We’ll be absolutely fine: 8 moments that invited Leicester City’s relegation
With an internal inquiry underway at Seagrave, fans are demanding an honest, transparent and thorough examination of the errors that led to relegation. Andrew Smith provides eight of them to get us started with.
There were so many times when the LCFC dashboard flashed red, smoke was seen under the bonnet amid a repetitive loud knocking somewhere on the chassis.
Times when we could have learned lessons about how to get the most out of the Leicester City Mini and the best way to drive it. Yet, on we drove. Our strategy: To hope for the best. Here are eight “we’ll be fine” moments you may have forgotten. For very good reasons.
1. Departure of Head of Recruitment, Steve Walsh (July 21 2016)
It’s disturbing enough that your head of recruitment wants to leave the moment he’s become a national hero for finding the players that secured a spectacular and historic Premier League trophy. It’s even more worrying that he wants to leave to join Everton.
Following Steve Walsh’s departure, the Director of Football, Jon Rudkin, oversaw a summer of recruitment in which the club spent just short of £60 million on six new players. By January 2018, none of them were at the club. Two sold, four on loan. Papa Mendy has held on by his fingertips, the rest disappeared into mediocrity.
What followed was a rapid turnover of heads of recruitment followed by the appointment of Brendan Rodgers’ right hand man – effectively jettisoning the club’s lead role in transfer policy. The next appointee was a man on gardening leave.
All of which leaves a strong impression that the importance of the Head of Recruitment is being consistently undervalued by the club.
2. Leicester City sign Ryan Bennett on loan (January 31 2020)
Third in the Premier League table. 14 points clear of Manchester United in fifth. A Champions League spot seems certain. The biggest worry is central defence. Jonny Evans and Wes Morgan lack pace. Daniel Amartey and Caglar Soyuncu are quicker but more erratic. Filip Benkovic is a squad member in name only.
Necessary reinforcement comes in the form of Ryan Bennett. Both slow and erratic with a bit of clumsiness thrown in, Bennett was never going to be able to play the front-footed, aggressive defensive style that Rodgers prefers.
Yes, the January transfer window is difficult. But would it be impolite to suggest that a genuinely significant centre back signing could have helped make up the eventual four points by which we missed Champions League qualification?
Then 18 months later we repeat the same mistake. This time we spend £15 million on Jannik Vestergaard, who was never going to be able to play the front-footed…
3. Football returns after a 14 week Covid shutdown (June 20 2020)
We’re still third, so hey, we just need to make sure the Covid break doesn’t stop the considerable momentum we’ve built.
In fact, on return, we manage just one more win in the last nine games. Failure to beat Watford (relegated), Everton (12th) Brighton (15th) and a catastrophic thrashing by soon-to-be relegated Bournemouth, puts all the pressure on our last two games at Spurs and at home to Manchester United.
We lose both. Against Spurs we field a geriatric back three of Morgan-Evans-Bennett. We’re 3-0 down by half time. That defeat drops us down to fifth for the first time since mid September. And that’s it. We’re done.
Will we ever again relinquish the Champions League place we’ve been occupying all season, in the final few days of the campaign? We will. 12 months later.
Will we ever again let a long break in the season, say for a winter World Cup, disrupt our momentum?
You know the answer.
4. Zorya Luhansk 1 Leicester City 0 (December 3 2020)
The result is bad enough. Zorya score their first ever goal against English opposition. But someone at the club decides to start three players who were all returning from serious injuries on a freezing winter’s night in deepest Ukraine.
Wilfred Ndidi comes through 55 minutes unscathed but Soyuncu’s comeback lasts a mere 17 minutes, Ricardo Pereira’s lasts 45. It’s to be seven games before Cags re-returns. Ricardo misses eight matches. Problems with injury management, anyone?
5. Leicester City 1 Spartak Moscow 1 (November 4 2021)
Trademark Brendan Rodgers. 77 per cent possession produces just three shots on target. One of them a saved penalty. Spartak score from practically their only attack. It’s a counter. Of course it is.
A cross from the right finds Victor Moses – yes that Victor Moses – who, unmarked, HEADS in. Moses is one of two Moscow players in the penalty box. Leicester have EIGHT, none of whom feel it necessary to move close to their opponents. Qualification for the Europa League knockout stage is now in jeopardy.
“We did not track runs into the box …something we have seen before,” concludes the manager afterwards. He might have added: “…and no doubt we’ll see again.”
6. Eintracht Frankfurt 1 Glasgow Rangers 1 (May 18 2022)
After City fail to make it past the group stage, a free evening offers the chance to assess how superior the finalists are to our own Europa League flops. Immediately, one player catches the eye. He’s Rangers’, strong-tackling, aggressive, pacey left-sided defender. Calvin Bassey, is his name, and as the game wears on, literally nothing gets past him.
After another season of defensive farce at the King Power, it’s impossible not to think that he’s just the kind of player we need. Left back or left centre back, take your pick Calvin.
As the commentators muse on whether he should be man of the match, one casually mentions Bassey joined Rangers from – wait for it – the Leicester City Academy, where he spent four years. WHAT?
Bassey, aka Calvin Ughelumba, has since joined Ajax for £20 million. Is there any point in an Academy if a club can’t identify and retain young talent?
7. Kasper Schmeichel leaves Leicester (August 3 2022)
Rafa Benitez voice:
FACT. Kasper Schmeichel is 35.
FACT. Kasper Schmeichel has been talking about a final move at the end of his career for some time.
FACT. Leicester City employ a full-time goalkeeping coach who has been at the club since 2005.
FACT. Leicester City employ another senior coach who is also a former goalkeeper.
FACT. Leicester City have FOUR professional keepers on their books besides Schmeichel, as the season starts.
FACT. Despite all of the above, Leicester City have no credible succession plan for the loss of our most important player in the most important position.
8. Wigan Athletic sack their manager (January 26 2023)
It would be wrong to say that managing Wigan looked a promising assignment for Kolo Toure when he was appointed at the end of November. The club was in the relegation zone and facing severe financial problems.
Then again it would be wrong to say he improved things. Nine matches in charge. Not a single win. Consistency wasn’t a problem: they lost three consecutive games 4-1 over a less than Festive period.
When the end finally came for the apparently highly popular Kolo, it was impossible not to ask: ”Just how good are the people who Brendan insists on surrounding himself with?”
Did it, I wonder, occur to anyone inside LCFC to ask the same question? Come to think of it, did they not ask themselves that after Lee Congerton’s era came to an end?
Over to you Susan. Not forgetting Jon.
