Football Daily | Leicester and a 10-year white-knuckle ride that took them to League One

FOXES FALL

Say what you like about Leicester City’s dismal performances but just don’t say it to Harry Winks when he’s boarding the team coach outside Fratton Park shortly after they’ve lost their 18th Championship match of the season. Last Saturday, the midfielder told travelling fans to “[Eff] off!” ahead of the return leg of their 328-mile round trip to watch their side lose to Portsmouth. Unsurprisingly, Winks was not asked to reprise his role as the club’s public liaison officer after their relegation to League One was confirmed by Tuesday’s home draw with Hull City. It was left to local lad Hamza Choudhury to take on the role of human shield outside the King Power Stadium as his teammates sheepishly slunk away to their cars and made good their escape from the angry mob.

“We are, I think everyone in there is,” he told fans who said Leicester’s players were an embarrassment who should be “[eff]in’ ashamed” of themselves for getting relegated for a second season on the bounce. “Of course we care, of course we care,” he added, before reaching for the phrase a third time like a man hoping that if he said it often enough, it might miraculously become true. Leicester chief suit Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha also fronted up before disgruntled fans, telling them he would do everything in his power to ensure a speedy return to the Championship for a club that has lost £270m over the past four years and incurred a six-point deduction this season for financial shenanigans. “It’s a bad day,” said Top, who it is worth remembering has endured far worse days at the King Power. “I cannot blame anyone. I can blame myself. It’s not right, I tried everything, we all tried. It’s not about who is wrong now, it’s about what’s next. I will try.”

On the plus side, Leicester’s players will be able to prepare for life in League One in their bouji, state-of-the-art £100m Seagrave training ground, described by the club hierarchy as “a beacon of ambition for the future” upon its official opening in 2022. Few present could have envisaged that future including weekly recovery sessions following league matches against such clubs as Exeter City, Bromley and Stockport. Of course in its ongoing quest to seek out the positives in any bad situation, Football Daily would point out that in going down to the third tier, Leicester have at least spared themselves the well-documented ignominy that awaits Tottenham Hotspur – having to play home and away against Lincoln City.

In the past 10 years, Leicester have won the Premier League, played in Bigger Cup, Bigger Vase and Tin Pot, won the FA Cup, been relegated, promoted and relegated again twice. It’s been quite the white-knuckle ride for a club who earlier this week revealed they would be reassembling the legends who won the Premier League title for a 5,000-1 Anniversary Match on 30 May. One suspects the 10th anniversary of this season’s humiliating exit through the second tier trapdoor will be slightly more low key.