Silence across the board: Leicester City fans need words from the top
As Leicester City fans continue to process the inevitable, Helen Thompson would quite like some words from the top - and she probably isn’t the only one.
Another invitation to rant you say? The big question right now for me: Isn't this supposed to hurt more? I was surprised when trawling through the photos from yesterday's game that the media photographers had found so many people crying, and it wasn't just kids - relegation always hit differently for kids. I didn't cry.
I mainly just felt numb and sat there. Then numbness gave way to frustration, my mind wandered to all of the small moments we have screwed up this season. Somebody behind me calling Bournemouth useless when it's not their problem that we couldn't even be bothered to save ourselves.
Anger gives way
The last relegation away at Stoke felt like somebody had taken a knife to my heart, there were a lot of tears that day. I didn't feel this current crop deserved those emotions even if I could have conjured them up. It all just felt so inevitable and like I'd processed the moment weeks ago leaving Crystal Palace.
I burned out my hot anger at it already on that long train back. Now it's more a worry that there's no plan for the Championship, financially or otherwise. No manager, probably only six or seven players who'll stay, no Captain, and maybe the same decision makers who got us into this mess.
Why look through the photos, you may be asking, won't that make you more sad or angry? I wanted to see if the players actually looked like they'd finally realised what a state we're in, one of which they are culpable for on the pitch. Still, at least they faced the cameras, those more culpable above either vanished into the bowls of the KP or avoided the cameras.
I felt for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who had the attention of the cameras and who did look devastated. A couple looked genuinely sad. Some others though still looked more shell-shocked than upset though, a physical representation for the zombified, drawn out method by which we got ourselves relegated.
The atmosphere at the King Power will be described as possibly the weirdest I can recall. Up, down, confused by rumours of Bournemouth goals and even some infighting and arguments at the end. Seemingly everybody feels some of the crowd didn't respond appropriately but I think a relegation is akin to grief in that everybody will have their own response. My version of anger is not going to manifest itself in boos, it never has, but I could get on board with those who instead just chanted 'Leicester till I die'. Because we all are, aren't we?
The accountable
The fans anyway. Not the players, most of whom have had one foot out of the door since January, not the board, some of whom - Jon Rudkin - couldn't even muster a clap of celebration when we scored. Not even for a player who has come through his academy and prospered.
Disdain or fear of a sacking? Either way, his job is just untenable now. Top needed Rudkin and the others to man the ship after the loss of 2018 and Covid's financial impact and it seems fair to say that they have all failed in one way. Top's mistake, visible to us anyway, seems to be in trusting those he's left in charge and perhaps being too loyal.
Other clubs have a statement ready to go pending the confirmation of relegation. Other clubs have a captain, or leaders in the squad who would front up and acknowledge the situation, apologise.
Us? Okay, it's a Bank Holiday weekend but nothing within the first twelve hours when the hurt and anger should be highest. Silence across the board aside from a couple of ex-players who probably don't owe us the kind words they've given us.
Sure, some of the players have been burned by social media this year (mostly through their own moment of idiocy that they still haven't deleted) but nothing from any of them? Surely that's a club instruction or do they all care so little for the fans they expect to cheer them on?
Endure the silence
The silence since things got really grim at the start of the year has been startling. It isn't just about nobody putting forward some words to try and assure us that somebody, somewhere has a plan and it isn't just empty desk chairs slowly turning in the breeze.
There are serious questions to be answered and it doesn't feel like anybody wants to take them. Dean Smith faced questions journalists have been too scared to ask of Brendan Rodgers earlier, or maybe they too said 'hey, look at the Leicester squad, they can't go down!' He had questions that should be taken by a Chief Executive or Director of Football. And it's infuriating.
Somebody had already taken creative power into their hand on Jon Rudkin's Wikipedia and I fully expect somebody else to do it to add the relegation against Rodgers' page because say what he did, he was never saving us either, his ego would have got in the way even if he'd accidentally got a team selection and tactics right. Whoever felt we could survive the loss of so many leaders in the dressing room with no impact also needs to be sacked immediately.
The harsh reality of relegation for a team like us who spend extortionate amounts on wages and take out loans guaranteed against Premier League income we now won't have is that the first people to get sacked will be the normal employees at the club who aren't paid thousands of pounds a week.
It's easy for the players and board to ignore the cost of living crisis in this country with their wages but this will devastate some good, local people of Leicester. Surely even if we as fans don't deserve a statement, they do.
