Champions to Championship: how slow-thinking Leicester sealed their own fate

Over the past few months the pre-match montages on the big screens at Leicester’s King Power Stadium have felt particularly bittersweet. One culminates in Ricardo Pereira striking late at PSV Eindhoven to tee up a first European semi-final and a date with Roma at the Stadio Olimpico last May, the other with Wes Morgan lifting the Premier League trophy with Claudio Ranieri. Confetti rains down and then there are a few seconds of Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, Leicester’s late owner, applauding fans on all four sides of the ground before the pictures fade to black. At which point supporters instinctively respond with a rousing cheer.

Seven years on from winning the title, six on from competing with Atlético Madrid for a spot in the Champions League semi-finals, two on from winning the FA Cup and missing out on a top-four league finish on the final day, and 12 months on from another European adventure, Leicester are coming to terms with relegation. Their previous three league finishes read: fifth, fifth, eighth. And now 18th, two points shy of Everton, who stayed up on the final day at their expense.

Complacency is an accusation levelled at a club that has been drifting for a while. Leicester’s decision to commit to this summer’s tour of south-east Asia suddenly feels rather misplaced. The club evidently did not forecast a possible relegation when signing up to pre-season friendlies. Leicester, of the Championship, will face Liverpool in the Singapore Festival of Football, with Bayern Munich, Roma and Tottenham the other teams involved. The week before, they take on Spurs in Bangkok, birthplace of Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, the 37-year-old Leicester chairman known as Top.

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From the moment relegation was a serious possibility the season descended into a woulda, coulda, shoulda debate. What if Kasper Schmeichel had stayed put? Should Brendan Rodgers have been sacked sooner? Could Leicester have replaced Rodgers quicker? The defeats at home to Aston Villa and Bournemouth, when Adam Sadler and Mike Stowell were in interim charge, look extremely costly now. And, even in the last week, might Dean Smith regret not going for the win at Newcastle? Leicester were determined to leave with a point but did not register a shot until second-half stoppage time. Naturally, had Abdoulaye Doucouré not struck for Everton on Sunday, Smith would have been viewed as a genius.

The snooker player Mark Selby, a big Leicester fan, was in the crowd as the team crumbled at home to Liverpool this month. From that point they were in need of something close to snookers. Often when the losses mount and the decline kicks in the buzzword thrown around is sleepwalking and in this case that would ring true. Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, Jon Rudkin, the director of football, and Susan Whelan, the chief executive, should bear the brunt of the responsibility. Were Leicester conscious enough of these consequences? For a while they misread the room and the prickly heat. They lost six of their opening seven matches. Until an impressive 4-2 victory at Villa Park in February, their only post-World Cup wins came against MK Dons, Gillingham and Walsall, all of whom will be in League Two next season.

Relegation breeds uncertainty but the squad is guaranteed to look very different when Leicester kick off in the second tier for the first time in 10 years. James Maddison, who has 12 months on his contract, is set to be sold amid serious interest from Newcastle, among others, and eight players’ contracts are up, including Youri Tielemans, Caglar Soyuncu and the club captain Jonny Evans, who has been stalked by injury this season. “The club now have decisions to make,” Evans said. “I don’t think they probably know what they are going to do.”

Leicester, like Southampton, have discovered the cost of a couple of missteps. Recruitment has been flawed for a while. They have seen little return on the £60m outlay for Patson Daka, Boubakary Soumaré, Jannik Vestergaard and Ryan Bertrand two years ago. Vestergaard last started a league game in January 2022 and Bertrand in October 2021. The impact of the pandemic meant a frugal window last summer. Wout Faes signed after the club-record £85m sale of Wesley Fofana to Chelsea, and Alex Smithies arrived on a free as third-choice goalkeeper.

“This isn’t the club that it was two years ago, that’s the reality,” Rodgers said last September. He had explored moves for Manuel Akanji, Levi Colwill and Brennan Johnson, all of whom have flourished elsewhere this season, and hoped to re-sign Ademola Lookman, who spent the previous season on loan, on a permanent deal. Lookman instead joined Atalanta in a £15m deal. In January Leicester signed Victor Kristiansen, Harry Souttar and Tetê, the Brazilian on loan, but all three have found minutes hard to come by. Jack Harrison was set to join for £22m, only for Leeds to pull the plug mid-medical at Leicester’s training base. Faes has endured a difficult first season, culpable for goals at key moments. Until last Monday at St James’ Park Leicester were without a clean sheet since November.

Vardy, who has been at the club 11 years and is thought to be Leicester’s highest earner, signed a new contract until 2024 at the beginning of the season. Vardy’s story from non-league to the Premier League is much loved but whether the 36-year-old has the appetite to see out his deal in the Championship remains to be seen. Harvey Barnes is under contract until 2025 but has top-flight admirers. Wages will be halved in many cases as relegation clauses take hold but the club is still likely to be nursing an exorbitant wage bill by second-tier standards. Leicester’s most recent accounts detail an eye-opening wage bill north of £180m, the biggest in the Premier League outside the top six.

On Sunday the melodramatic pre-match montage felt a touch more funereal: Alan Birchenall, the club ambassador who is a familiar voice on matchdays, Gary Lineker and Muzzy Izzet finding the net; Matt Elliott lifting the League Cup in 2000; Lilian Nalis’s thumping left-footed volley against Leeds in 2003; Esteban Cambiasso – supporters no doubt still wonder how a Champions League, La Liga and five-times Serie A winner pitched up in the east Midlands – scoring in victory over Manchester United; Shinji Okazaki’s overhead kick and Vardy breaking Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record after scoring in 11 straight games en route to the 5,000-1 title; the subsequent European trips. But this unforgettable nine-year chapter, a largely golden stretch in the sun, is now firmly consigned to the past.