Leicester are sleepwalking towards Premier League relegation… so how have they got in this mess?

The spectacle of James Maddison taking to Twitter to clarify a post-match interview summed up Leicester City’s dire state of the season.

After another pitiful display and defeat at Fulham, where Leicester lost 5-3 to fall two points behind with three games to go, Maddison said – with typical candor – Leicester hadn’t been ‘hungry enough to want to win the game’ ‘. ‘

Few could deny that, and Maddison did not try to exclude herself from guilt. That didn’t stop the inevitable social media pile-up, though, and rather than put down his phone, the England midfielder went for another shot.

“What’s wrong with social media, say 1 thing in an interview right after a match and it’s taken way out of context,” he wrote on Twitter. “When I say not hungry enough, I mean aggressive and at the forefront of duels, not that we want to win or realize the importance.”

The problem here is that a lack of aggression in duels sounds suspiciously like a side lacking the courage to fight – something Leicester have struggled to find all season.

The Foxes are sleepwalking towards relegation in the Premier League after Monday’s defeat at Fulham

The arrival of Dean Smith had an initial impact: Leicester took five points from games with Wolves, Leeds and Everton. But with games against Liverpool and Newcastle on the horizon that seems insufficient and – just seven years after winning the Premier League title – Leicester could already be relegated by the time they take on West Ham on the final day of the season. campaign.

Here Mail sports explores how the Foxes – FA Cup winners two years ago – got into this mess.

Recruitment

At the beginning of August 2021, when chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha carried the Community Shield around the Wembley pitch following the victory over Manchester City, Leicester felt like one of the best managed clubs in Europe. Still, this was the summer that marked the beginning of the slide.

Leicester have committed around £60 million to Patson Daka, Boubakary Soumare and Jannik Vestergaard, and have also signed Ryan Bertrand on a free transfer. No major player was sold.

Leicester failed to recoup that investment and the failure to make a significant sale caused problems the following summer, when then-boss Brendan Rodgers feared the players had grown tired of his message but was unable to review his side due to Leicester’s concerns over Financial Fair Play. .

Administrative decisions

Hope for the best while planning for the worst. By staying with Rodgers for so long when he had clearly reached the end of the line, Srivaddhanaprabha – known as ‘Khun Top’ – did the former but forgot the latter.

Brendan Rodgers (left) failed to receive support in the transfer market and Leicester failed to prepare for life after their FA Cup-winning coach sacked him

Dean Smith’s appointment on an eight-game deal summed up their vague thinking

Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha and the board have made crucial mistakes this season

When Rodgers sat down with the hierarchy for a crucial meeting in January 2022, there were two options: change the coach or change the players. Support Rodgers’ vision and give the team the “healthy shake” he felt it needed to stay competitive, or try to move forward with the same group but with a different leader. Leicester did neither and even when they sacked Rodgers on April 2, there was no plan for what would happen next.

Top and the board hoped that coaches Adam Sadler and Mike Stowell could muddle through to the end of the season, and when that didn’t work, they interviewed numerous managers before settling on Smith for an eight-game deal. It was fuzzy thinking that didn’t match the seriousness of the situation.

Pull

Some sources have even suggested – strongly disputed by senior figures – that Leicester’s £95 million training ground itself, with its hotel rooms, posh dining areas and details tailored to every player’s need, had whetted the team’s hunger.

Rodgers was a proponent of timekeeping, but not everyone seemed to feel the same way, with players missing certain appointments and being late for others.

“It’s like a holiday camp,” someone lamented earlier this season. Leicester will feel the benefits of this excellent facility for years to come, but right now it looks set to become the best training base in the championship.

There is also a feeling that Leicester players are treating their new £95 million training facility ‘like a holiday camp’

Leicester spent £95 million on their new training complex, but it could be championship-bound

Future

‘Sleepwalking on their way to relegation’ was a sentence Leicester were given last autumn, but they still haven’t woken up.

Maddison and Harvey Barnes will both be sold if the Foxes go down, but that won’t close all the financial holes created by the Premier League exit and significant cuts will need to be made to club-wide wage bills .

If they somehow survive, Leicester will likely move to Graham Potter, long admired and out of work since he left Chelsea in April. But Potter certainly wouldn’t want to work in the second tier, meaning Leicester would either stay with Smith or move to a younger boss like Swansea’s Russell Martin.

But no matter how the season ends, this campaign has been a lesson in what not to do. These mistakes should never be repeated.