Despite punching through the Premier League’s glass ceiling, attempt to climb further has led to a steep plunge
“Is it the players, do they not care? Have you put your trust in the wrong people? This is the football club that we love and it’s down in League One, we just want to know what’s going on!”
Those were some of the thoughts aired by one board member of the Foxes Trust as Leicester fans sought to challenge their club’s owner, Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, outside the King Power Stadium on Tuesday night. If they were unable to put a finger on quite why their club had been relegated to League One, then the man known as “Top” was none the wiser. “I cannot blame anyone,” he replied to his inquisitors. “I can blame myself if you want to. I tried everything, we all tried, but it was not enough.”
It may actually not be a mystery as to why, a decade after pulling off the football miracle of the century by winning the Premier League, Leicester are back in the third tier. There is an argument to be made that the root cause of the failure lies in that seismic success. But while Leicester are not finished and will likely be back sooner rather than later, their crisis is both unique and reflective of broader trends that many would say are harming English football.
