Invitation to rant: Decline and darkness at Leicester City
Instead of asking our usual big questions of our writers, we merely invited them to let it out. Let it all out. First out of the traps is Iain Wright.
This season and our decline has been death by a thousand cuts.
Some deep and more painful than others, some not even noticeable at the time, but it's culminated in a slow expiration with the band aids clear to see but ultimately out of reach.
I'll start at the top with Top. We'll all be eternally grateful for everything Top and his family have done for us and my goodness, we'll need his philanthropy more than ever now, but what's gone before shouldn't gloss over what's happening now.
With the first team about to be relegated and the Under 21s already down (despite the 'world class training facilities'), I feel it's reasonable to ask questions.
In all honesty, we don't know what goes on behind the scenes or how hands-on he is, but it feels like he's been far too trusting of Jon Rudkin and Susan Whelan and allowed his relationship with Brendan Rodgers to cloud his judgment.
Rodgers should have gone last September, 'mutual agreement' would have seen us in mid-table and Brendan, most probably, at Tottenham. Top’s loyalty then was admirable but it was clear the manager had lost his way and, vitally, his enthusiasm. To allow that to continue until April 1st has made a fool out of all of us.
As for Jon Rudkin, it's almost been like a managed decline of everything we've worked for. He's presided over a wage bill double what Burnley were relegated with last season, which in itself is a desperate indictment of his administration and indeed the efforts of the whole squad.
He's paid useless players too much and to compound the issue, refused to sanction knock-down transfers which would have freed up a bit of cash and reduced the enormous wage bill.
But no - we clung on to players we no longer wanted, allowing them to stink the place out and rinse a wage out of the club. In addition to this, it was clear Kasper Schmeichel was leaving 6 months before he did but we allowed it to happen less than 6 days before the season without a replacement.
Rudkin also allowed a recruitment department that had struggled in recent times to be without a head for 6 months. Mind boggling. When the dust settles, it needs to do so on a bit of paper with Mr J Rudkin P45 written on it.
Let's move on to the captain. Injuries do happen, especially to senior players. It's also probably not the best idea to play said injury-prone ageing player in a December friendly in -4 temperatures, eh Brendan?
But still... these 'injuries' all feel a bit convenient to me. An out of contract player not wanting his reputation being tarnished? Maybe? Probably a bit harsh to lay the blame at a player who hasn't played since autumn but, as captain, where has he been? He's hardly been on any of the training ground videos, hasn't fronted up to the media and when he was warming up against Bournemouth, he looked like someone who'd stumbled across a match on a Saturday stroll. Absolutely no encouragement or even interest seemingly of the debacle in front of him.
However, with the captain missing in (out of) action, we could turn to the vice-captain... except the vice-captain legged it to West Brom in January. What does that say about the dressing room when the vice-captain doesn't fancy a relegation battle?
Let's stick with the senior players. Jamie Vardy. I do feel for him with the court case last summer and he owes us nothing, but he's not been the Vardy we know and love this season. I started to worry at Brighton back in September when he came on as sub and wandered around the centre circle chewing gum, allowing the malaise around him to pass him by.
When he has played, the fire looked extinguished and he hasn't led from the front. He's another one who's seemingly avoided the media, until he scored at Leeds and there would be more favourable questions coming his way.
One bad season won't erase what went before, he'll always be one of the greatest players we've had, maybe the greatest, and we won’t have anyone this good again most likely. But still, an apparent lack of leadership from Vardy and our senior players hasn't helped the situation.
The squad? 7th best paid in the league. I could go through each player and few would come out with credit, but I'll leave that to the end of season reports. However, special mention needs to go to some of them.
Timothy Castagne, after a couple of games in an advanced role, seems to have decided he doesn't want to defend anymore.
Wilfred Ndidi is scared of the ball hitting him and has helped the opposition score in nearly all of his games recently - if there were FPL points for 'assisting the opposition' he'd replace Haaland as everyone's captain.
Whoever plays at left back seems to forget everything they've learned as a footballer to this point and the midfield look like someone else is controlling them to make sure they are positioned anywhere but where the opposition are running towards. There have been so many goals conceded where there have been 3 up top, 2 at the back and the other 5 randomly scattered around the pitch.
And all this is before we get to Danny '26 games' Ward. I can't add any more than what was said in James Knight's legendary article.
James Maddison. It's obvious that he cares and he's one of the few who's played well. He's also had the guts to front up to the media. We can see with our own eyes his team-mates aren't up for the fight, but it's commendable of him to confirm it.
That Southampton game, as I predicted in the weeks leading up to it, was pivotal. Defeat there condemned us to a relegation fight we were not prepared for with a squad that don't fear it like we do as about 20 of them won't be making the trip to Plymouth with us. "Play like that and we'll be absolutely fine" - no James, we won't.
However, despite the above, the real villain of the piece is the former (elite-level) manager. As documented above, all the blame cannot be levelled at Brendan. The 'best-run club in the Premier League' suddenly has a lot of issues, but those issues should have meant a disappointing fall from Europe chasing to finishing somewhere around 14th. Clear from relegation but a massive drop-off.
Where it went wrong is this. He told us the squad needed refreshing but FFP did what the big clubs invented it to do. The wage bill had sucked up the budget and Top wasn't allowed to invest further. This left us with a team a long way short of the quality we had in his first three seasons.
Rodgers could see this as he repeatedly made it clear they "weren't at the level", but when picking the team and tactics he simply pretended they were still a top 6 team. In those early days of the season, it felt like wilful neglect, potentially purposely setting them up to fail (and not making subs) to prove a point.
Ultimately, I don't think it was that - he just didn't have the skillset or tactical flexibility to manage a squad that was 'beneath him'.
A pragmatic approach where we didn't have a high line with slow defenders, where we didn't play out from the back with defenders uncomfortable on the ball, if he'd tried to stop the midfield being like a Swiss cheese, marked the opposition's biggest threat on corners, moved the ball into forward areas quicker and simply not picked Danny Ward; it would have been boring but it would have been lower mid-table.
There's no way, this squad, despite the issues raised, should be anywhere near the drop zone in the worst Premier league relegation fight in history. Brendan Rodgers blundered in haemorrhaging goals at the back and hitting a wall when we reached the opposition final third.
He's not suddenly become a poor manager - he just didn't fit this situation. If he goes on to a Spurs or a Chelsea I'm certain he'll be successful. Top players would be able to defend how he wants to, retain possession and win their one-on-ones, as we did gloriously for almost 3 years. But if he goes to a Palace or a West Ham, he'll have them where we are now.
All in all, it's been a woeful season. Nothing has worked from set piece coaches having no impact to clappers going and coming back. I feel for Dean Smith as we've not given him enough time, the rot had set in and 8 games wasn't enough.
This feels far worse than the other times we've been relegated from the Premier League. Those 4 past teams were limited in ability but at least tried their best. This squad has more than enough to finish above the other 4 in the scrap.
Sadly it’s a lack of application, attitude and leadership which has brought us to the brink. So here we are, staring down the barrel at a couple more thrashings before we enter the Championship and face replacing around 20 players.
It's never dull at Leicester, but it shouldn't be this dark.
