Leicester City is facing relegation to League One as they prepare to play Portsmouth. Manager Gary Rowett highlighted a player's defiant message amid growing despair from supporters.
Key points
Leicester City faces relegation to League One
Manager Gary Rowett emphasized a player's defiant message
Supporters have shown discontent with boos and jeers
The team previously dropped out of the Premier League
Leicester City plays Portsmouth on Saturday
Leicester CityPortsmouth
Leicester City players in a huddle on the pitch
Leicester City face relegation rivals Portsmouth on Saturday [Getty Images]
As Leicester City stumble towards relegation to League One, a lone Foxes player stood up among team-mates to speak up.
It was a voice of defiance at a time of increasing despair, and manager Gary Rowett wanted everyone to hear.
The message from the unnamed player was delivered when the character and desire of a side facing the prospect of back-to-back relegations - having dropped out of the Premier League last season - has repeatedly been questioned by supporters, who have vociferously made their opinions known with boos and jeers from the stands.
With Leicester five points from Championship safety heading into their final four games, the words were an attempt to provoke a reaction from a side that has won just one match in three months and could be condemned to life in the third tier within the week.
"People who've been around football for quite a while still hanker for those characters and those players that are inspirational," Rowett told BBC Sport.
"I think there's less of those players. But you can show leadership in different ways. For me, it's about showing it on the pitch when it matters - those fighting qualities. Some people lead that way. Some people are more vocal.
"One of my players stood up in one of my meetings recently and spoke a little about how we have an opportunity to do something special at the end of the season.
"OK, it won't quite be what everyone felt we were going to do, but we still have that opportunity and we have to feel that chance.
"If you don't believe you can do it, then you are simply not going to do it."
Beating the drop now appears increasingly difficult for a side that famously won the Premier League title 10 years ago - but even the 5,000-1 triumph was preceded by the 'Great Escape', when it took seven wins from their final nine games to keep them in the division they went on to conquer the following season.
The golden generation of a decade ago - a number of whom went on to help the club lift the FA Cup in 2021 - cannot be compared to a side that is facing the prospect of a third relegation in four years.
Their heirs are battling to avoid the ignominy of becoming only the second Foxes side to drop into the third tier in the club's 142-year existence.
The milestone anniversary of the 2016 title success is just weeks away, but Rowett said the ghosts of glories past are "not a distraction" or something he feels should impact his side in their efforts to stay up.
"You would have to ask the players if it weighs heavily on them, but I don't think it does," he said.
"It's about our performances and us playing with a real pride about us and reflecting the fans' mindset of seeing a team go out there and do everything they can.
"That is what we are focused on, rather than an incredible achievement that you can argue is one of the biggest of any team.
"I don't want to diminish that because it was an amazing moment, but it doesn't help us in this moment.
"We've got to create our own little bit of history if we can."
'No tea lady tears needed'
After last week's defeat by Swansea City, Rowett said Saturday's trip to relegation rivals Portsmouth would be his side's "last chance" to try save themselves.
He was in a less catastrophising mood when previewing the season-defining trip to Fratton Park, but no less determined to emphasise what is at stake - be it the emotional impact on fans or the threat of job losses at a club that would need to slash spending by tens of millions if they go down.
"I don't think getting the tea lady crying in front of the players necessarily is going to have the desired effect," he told BBC East Midlands Today.
"But you are just trying to give the players the enormity of the situation.
"It might not affect you as a player, that is a reality, but what it certainly will do is affect quite a lot of people at the club. And it will affect a lot of fans who pay their hard-earned money and who have got behind the team brilliantly well in a tough period for the club.
"We have got to give them more. My job is to find a way to do that."
Rowett admits to 'toughest' job
Gary Rowett, wearing a black tracksuit with Leicester branding, looks dejected on the pitch after a defeat
Leicester have lost just three of Gary Rowett's 10 games in charge - but won only one [Getty Images]
Rowett admitted he "expected more" than the one win and six draws he has overseen in his 10 games at the Foxes' helm, and went as far as describing it as "probably the toughest" relegation rescue mission he has taken on - having previously pulled struggling sides away from trouble as Oxford United, Millwall and Birmingham City boss.
The team he is in charge of will go on to rank as one of the worst in the club's history - even if they manage to stay up.
Yes, the Foxes have been lower in the football pyramid once before when in League One, and there have been atrocious campaigns in the top-flight, but this season in the second tier ranks as their worst at that level.
Their points tally of 41 from 42 games is the lowest outside of top-flight campaigns when historical totals are adjusted to three points for a win.
Even if Leicester had not been docked six points for financial breaches, they sit alongside some of the worst performing Foxes sides of all time.
Their record of 11 wins, 14 draws and 17 defeats is exactly the same as they had at this stage when they were relegated to the third tier the only time in their history in 2007-08.
This is also a side that has managed just 17 wins in 80 league games since they won promotion back to the Premier League as Championship title winners two seasons ago.
Much of the promotion-winning team of 2024 remains - with notable exceptions, headed by club great Vardy - indeed, seven of the players involved in the defeat by Swansea on Saturday played a part in the game that sealed the Championship title with victory against Preston two years earlier.
Asked if his squad, which tops the division for most points given up from winning positions this season, might need psychological support to help change their fortunes, Rowett said: "We have people in the building that are skilled in that way, but I don't think there is a secret that we can tap into that will suddenly win us the last four games.
"To me that's consistency, and that's work on the training ground and creating consistent behaviours that make the players aware of exactly of where we are and what needs to be done to win the game of football - and doing it under pressure."
