The remains of a mural a few miles from the football stadium capture the current melancholy of Leicester, a city that feels resigned and has little hope for a weekend of great significance.
Created around two exterior walls of an electric showroom shortly after the team won the Premier League, the artwork was a 10-foot-tall depiction of Claudio Ranieri and his all-conquering heroes – who had made Leicester an emblem of how anything is possible in the world. to live.
But the showroom had been sold, the mural had been half painted over in gray, and although a protest ended this act of desecration, only the faces of Jamie Vardy and Andy King remained. The property, on Kate Street, was closed yesterday and in a state of renovation. There was a note on the door: “Call if you want a plasterer.”
It seemed the whole world wanted a piece of Leicester in that golden summer of 2016 when the title was won. Richard III’s remains had also recently been unearthed in a parking garage. That moment of archaeological significance has left behind a rich and lasting legacy: a beautiful visitor center, built on the site where the king was found. But the glory of Ranieri and his boys feels like a distant memory after a particularly brutal nine months.
They still remember it in the club shop at King Power Stadium, of course. Images of the players holding the trophy aloft dominate the Leicester City Monopoly box and mugs and a book commemorating 20 years at the stadium. Framed images of the trophy-winning side also sell for £65. But there’s such a state of preparedness for a negative result on Sunday that you wouldn’t even know that City will escape relegation if they beat West Ham, and Everton not from Bournemouth.
Leicester City’s relegation from the Premier League could be confirmed this weekend
It’s a far cry from the pinnacle of the Claudio Ranieri era, which saw the Foxes take the 2016 title
A season like this can feed so much resignation. It’s a testament to how quickly things can unravel in football when decisions are bad. The shrewd judgment and decisive action of the club’s late owner, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, allowed Leicester to believe that they would be kings for a very long time. Consecutive fifth places and an FA Cup followed the title. But the helicopter crash that took his life in 2018 has proved pivotal in so many ways.
Vichai’s son, Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha, simply does not have the instincts of his father, whose benign image belied a capacity for necessary ruthlessness. It’s hard to imagine that Vichai, the man who sacked Ranieri, allowed Brendan Rodgers’ tenure to last so long that players became demotivated and fans infuriated by his suggestion that they were partly to blame.
It would perhaps be easier if Leicester were able to rant against an owner who has ultimate authority over decisions which leaves the stricken club with one of the highest wage bills in the Premier League and eight first-team players on the line. end of the league without a contract. The season. But they don’t seem to arouse any anger for Khun Top.
In Leicester’s famous covered market yesterday morning, the only animated people were the traders, shouting their wares in the Leicester vernacular: ‘Three for a paaaand – come on Leicester, look.’ Those queuing for the grapes and broccoli, near where the Lineker family once sold fruits and vegetables, were philosophical about all that might happen.
“If we’re relegated, it’s not more than we deserve – the way things are right now,” said Dave Woolton, a supporter in his 20s. “I don’t blame the Thais after all they’ve brought us here.”
Amelia Harris, a young mother with a toddler in tow, did not dispute this view. “It’s sad what happened, but it can’t take away what that family has done for us and our city,” she said.
Fans called on the board to take action as far back as October to try to combat their slump
The benevolent, smiling statue of Vichai on the side of King Power Stadium, overlooking Filbert Way, distills why people here feel this way – as does the bronze statue of him in front of the ground. ‘The Possible Man’ mentions the plaque below it. His vision included the club’s recently opened £100 million training ground – so large it’s best traveled by golf buggy and is one of Europe’s finest.
But the best plans can somehow work against you if the football decisions are wrong. Some now feel that the sprawling new complex doesn’t promote team ethic like the intimate old Belvoir Drive site, set amid suburban streets, where the players sat on top of each other and co-located in it. Investing in a training facility was the elementary part. The complexity lay in the evolution of the team.
Breaking the habit of constantly selling key players, Leicester spent an average of nearly £60 million last summer and offered lucrative contracts to those who weren’t worthy of them.
When Manchester United played at the King Power on September 1, the ravens circled Erik ten Hag after his team’s abysmal start to the season. But in hindsight it was a night of great significance for Leicester.
Top used his program notes to indicate that less money would be available. Rodgers stated in his post-match press conference that it would be a struggle to keep up with the club with the players at his disposal – but he would try to get 40 points. It set the tone for everything that followed.
Chief executive Susan Whelan and Jon Rudkin, director of football, must bear responsibility for a chain of calamities.
A period in January when Leicester needed more wingers but emerged with one less. The hesitation before Rodgers was fired in April. The idea that Mike Stowell and Adam Sadler, the first-team coaches, could somehow help the club survive if they had no experience. The subsequent appointment of Dean Smith, who had been sacked by mid-table Championship club Norwich.
The sight of Leicester throwing everything to defense in Monday’s goalless draw at Newcastle, with James Maddison and Harvey Barnes not even starting, seemed an emblem of their decline, although a first clean sheet in 21 games was something.
A series of such events have seen some supporters welcome the chance to reset in the Championship. Everything is cyclical. We’ll be back,” said another, Rohan Bedhi, at the market.
The resigned atmosphere is no different at the Market Tavern in the town centre, which bears the club crest above the door. Or at The Lanes mall, where no one seems to go to the Indoor Ax Throwing range on Cank Street to get the frustrations off their system.
The city is full of murals highlighting the great successes of 2016 – but it could all be over soon
The mood reflects a place whose people generally don’t like bombast. “We know we’re an average to small town and we don’t shout about ourselves,” said one resident. ‘You could say that we know our place in the world. While we feel that sometimes we can surprise people and do great things, 2015-16 proved that.”
It is an agony for many how other East Midlands clubs are thriving just as Leicester are struggling. The survival of Nottingham Forest, coupled with the possibility of Coventry City making the leap back, could mean that the region’s excellent club becomes the poor relative overnight. Some see Coventry’s advance as proof that relegation can be temporary. ‘We have a much better infrastructure than Coventry,’ Bedhi said.
There is one tricky detail that he is not aware of. Leicester’s Premier League parachute ground would be gobbled up by paying back a loan to an Australian bank taken against Premier League revenue.
The search for a little more local optimism reaches the Local Hero pub, a short walk from the ground, which will be packed with Leicester supporters on Sunday, all praying that Vardy, Maddison and others can create a new piece of history. Some here haven’t given up hope yet.
Supporter Finn Jackson, with a season peak of 1984-85, has no faith in Smith, but his friend Oliver Walker believes there must still be a bit of the spirit of 2015. “It was so special that year – people really reacted when you told them you were from Leicester,” he said. “Our little place is famous and represents something special.”
Three of the title-winning team remain: Vardy, Daniel Amartey and Marc Albrighton, on loan at West Brom.
Three of Leicester’s title winners remain with the Foxes as Dean Smith tries to get them to safety
In the pub, Ben North wears a recent replica Leicester top and musters some persuasion. “I think we’re going to do it,” he said.
“It wouldn’t be a problem to beat West Ham last year, so it should be the same this time if we start strong. If we don’t, look at the last seven years we’ve had. It may be the start of a new chapter.’
Maybe it’s the ghost of Richard III they’re all after – the last English king to die in battle.
He left it all on the pitch, just as Leicester must do when the moment of truth arrives on Sunday.