Only the Football League can save Leicester City from themselves now
With Wolves now nine points clear of Leicester City and relegation all but confirmed, it’s time to look ahead to next season. Our saviour may be an unlikely source.
The reality is that this squad is far, far worse than the previous one to be relegated, which makes coming straight back up look a lot tougher this time.
Those in the fanbase who find the Championship as their “happy place” as we “win most weeks” need to look to the problems Luton have had this season as they battle a double relegation. It’s a bit of a reality check for what could be around the corner for Leicester City.
The story so far
When we are relegated, the biggest issue on the horizon may be the EFL and its lawyers. Even starting next season won't be straightforward. For those blissfully unaware, it's likely we'll be facing sanctions from the EFL following relegation.
As a recap, back-to-back humongous losses meant Leicester City breached FFP limits by around £30million for the 2022/23 season, when we were (ridiculously) relegated from the Premier League.
The reasons for this breach have been covered at length over the past year or so across this site and beyond. We know that some of the losses were our own fault (poor signings on high wages) and some of the losses happened to us (loss of merit payments by finishing 18th, sacking Brendan Rodgers and so on). This is old ground now.
However, under the rules in place at the time, which have subsequently been changed, we didn't have to confirm this loss until the very end of March 2024 (the end of the tax year). At this point the Premier League charged us with a breach, which the EFL tried to piggy-back.
With a bit of legal shenanigans, we appealed the decision by the Premier League to charge us, as we were no longer a Premier League team at that point. With the appeal ongoing, we also successfully fought off the EFL's attempt to bring their own charges because the Premier League were trying to charge us.
The spectre of this case loomed large over last summer, clearly having a detrimental effect on the calibre of manager we could hire to replace Enzo Maresca and, one assumes, an effect on our attempts to recruit players. The club remained confident we'd be okay. Enter Nick De Marco.
In September last year, we successfully had the charges from the Premier League dismissed on the basis that, by delaying our accounting year by a month, when the breach occurred (July 2023), we'd handed over our ‘Premier League share’ and were no longer a Premier League club.
By the time this all came to pass, the EFL couldn't charge us as by that point, we were no longer an EFL club (keep up at the back!)
There have been rumblings from the Premier League since this verdict that we'd not heard the end of this, but that appears to have gone quiet. Leicester have cracked on this season, completely unsuccessfully, without any irrelevant deduction reducing our already paltry points tally.
The EFL lies in wait the moment we're relegated. It's likely the EFL will say we have outstanding charges relating to our last visit to the Championship (the breach in July 2023), and will no doubt be cancelling all leave to charge us.
Let’s play it out
This is speculation, of course. And Leicester will fight any charge off the field will more vigour than the players have fought this season on the field.
However, if a charge did occur, any sanction will impact our future. If it included a points deduction, it would be devastating.
But hold on, let's speculate for a second. If a charge by the EFL included a transfer embargo, would that be a blessing in disguise? Is that something Leicester fans should actually hope for?
First of all, let's consider the impact that sort of judgment would have on the manager. Hopefully, it'd make him resign?
I was a huge advocate of Ruud van Nistelrooy but, by any measure, he's been abysmal. Appointing van Nistelrooy has been like putting a sieve over a sinkhole. Everything is still going down.
We all knew he had a tough job from the outset, but that said, I genuinely cannot recall anyone associated with our beloved club being such a letdown. It feels like he ran out of ideas at half time of his third game in charge away at Newcastle. Since then he's barely tried anything and the fabled aura has disappeared as he's been like Nero, fiddling whilst all around him burns.
Not one player has improved under his charge and we've broken 150-year-old records of ineptitude. I really wanted van Nistelrooy to work, but the stench of this relegation will stick to him for a long time, so I can't see how he stays. Hopefully, a transfer embargo may make him quit rather than the club having to sack him though, which would importantly avoid the need to pay him off.
Aside from the manager, I genuinely think a transfer embargo would save us from ourselves. The only word to describe our recent transfer policy is scattergun. An embargo would stop us signing any further dreadful players and naturally rewarding them with big contracts. Yes, we'll need new players, but you cannot trust anyone at the club to sign the right ones any more.
The team that faced Manchester United in our last game included 8 players who were here last time Leicester were relegated, despite numerous transfer windows and a lot of money spent since.
Please don’t bring anyone else in. Just stop it.
Renewals and revisions
Then we come to the most important part of this scenario. An embargo would prevent us giving new contracts to the existing players whose deals expire in the summer. This is vital. Although it'd mean Jamie Vardy leaving, we have to move on.
If we renew his deal, which we will, he'll continue to be the best paid player at Leicester City despite turning 39 midway through next season. This club needs saving from itself. It needs to learn that allegedly paying players in excess of £100,000 a week is for clubs chasing Europe, which isn't us any more.
This summer, Danny Ward will also surely finally leave along with Daniel Iversen.
All of the above would leave the squad short of senior players. Good. Let's play the youth players. Start Jeremy Monga, Will Alves, Jake Evans, Ben Nelson, Sammy Braybrooke, Henry Cartwright, Josh King.
Why not?
This would get the wage bill under control and, most importantly, give us a team we can actually get behind, with the likes of the returning Abdul Fatawu and Stephy Mavididi adding some Championship experience. As a fan, these are the players I want to watch, to see the club develop and later on sell for huge profit, rather adding players like Jordan Ayew and Bobby Decordova-Reid.
So could this be the silver lining we need?
There doesn't appear to be any desire for restructure behind the scenes. It looks obvious that following a second secret internal review, we'll still have Jon Rudkin and Susan Whelan at the wheel next season. With Top thousands of miles away, fighting for King Power's future in Thailand, the possibility of change at Leicester looks remote.
Could an embargo formally placed on Leicester City by the EFL actually be what the club needs? Would this finally force the change we are so desperate to see?
