With a first relegation in 15 years, this is the lowest many Leicester City supporters will be feeling right now.
seeing their club sleepwalk into relegation for what seems like a very long time has left a very bitter taste in fans’ mouth and naturally who is at fault is the main talking point amongst fans. As Jon Rudkin and Susan Whelan begin this week assessing where the season went wrong (why are we waiting for the season to be over to assess this?) , I will break down those elements to pinpoint where the problems are and help address them before its too late. Part 1 is the club hierarchy.
Leicester City owner Khun Top Srivaddhanaprabha
Less than 24 hours after Championship football was confirmed, the club’s owner released a statement that tried to take stock of everything that has happened over the last 13 years in a valiant attempt to make the Leicester City fans not dwell on the negatives for too long. Time will tell how that goes down with the Foxes faithful but the headline grabber drew attention to the messages of abuse:
"“Some want me to sell the Club, some using offensive and thoughtless words, and some have been outright abusive.”"
Such nonsense abuse is ridiculous given all that his family has given to the club and the city, but it is telling that he felt the need to address the abuse in his statement. How the outfit has fallen so quickly with little investment and most importantly little action is troubling. It seems common parlance amongst fans that LCFC acted far too late when relieving Brendan Rodgers of his duties, particularly after some truly disastrous displays at the start of the season. There were plenty of opportunities to sack the Northern Irishman.
One theory is that the King Power Group were deeply hurt after the way they were criticised across the world when relieving Claudio Ranieri of his duties in 2017. After Rodgers delivered the club their first-ever FA Cup in 2021 and then a (albeit consolatory) European semi-final appearance, did he feel he would face a similar backlash if he acted like that again? This pride and need to be respectful may have clouded the judgment of our chairman. Rodgers couldn’t get his team to defend or win matches consistently for far longer than should be acceptable for a manager on a £10million-a-year salary. In fairness to Top, expecting Rodgers to manage this talented and well-remunerated group of players to mid-table mediocrity was more than reasonable. But failing to acknowledge that the same manager had completely lost his way and needed to leave was incompetent.
Then when they did eventually pull the trigger on the former Liverpool boss, after a two-week international break, they spent over a week finding a replacement whilst placing two goalkeeping coaches in charge so they could take twice as long to make decisions in the technical area. Everything was way too reactive. Why were they not speaking to potential replacements in the two-week break? Why was Rodgers only sacked when we dropped into the relegation zone, would his payout be much less? Then when hiring Dean Smith to get us out of this mess for all his niceness, he failed to get the team going quickly enough nor got results where they should have.
This is Top’s first major failure at Leicester City, which given the previous successes can be forgiven. But more crucially, he has taken a bulletproof reputation and diminished admirers of his on how to run a football club in a concise space of time. I’m behind Top as many at the club are, but if we are to get better he will have to do some very serious soul-searching and ask himself some difficult and honest questions about who he trusts. He’ll also need those around him to be serious about their part in this demise and big decisions will need to be taken on the back of it.
John Rudkin
Everything at the club seems from the outside looking in to be ‘too nice’ and the inquest starts this week led by Director Of Football John Rudkin and CEO Susan Whelan OBE. That is a massive issue for a lot of Leicester City fans as Rudkin in particular seems to be at the heart of a lot of these issues.
According to an article in The Athletic, Rudkin was very tight with Brendan Rodgers and believed wholeheartedly in his methods and training. When doubts were creeping in about the Northern Irishman, Rudkin would undoubtedly be the man to ease those doubts. He would also be the one that is mainly responsible for getting the right manager in charge and given the week-long delay after Rodgers left to when Dean Smith came in, you can only deduce that he was ill-prepared and reluctant to envisage a Leicester City without the then gaffer.
This is the man that will be drawing up the shortlist of managers to get us out of the Championship and one can’t help but think that they will lazily appoint Smith in the absence of any alternative realistic plans. Approaching Graham Potter would be seriously lacking self-awareness of Leicester City and their current situation if he did. Because of this ill judgment and transfer market blunders, Rudkin’s reputation is in tatters with the fans, as he seems to be the main issue at boardroom level when making key football decisions, his time could well be up.
I may be wrong on some of these elements above but with communication between the fans and the hierarchy being scant at best, we are only left to speculate about the issues and problems that have led the club to become only the second Premier League champion to be relegated. These are low times for the club that need decisive, quick action and not a dithering attitude. Many Championship clubs will already be well ahead of us with their pre-season plans. City must act now or regret later! Again.