The start to Leicester City’s Premier League campaign has been torturous and the mood around the club is toxic. The players are publicly squabbling, the manager appears to be pleading for the sack, and the supporters have had enough.
When City were 2-0 up and seemingly cruising in the second half on the opening day against Brentford, fans were prepared to put a disastrous transfer window behind them in the hope of the club pushing on from its 8th placed finish last season. Two soft goals and six straight defeats later, not to mention the Wesley Fofana debacle, the club is in need of a saviour.
There’s now a genuine and tangible threat of relegation lingering over the King Power Stadium, which would be an unmitigated nightmare for everybody involved. The business model clearly does not account for a drop to the second tier, and no matter how much he might want his pay off, Brendan Rodgers will want to avoid having taking Leicester down on his CV.
In terms of a saviour, plenty are immediately looking at managers, with the most concerned among the fan base focusing on firefighting bosses like Sean Dyche and even Rafa Benitez. On the playing side, there are no obvious candidates who can take the team by the scruff of the neck and carry it out of its desperate plight – although that hasn’t stopped one Leicester outcast from trying.
You might be forgiven for thinking it’s Caglar Soyuncu with his warrior-like mentality, or even Jamie Vardy with his refusal to give up in any situation, that has told the manager that he’s ready to step up and help the Foxes turn their season around. In fact, you could probably have 15 guesses and still be wildly wide of the mark, because, alas, the man who has done so is Jannik Vestergaard.
Yes, you read that correctly – the Leicester Mercury are reporting that the Danish defender insists that he is ready to help the Foxes clamber out of their lowly league position. These are the words of a man who is desperate for some first team action, to resurrect his hopes of playing for his country at the World Cup this winter.
The defender’s sudden plea for game time comes after his omission from the Denmark squad for the upcoming Nations League fixtures, and the probable realisation that coach Kasper Hjulmand was being serious when he said that he wouldn’t pick players who weren’t appearing for their clubs. Vestergaard was adamant that he would stay in the East Midlands this summer, despite a bid from Fulham reportedly being accepted by the Foxes, and aged 30, will likely be sunken by the feeling that the 2018 World Cup could be his last.
Every footballer backs themselves to make a difference and to prove to their manager, teammates, supporters and the wider world that they are good enough to play at any given level. The Dane however must take a dose of reality and accept that the longer he loiters around at Seagrave without a prayer of breaking back into the first team, the more bruised and damaged his career will become.
Granted, Wesley Fofana did depart late in the summer window, and that might have given Vestergaard a glimmer of hope that there was a way back for him under Brendan Rodgers. But the Frenchman was swiftly replaced by Wout Faes, who has bypassed those waiting in the wings and gone straight into the starting XI. But there’re more than just the new Belgian in the way: there’s Daniel Amartey, Jonny Evans, Wilfred Ndidi and possibly even Soyuncu between Vestergaard and the first team.
Self-confidence and belief has to be admired to a point, but there needs to be the right balance between that and actuality. If suddenly, the No. 23 came into the first team fold and turned City’s season around, then fantastic, but it appears the only person who doesn’t know that this won’t happen is Jannik Vestergaard himself.