Is Ayoze Pérez unfairly scapegoated by Leicester City fans?

Pérez the scapegoat?

This brings us to the final question, how much is Pérez responsible for LCFC failing to get top 4? He certainly contributed to two major events in Leicester’s top-four push. These being the COVID party and his horrendous miss against Chelsea.

Nevertheless, there are so many games where Leicester City should have won but didn’t. Pérez cannot be blamed for this, after all, football is a team game. With LCFC one point behind Chelsea, in theory only one more win would have been necessary to secure UCL. Therefore, many games could be seen as the ‘tipping point’ such as the Newcastle debacle and the struggles at Southampton.

In defence of Pérez, even the heroic Kasper Schmeichel could be blamed for the late collapse, for it was his mistake that effectively cost Leicester City the Champions League, yet Schmeichel has more than outweighed this with his other contributions.

Regardless, this cannot take away from the fact that Ayoze Pérez was poor this season and greatly contributed to bottling the top four. Given his price tag, the lack of returns also makes this even more disappointing, and he may have received even harsher treatment if he played for a different club. Although Leicester City fans have been patient with the Spaniard despite his indifferent form, the events of April and May have eroded the already limited goodwill. Indeed, Pérez will have a tough job to convince his many critics. It’s a principle that you support your players, and FoL also believes this, yet patience in this sense is finite. If Ayoze needs any advice on how to redeem himself, then he need only ask Kelechi Iheanacho…

What does the future hold for Ayoze at Leicester City?

Due to the breach of trust, it’s doubtful that Pérez is in Rodgers’ good books, even if the matter is now closed. With his favoured number 10 position occupied by Maddison, it’s unlikely Ayo will see much game time there. A right-winger will probably be signed, so Pérez probably won’t spend many minutes there either, condemning him to the role of a bit-part utility man.

There are probably many LCFC fans that would want to sell him, and he probably should be sold if a reasonable offer comes in for him. In reality, however, clubs are unlikely to shell out upwards of £20m for a player in poor form, especially in the current economic climate. Resultantly, the only solution for Pérez is to get his head down and work hard to prove himself once again, which will take some doing.