Ever since I began writing these weekly posts, I have always focused on teams which are somewhat relevant at the upper end of their respective leagues. For that reason, I never expected a team about which I once wrote to be relegated within just a few years of that post. However, this is exactly what has happened.
In one of the most shocking relegations in recent memory, Leicester City slipped into next season's Championship after spending nine seasons in the Premier League. Despite claiming a 2-1 home victory over West Ham United, Leicester's victory proved to be in vain. The Foxes' fall into England's second-tier league was confirmed following Everton's 1-0 win over Bournemouth.
Although the match between Leicester and West Ham took place more than a week ago, I avoided making this post until now because one week later, Valencia and Getafe, two other clubs about which I had also previously written, were themselves in danger of relegation heading into the last La Liga matchday. Both survived after Valencia drew 1-1 against Real Betis while Getafe and Valladolid played to a 0-0 draw. The latter result also relegated Valladolid to LaLiga 2.
At the beginning of this season, almost no one could possibly have foreseen Leicester's relegation. The East Midlands club had been coming off three solid seasons which yielded two fifth-place league finishes, an FA Cup victory, and a run to the Europa Conference League semifinals. Leicester had clearly established themselves as a staple within the league's top 10 and entered the season with a decent chance of qualifying for the following season's Europa League - and perhaps even a puncher's chance of a Champions League spot if circumstances broke their way.
To say that this did not materialize would be a severe understatement. Leicester lost seven of their first nine league matches, leaving them in last place. Four wins in five matches soon after put them in 13th; however, this brief glimmer of hope ended up being the outlier. Loss after loss after loss began to pile up; after losing to Crystal Palace in April, Leicester were once again in the relegation zone where they would stay until the end of the season.
On paper, a team containing players like Youri Tielemans, Jamie Vardy, James Maddison, and Wout Faes should have no reason to even be close to a relegation dogfight, let alone succumb to it. That being said, when one takes a closer look at the reality of Leicester's season, it will be seen that some clear problems were overlooked; these unaddressed problems ended up being the club's undoing.
During the 2022 off-season transfer window, Leicester sold starting goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel to Ligue 1 club Nice. This seemed understandable at first, given the fact that Schmeichel was 35 and in the twilight of his career. However, Leicester made what would prove to be a grievous error by not signing a starting goalkeeper, instead elevating Danny Ward to the starting 11. It soon became evident that Ward was simply not ready and clearly out of his depth between the goalposts. Leicester's 68 conceded goals ranked them joint-16th in the league in that statistic; their lack of a true starter-level goalkeeper was a major reason for their struggles on defense.
Leicester also took far too long to fire Brendan Rodgers. It should have been obvious that the Northern Irishman no longer had what it took to remain as Leicester's head coach if the club were to avoid relegation. By the time Rodgers was dismissed in April and replaced by Dean Smith, it was already too late in the season to make the changes necessary to get Leicester out of the relegation zone. Rodgers' primary failure this past season was his refusal to play a 3-5-2 formation which far better suited Leicester's personnel than his preferred 4-2-3-1.
Even after falling into the Championship, things are likely to get worse for Leicester City. Many key players are expected to leave the King Power Stadium in the coming off-season as a result of their relegation; this will only make their effort to return to the Premier League even more difficult. Leicester's transfer budget has also been hamstrung; the club's owners lost a great deal of money during the Covid-19 pandemic as their primary business activities were in airport duty-free stores. All things considered, Leicester might be in for a long and arduous road back.
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