A typical week in the life of Leicester City - Hazzetta dello Sport 2025: Tottenham (A)
You may or may not noticed that the Hazzetta didn’t get to print last Saturday. With the sharp turnaround of Wednesday to Saturday and inspections galore in the day job, there was little time to compose something.
It may also be that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to identify another angle after another loss.
However, Leicester City forever remains a goldmine of narrative. The gift that keeps giving when it comes to bad news. Normally I begin to write around Tuesday or Wednesday but occasionally holding off writing proves useful. It did very much so this week. After all, The Fosse Way needs to boost its word count after such huge praise for the blame game and matchday experience articles.
One fan of our work on social media said that it was good the article on the club’s matchday vibe was anonymous as it was a load of rubbish. While another complaint on an internet forum cited that publishing something on Wordpress doesn’t constitute an article (actually, we use Squarespace so in your face - Pedantic Ed.)
Tellingly though, the stories published across the week haven’t been focused on a new signing or a decisive decision from the hierarchy. Rather it’s centred on Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s supposed anger at the lack of transfer progress and subsequently, a report from the well-informed Tom Collomosse citing that it’s not a happy camp.
Van Nistelrooy let his feelings be known to the squad after Fulham and certain players faced the brunt of the anger. In particular, Facundo Buonanotte, whose cameo on Saturday was pretty damn bad but he’s been a highlight this season.
Alongside that, the overall mood towards the end of Saturday’s game felt more towards the keeping of an Argentine Superliga fixture. The uproar meter surpassed the ‘it’s only that corner’ marker. For once in the Kop, the outraged turned their necks towards the left in the direction of SK3/4. We appear to have a very real organised protest occurring before the Arsenal game.
The cup trip to Manchester United has been correctly snubbed by a huge majority of City’s support. At the time of writing, there was only a single block open and still not sold out. The disgusting prices of £51 to £62 have been largely rejected.
There is a sea change in vibe and opinion; which has now gone past the partisan supporters. The big point remains, regardless of whether a review occurred in 2023 or not, that there has been no illustration that the club have learnt from their errors because this season feels a near replica to 2022/23.
In the aftermath of the relegation, Khun Top’s words in his end of season statement were ‘Over the coming days and weeks, we need to reflect on the processes and decisions that have brought us to this point. What we learn from this experience must convert into action that makes us stronger and prevents this happening to us again in the future.’
Well, I don’t really need to break that down in any way.
The real carbomb of an article was published on Friday morning. John Percy’s piece in the Telegraph put a neatly wrapped bow on all those rumours and suspicions you heard or have read.
We could write another full piece on the content of this article alone but in a quick round-up, van Nistelrooy has attempted to instil discipline among the squad. This is failing because the squad have a relationship with the hierarchy. While transfers are not forthcoming because the club is held back by its wage bill. One squad player is on a whopping £100k a week.
Top, what was that about processes, decisions and learning from this experience? We literally appear to have given a contract with a clause which allows £100k a week after you have said those words. There is a diplomatic view that the club have tried to shoot themselves towards the top - they gambled, they failed and now they fight in the interim to save the situation. That would be fine to an extent if this wasn’t a repeat of something Leicester fans have seen before under the current ownership and hierarchy of high-ranking officials.
We can hark back to Sven-Goran Eriksson’s period at City when signings were made with reckless abandon and it took an almighty effort by Nigel Pearson to clear out a squad full of their own self importance. That was a lesson in building the right personalities throughout the club. Perversely it’s that self-ownership Pearson encouraged which has given the stage for the players to hold their own views and gain traction with the upper echelons of the club.
The signs were there under Rodgers about complacency and it was confirmed by relegation. Enzo Maresca’s chum Guillem Balague was forewarning about dark forces which would stop Enzo from continuing his work. Back in March and April of last season, we struggled in seeking promotion and the same worrying signs in the playing squad were present.
Retrospectively, we were fortunate that the decisive home double header of a poor Norwich and Birmingham arrived when they did. The ownership decided to revel in the aftermath: on-pitch celebrations, open-top buses and week-long trips to Monaco with the players. One of the beautiful lines within the article was Ruud Van Nistelrooy saying ‘At Leicester City, there are no Christmas presents’. We don’t mind giving them out though, Ruud.
When the fans flooded out of Deepdale on that glorious Monday night, it felt good. For the first occasion in a significant period, the fanbase was united. However, a series of bad customer decisions burnt that goodwill. The club effectively laid down the gunpowder of the last few weeks. It was waiting for the spark. At the centre of those decisions was the appalling lack of communication and you can include the catty statement regards Enzo in that too.
The complete lack of communication has led to this void where the words of journalists and the whispered rumours become fact. You can see the policy in what City attempt to do. If they don’t speak, they can’t be held to anything. As I have illustrated, those words from Top sting.
Yet you are in a business with this captive audience. There needs to be a belief that a path is being followed because the silence increases scrutiny. Amazingly, as I write this, the story has been released that Khun Top has further converted debt into equity. An attempt at wrestling the narrative away from the current story. If something is wrong, just throw more money at it and in the process, if not intentionally, get the fanbase divided.
Within this bumper edition of the Hazzetta, there’s no mention of us visiting Spurs on Sunday afternoon. Partly because we have seen this story before. A club whose manager is under pressure, they have 13 fit first teamers and they have plummeted down the table. Aston Villa and Everton have faced us in similar states this season and we got one point out of six.
There is no doubt this is an opposition where a surprise could occur. Tamworth from the National League threatened them. However, unlike Ruud’s spoken words, we do like to give out presents. Enjoy yours on Sunday, Tottenham.
