A real sliding doors moment: How badly do you want Leicester City to survive?
Ahead of Sunday’s showdown to decide our Premier League lives, how badly you want to stay up? Could there be a silver lining to a season in the Championship, or is the big league the only place to be?
There are some that have this romantic notion that relegation may actually do us a favour. Like a repeat of the 2008-09 season where we use relegation to completely clear out the squad and reinvigorated, rise like a phoenix from the ashes at the first time of asking.
These people are forgetting one, fairly crucial, detail: the Championship is an unforgiving hellscape of Wednesday night trips to Milwall, shock results and upsets, a league where literally anyone can beat anyone.
Sure, we have got out of it before, a couple of times in fact, but this is by no means a guarantee. IF we do not bounce back at the first time of asking, we run the risk of sinking into a period of Championship mediocrity.
Look at Stoke as a stark warning.
Relegated in 2018 after spending big money on players and with some real quality in the squad. It’s easy to forget, their squad had Shaqiri, Afellay, Fletcher, Crouch, Zouma (and a young Harry Souttar). They were a long shot to go down, 10th in the bookies list. Fast forward to this season, they have struggled massively, finishing no higher than 14th in their four seasons in the wilderness.
It is not outside the realms of possibility for us to repeat that trend.
Regardless of league status Leicester are in for a rebuild of fairly mega proportions, and this is going to be significantly easier to do with Premier League finances rather than amidst a gargantuan cost-cutting exercise.
I would rate my desire to stay in this league as a solid 10/10.
Jamie Thorpe
On a personal level, day to day, relegation means the difference between being patronised and being ignored. As a Foxile, regularly treading the parks of West London, it is my privilege to bump into lots of Chelsea fans. And it turns out that all those oligarch-funded European campaigns have turned many of them into professors of the game.
My 50 years plus of life aboard the LCFC rollercoaster is as nothing against the knowledge of world football they have accumulated in the Stamford Bridge Arms, talking to fellow Chelsea fans.
Chelsea Fan: “He’s a great manager that Brendan Rodgers you should have held on to him…”
Me: “His record would say otherwise…”
CF: “And that Maddison, what a genius at set pieces…”
Me: “Have you seen his stats…?”
CF: “Stop selling your best players…”
Me: “Yes we’d have a better team with Wesley Fofana, Ben Chilwell and N’Golo Kante that’s for sure..”
CF: “Well that’s football ain’t it…”
Me: “Not so much football as money really…anyway do think you could persuade your Dobermann Pinscher to take my cockapoo out of his mouth?…”
Next season, if I have to mention the Championship, I’m expecting a Burkina-Faso response: Chelsea fans will have vaguely heard of it, but will have no idea where it is or what happen there. Which obviously will kill the “conversation” and may indeed be preferable to constantly explaining the realities of life at the King Power.
It’s certainly a far cry from the Spring of 2016 when people started shouting across the park: ”Oi, Aren’t you the fella that supports Leicester..?”
It was as if I had personally assembled the Premier-winning squad myself. And the dog got a pat on the head too.
There will undoubtedly be upsides to going down and taking a break from what passes for the National Football Conversation might certainly be one of them. The chance to rebuild our club quietly, away from the glare of the know-all, know-nothing pundits, is an attractive one. We can revisit grounds that aren’t full of tourists on City-breaks and celebrate a goal without the risk of VAR breaking our hearts.
But it’s very thin gruel set against the Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly that is sure to accompany relegation. At least Elon Musk has the money to mend his rocket. This could end with Jamie Vardy, his pace gone, struggling to make any impression against quicker Championship defenders. The story deserves a better ending.
Even the regulars in the Stamford Bridge Arms will agree with that. Ain’t that right mate?
Andrew Smith
Contrary to the view from some interesting people on Twitter, who think that I want us to be relegated so I can be proved right, I'm not sure I can articulate how much I want us to stay up.
I don't buy the 'it'll do us good to go down' argument, it feels like something that people are saying to make themselves feel better about this horrendous situation we find ourselves in.
We've managed to mess up the best position we've ever been in, yet people think we will be able to complete a full rebuild on a fraction of the budget in the championship. Maybe Burnley are skewing people's thoughts, but many teams go down and struggle to get back up, often going down again (including us in the past).
I worry for the club if we go down. Football is a money game and if playing Monopoly, we would certainly be sat in jail without any cash, ready to flip the board.
As match-going fans, I dont think a lot would change if we did go down (for a game days), except for the lack of price caps on away tickets, we'll go and support them whatever league they're in. I absolutely do not want to be paying £40+ to watch us vs teams like Ipswich.
Staying up would also give me more hope I might get a European away day again sooner and they really are my favourite way to spend a few days.
