Gary Lineker tweeted in January 2020: “Football is wonderfully cyclical. It would be boring otherwise. The bad times make the good times so much better.”
Few people would be better placed to make that comment than Leicester’s favorite son. The man who presented Match of the Day in his underpants after the Foxes won the most unlikely Premier League title has seen more ups and downs than those boxers in the last decade.
The past 10 years have been a rollercoaster of emotions for Leicester supporters. There was that iconic league victory, an FA Cup triumph, play-off heartbreak, near-misses at the top and bottom, as well as off-field scandals and tragedies.
With Dean Smith’s side facing relegation tomorrow, that decade of drama seems to finally be coming to a dismal end.
Here’s Mail Sport remembering how it all went down…
Gary Lineker famously presented Match of the Day in his underpants after Leicester won the Premier League
Dean Smith’s side are now on the brink of relegation after a decade of historic moments in the top division
The Foxes must beat West Ham on the final day and hope Everton fail to secure victory against Bournemouth
2012-13 – Knockaert pain as Watford grabs a missed penalty
Leicester lose in the Championship play-offs after one of the most dramatic completions of a match in history.
Anthony Knockaert has a chance to send Nigel Pearson’s side to Wembley from the spot in stoppage time, but Watford keeper Manuel Almunia saves his kick and the Hornets race to the other side to score the winner.
Jamie Vardy watches from the bench and fellow substitute Harry Kane has to settle for a cameo after Chris Wood and David Nugent are favored up front!
2013-14 – Foxes redemption fueled by Vardy and £450k Mahrez
Pearson puts his play-off heartbreak behind him as Leicester storm to the Championship title and become the third team to break the 100-point barrier.
A 21-game unbeaten run from December proves decisive, with January signing Riyad Mahrez, signed from Ligue 2 side Le Havre for £450,000, off to an encouraging start.
Vardy, who played non-League football just three years earlier, is named the club’s player of the season after his 16 goals.
Leicester stormed to championship success thanks to the performances of Riyad Mahrez (left) and Jamie Vardy (centre)
They bounced back from heartbreak in the playoffs the year before, in which Anthony Knockaert missed a crucial penalty
2014-15 – Pearson loses the plot and then devises a great escape
Leicester add football queen in the form of Esteban Cambiasso and start the season well by beating Manchester United 5-3.
But it’s all going downhill fast and they look doomed, bottom on 19 points after 29 games. Even worse, boss Pearson seems to lose his head, calling a journalist an ostrich, attacking Crystal Palace midfielder James McArthur during a match and telling a fan to ‘f*** off and die’.
But the Foxes somehow manage to pull off a great breakaway, winning seven of their last nine games.
Nigel Pearson helped the Foxes survive the Premier League despite losing the plot
2015-16 – Ranieri and his wondermen shock the world
Pearson suddenly leaves the club after his son James is involved in a pre-season sex tape and racism scandal.
Fans are outraged when 64-year-old Claudio Ranieri is appointed as his replacement, fresh from being sacked by Greece after losing at home to the Faroe Islands. The rest is history.
The most unexpected title win in living memory follows, with the 5,000-1 wondermen propelled to the Premier League by Vardy’s 24 goals.
Ranieri’s side are serenaded by Andrea Bocelli on the day they lift Leicester’s first top flight trophy in their 132 years.
Claudio Ranieri (centre) went on to win the most iconic Premier League title ever
Jamie Vardy scored 24 goals as the side rewrote the history books to win their first and only title
Thousands of people lined the streets of Leicester for the club’s title celebrations
2016-17 – Arrivederci Claudio as it all ends in tears
Winning the Premier League doesn’t give Ranieri enough goodwill to see out next season. He is fired from the Foxes in February 17th amid rumors of a feud with the players he inspired to the title.
“For me, some strange decisions were made in 16/17: Brexit, Trump, Ranieri,” said Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp.
Craig Shakespeare leads Leicester to the last eight of the Champions League, where they narrowly lose to Atletico Madrid. They recover to 12th in the league, but it’s still the worst Premier League title defense in history.
2017-18 – Shakespeare’s last act, after Puel
Portuguese star Adrien Silva joins from Sporting Lisbon on deadline day for £22m, but Leicester try to register him 14 seconds late and he has to wait four months for his debut.
Shakespeare lasts just two more months before being replaced by Claude Puel, who secures ninth place but frustrates fans with his gruff playing style.
Claude Puel helped the Foxes to ninth in the Premier League, but his style of play frustrated fans
2018-19 – Vichai dies in helicopter crash
Tragedy strikes in October when Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the owner who made fans’ dreams come true, is killed in a helicopter crash outside King Power Stadium.
The players are left in a state of shock – with goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel having raced into the inferno in an attempt to save his stricken friend – but they assemble valiantly.
Vichai’s son Aiyawatt takes charge of the club. He fires Puel in February and replaces him with Brendan Rodgers, sparking an uptick in form.
Owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha was tragically killed in an off-ground helicopter crash
Foxes players paid tribute to the man who made the club’s dreams come true at his funeral
2019-20 – Covid slump and woes of Wagatha
Rodgers’ Leicester continues to improve despite the sale of Harry Maguire for £80 million and are second in December. A place in the top four seems a certainty.
But after the Covid-enforced break, they only win two games out of nine and miss out on Champions League qualification. Off the field, Vardy’s partner Rebekah is accused by Coleen Rooney of leaking stories about her to a newspaper, leading to the ‘Wagatha Christie’ lawsuit.
2020-21 – Wembley wonders take first FA Cup
Leicester are off to another impressive start and are still third in the table with two games to go. But they lose both and are picked into the top four by Chelsea. Sounds familiar?
That blues doesn’t last long though, as they get a win over the Blues at Wembley and win the FA Cup for the first time in their history thanks to Youri Tielemans’ miracle goal. Aiyawatt celebrates with the players on the pitch as they dedicate the trophy to Vichai.
The club then failed to qualify for the Champions League, but did win their first FA Cup
Brendan Rodgers had turned the side’s fortunes around as they looked to be competitive at the top of the table again
2021-22 – Big money flops put Rodgers on fire…
Rodgers spends over £60 million on Patson Daka, Boubakary Soumare and Jannik Vestergaard, but all three flop. The magic touch that Leicester once had on the market seems long gone.
Another European run – this time to the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League – adds luster to an otherwise indifferent season, only to end in defeat at Roma.
2022-23 – Crunch time in desperate struggle for survival
After a fallow summer of transfer deals, Leicester have taken just one point from their opening seven games. Their season never really recovers and Rodgers is sacked in April with the club nervously looking over their shoulder.
Entering the final weekend of the campaign, the Foxes need a miracle to survive. Will they get it? Stranger things have happened in these parts over the last decade. But remember: football is wonderfully cyclical.