“The soul of the club is being torn apart”: Capturing the mood of Leicester City fans
As Leicester City lurch towards seemingly inevitable relegation, we set out to capture the mood among the fans.
Matt Jedruch, James Knight, Jamie Thorpe and Helen Thompson explain where they’re at.
Anger and frustration
The overwhelming feeling for me is a combination of anger and frustration, primarily directed at the board.
As easy as it is to take aim at the manager and players in the moment, every single issue we're facing stems from some degree of mismanagement, complacency, or negligence from individuals who will rarely, if ever, face up to the fans.
The soul of the club is being torn apart in plain view and there's nothing we can do about it.
The only potential saving grace is that relegation should force Top's hand in terms of holding individuals accountable, including some introspection. It will also result in the complete dismantling of one of the most unlikeable and thin-skinned squads we are ever likely to witness, and personally this brings some sense of relief.
We will have a new manager and group of players to get behind as we try to crawl back from this sorry mess, and we can only hope that the people making the key decisions are either new to the club or have had their job descriptions re-worded accordingly.
Either way, we are destined to look back on a glorious period lasting only a decade, when all the ingredients were there to establish the club as a Premier League mainstay with a clear direction for growth.
Any fans treating this as part of the natural cycle of a club the size of Leicester have their heads firmly in the sand.
Matt Jedruch
A sense of excitement
The club is a disgrace and everyone should be fired.
But I'm looking forward to a change of scenery. We've all been crying out for something different for so long that, for me, there's a sense of excitement about what comes next.
I want something new to talk about, some new faces, a new style. Watching Leicester since the Covid pause has been a ceaseless grind. There's been so many games, so much failure, endless punches to the stomach.
The total number of games I've been excited about or enjoyed in the past two years is in single figures. I've hardly watched any non-Leicester football because I've been so frustrated and drained by going through our decline.
As the season has slipped away over the last few weeks, I've realised that I just want to be able to enjoy watching football again. That doesn't mean I expect to win every game next year.
But it means being able to look forward to the weekend, getting up for a big game, finding new players to get excited about. For me, it means I might even be able to enjoy watching the Premier League without us in it.
In a week or so, we can start to talk about the future. The new manager, who we should sign, whether anyone's put together a functioning Championship fantasy football league in the decade we've been away. The sort of things normal football fans get to do.
And I cannot wait to get started.
James Knight
Resignation
Not great in all honesty.
I have always, somewhat foolishly, retained a slither of hope that we would save ourselves.
That the next time we showed a glimmer of positivity within a game would be the one that finally translates into a performance. That everything would come together and the stars would align and that somehow, in dramatic circumstances, we would manage to beat the drop.
Because that, to me, is what being a fan is all about, never believing the odds and always hoping for the best. Naïve? Possibly. But it’s a fun experience most the time.
That hope however, has gone, vanishing into the Leicester sky accompanied by a chorus of boos.
The performance for 30 minutes did made me think that we could muster a response. We were fired up, winning challenges and moving the ball nicely but hope is dangerous and so it proved as the side imploded, spectacularly, all due to one, simple but glaring error.
Wout Faes lets the ball bounce and commits the cardinal sin of defending in doing so, Curtis Jones scores and that’s that. The way the side folded could not be more obvious to everyone watching, only Bouba Soumare and Jonny Evans can come out of that game with their heads held slightly higher, more for the effort they displayed rather than anything else.
But, the proverbial nail in the coffin for me is the reaction of the fans. This, I must add, is not a blame game. I am in no way saying that we as a group should not feel aggrieved, frustrated and angry at what we are seeing – I know full-well that I certainly am.
However, the reaction for the last 30 minutes from the corner of the ground near me, was more than anger - it was resignation. It was an acceptance that we are gone, done and dusted and that our fate is inevitable.
This is the sign that it truly is over, despite the maths suggesting otherwise. Because, in our situation, the only way we can somehow grasp that tiny chance and somehow defy the odds, is if people at the club believe it is possible, and going on Monday night there is no one left both on, or off the pitch that think it is.
Jamie Thorpe
Barely a whimper
I’m feeling pretty despondent at present about the club’s current state. It’s not just how little we’ve had to cheer this season, the ups and downs are part and parcel of football, especially where Leicester City are concerned.
Relegation itself isn’t new to us either, but facing it with barely a whimper is the kicker. Perhaps If I had more confidence that we’d bounce straight back, but given the fanbase seem to be the only ones who’ve seen this coming, it seems unlikely.
With every passing day, I’m more convinced nobody from the player level up has prepared in any way, shape or form for the prospect of relegation outside of clauses in contracts (which seems industry standard unless you’re state funded?)
We don’t know who our manager will be and we’ll probably need to buy a squad’s worth of players while off-loading the wantaways. If we haven’t started already, we’re behind pretty much every other team already.
Relegation itself isn’t really the pressing concern. I mean, it’s not ideal, but it’s the manner it’s happening in that is sickening. There’s so much financial uncertainty and the deafening silence from those above Dean Smith to come out and address it aren’t helping. As a fanbase, our concerns seem to be passing everybody by or in the case of our players, seemingly just annoying them.
We’re lucky in the sense that you have to strain your memory to remember when things last felt this dire (for me it’s the Ian Hollow-words relegation season), but that doesn’t justify the silence and the sleepwalking into this mess.
It’ll probably be years before we find out just what happened last summer and in the dressing room this season, but this runs deeper than just a team hugely underperforming. Instead of having ten years of relative Premier League stability, instead we’ll be a cautionary tale for high wages and just assuming quality on paper is enough.
I’ve been trying to work out if my response to the performances lately are enough. I’ve never been somebody who feels comfortable booing, though right now I’m not inclined to challenge anybody who does.
But I didn’t clap at all either against Liverpool. What was there to actually clap?
Despite that, I’m pretty sure I’ll still be renewing my season ticket. Football for me is a chance to switch off from other things and spend time with my best friend and I sit with a group of good people.
I’m also pretty sure I’ll still be at the West Ham game in two weeks. But am I contributing to the complacency our club shows by not fully withdrawing my support until they deem us worthy enough to put in some effort or address the reality?
Helen Thompson