I'm praying to anyone who will listen we can blag survival but make no mistake, we deserve to go down. It needs to be a huge wake up call regardless of Sunday's outcome.
Becky Taylor
I don't feel as desperate for us to stay up as I should given all that's at stake. But that's because I feel like we've already been relegated about five times in the past few weeks. I've long been preparing for the worst. Forest staying up. Coventry going up. Leicester going down because of a Demarai Gray goal from 35 yards in the 97th minute. We're so close to the ultimate doomsday scenario and I've been trying to steel myself.
That was easy after the Everton, Fulham and Liverpool games. But since then, things keep cropping up unexpectedly that are throwing me out of whack: the clean sheet at Newcastle; Dominic Calvert-Lewin's injury; Leeds being irrelevant to us now.
Nonetheless, our current situation reminds me of that time recently when it was widely reported by reputable sources that the football super-agent Mino Raiola had died and there were loads of tributes to him, only that he hadn't died at all - but then he did a couple of days later anyway.
An improbable last-day escape might not have the same feel as it would if there was a strong bond between the fans and the players, management and board but I'd still love to experience a really nervy final day with twists and turns followed by an unexpected outcome in our favour.
As for the long-term, I can't even think about that. That'll be something to contemplate on Sunday evening. Whatever league we're in, we need big changes throughout the club and we have a duty as fans to do what we can to demand that happens.
David Bevan
Massively. The Premier League is where it's at. The Championship is, by definition, second-rate and nowhere near what we’ve become accustomed to over the past 9 years. That’s not a sense of entitlement speaking, but when you consider the size of the wage bill and value of the squad, it’s ridiculous it’s (probably) happening.
I fully understand those who are circumspect about things. I know we’ve been here before, many times. I’ve lived through the most eventful 40 years in the club’s history and I'm very aware of the history before my time too. Yes, traditionally we've been a yoyo club, but we've never been in the position we've been in over the last decade (trophies, income, squad, expenditure).
This simply isn't little old Leicester reverting to type, it's a complete and utter omnishambles which will make relegation and the attempt at promotion so much harder than it’s been in the past, as detailed in Joe Brewin’s financial guide to relegation this week.
I just can’t subscribe to the idea, argued by many, that next season will be a romantic stroll reacquainting ourselves with some old grounds before a glorious promotion. We're going to need to replace upwards of 15 players, find a new management team and make huge (belated) changes behind the scenes – all of which will take time and may drag on all summer long. That's not a good starting point. In fact, it's a far worse starting point than Leeds and Southampton before you even look at teams already down there like Blackburn who gave us the run-around a few months back.
My mind just goes back to last time we went down, those desolate years between 2004 and 2008 where we had a succession of forgettable players and managers, playing dreadful football in front of reduced crowds going nowhere but ultimately down again. Although I’ll still be there to cheer them on, that’s not want I want for my team. I'm not ready to see the inevitable drop in quality next season, even if it means a few more wins (which isn't guaranteed). Add in the fact the away tickets will actually be more expensive and the appeal really drops away.
There’s also been a lot of chatter about this potentially being like the situation we found ourselves in before the League One season. I know there's many out there who loved that season but the reality was that the ending (promotion) glossed over the turgid grind to get there - we weren’t beating teams 4, 5, or 9-0 regularly, like we have been until this season. It was a tough season playing very basic football that thankfully had a happy ending as we got out after one year. With everything we’ve achieved recently, the thought of anything other than the Premier League is very hard to bear.
I'm also worried we're being left behind as a club. I'd imagine relegation would mean a pause to the stadium redevelopment, which puts us further behind ‘comparable clubs’. In addition to the extra seats, it's the stuff around the ground we desperately need. Other teams are surging ahead on matchday revenue with fan parks and better corporate facilities to generate cash. We’re even having to borrow corporate rooms at Tigers Ground to keep up with demand at Premier League level.
Even now, with a 32,000 seater (let’s be honest, average) stadium, the perception from outside is that we're still smaller than Everton, Leeds, Villa, despite achieving more recently than those three have collectively in generations.
It's been a great period, an honour to witness it and I don’t want it to end. I've loved the awe and adulation when you speak to other fans. ‘Who do you support mate?' Leicester? WOW!' What a time you've had!’ I love telling friends and colleagues I'm going to the KP and them nodding in admiration rather than wincing!
Therefore, it’s a real sliding doors moment. Stay up and we attract better players and manager using the Premier League money and Premier League lure. Diggers start on the expansion and we look to a brighter future. Go down and we’re back into the whirlpool of the Championship with a very uncertain future ahead while teams around us move further away.
All in all, I'm desperate to stay up. It's the hope that kills you. Blue Army!
Iain Wright
