield. Yet to watch a Newport or Chesterfield game meant seeing a Leicester player who fought for every ball despite his small stature, challenging for headers against much taller opponents and scrapping for possession. So the inspiration can come from within thanks to returning loanees like Sammy Braybrooke, determined to make their mark.
That’s not to place too much pressure on young returning loanees though. We can’t assume the desire they showed in the lower leagues will automatically transfer back into a dressing room that has grown comfortable with inertia. You can bring back hungry players but if the environment around them stays the same, that hunger will be hard to retain.
The scale of the culture change required at Leicester City has to come from the top and in the absence of any departure for Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha or Jon Rudkin, there’s a lot of faith being placed in the ability of new sporting director James McCarron to turn this tanker around.
The identity of the new manager will clearly be crucial. One of the managers linked tenuously with the job is the current Birmingham City manager Chris Davies, who may be cast aside in the name of ambition. For all that his association with our 2023 relegation and the stratospheric spending of his Birmingham side in League One discredits him to many Leicester fans, Davies provided a quote upon his appointment at St Andrews that the next Leicester manager will find it hard to better: “The number one rule for all the best teams is to be the most hard-working team.”
A £15million striker purchased in League One helps, of course. But a fine mantra nonetheless. To use another example, the Ipswich side promoted from League One in 2023, Kieran McKenna built a culture that his players internalised completely. Winger Wes Burns said halfway through the following season: “We’re such a hard-working team, and I think hard work goes a long way in this league.”
It’s been a long time since a Leicester manager or player could say something like this with a straight face.
Yes, Birmingham and Wrexham spent heavily to get out of League One but nobody could deny their owners have understood the importance of long-standing identity and they have used it to help fuel their ambition rather than casting it aside in the glorification of their own private companies.
Looking inwardly, Leicester fans were apportioned a share of the blame in some quarters for the first double relegation in the club’s history. Even if some of the insinuations were subtle, there was a sense from some – managers, players, ex-players and even some of our own fans – that if we’d been more supportive in our response to the most calamitous moments, things would have turned out fine.
Actually, the response from supporters to the current situation has been surprising. Season tickets appear to be in heavy demand from fans who have been unable to get onto the waiting list, to the point where the club has been unable to keep up with requests – one thing it’s hard to blame them for not foreseeing, given the circumstances.
Whether we’ll still have a club to support through the season, never mind a successful one, remains a question until we see evidence of a refreshed financial outlook.
That’s going to take difficult decisions and hard work. There must be people at the club who do work hard but, perhaps hamstrung by the indecision or inability of those at the very top, we see such little evidence of it – on and off the pitch.
Show us that you’re scouting players properly rather than waiting for them to fall into your lap thanks to agents you know.
Be bold and dynamic in the transfer market.
Be honest and transparent with supporters rather than hiding behind corporate statements.
Trust in young talent even in difficult periods rather than the myth of experience.
Be clear about the standards required of players – and open when players aren’t meeting those standards.
Give the club a rebrand that places it back at the heart of its community.
Make an effort with the shirt designs.
Build more relationships with local businesses.
Respond to the forthcoming results of the Foxes Trust supporter survey with something meaningful for us to believe change is possible.
A long list – but it begins with the resolve to change.
The Fosse Way 