Chants of ‘sack the board’ and ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ were highly audible at the King Power Stadium during Leicester’s seventh consecutive league defeat against Fulham on Saturday. Social media has been awash with Foxes’ fans berating the club for the current state of affairs - Premier League winners to relegation fodder in less than a decade - and pundits on Match of the Day, a certain Gary Lineker included, pulled no punches in their criticism of the Foxes.
The context
Without doubt, there have been many mistakes by the club’s hierarchy in recent seasons which have contributed to the present position. Some things, like the impact of the Profit and Sustainability rules, are beyond their control but in others - the poor recruitment, the failure to sack Brendan Rodgers early enough, allowing player’s contracts to run down and having to let valuable assets go for nothing, and so on - are very much at the door of the board.
Above all, though, it is important, in answer to the critics, that the present travails are put into context. The last decade has been an outlier in the history of Leicester City. Prior to 2016, the club had never won the two major trophies in the English game. For much of its history, the Foxes have been a ‘yo-yo’ club spending more time in the second tier (63 seasons) than in the first (56).
The most consecutive seasons City have been in the top-flight remains 12, under Matt Gillies between 1957 and 1969. More often than not, arrival in the First Division, and then the Premier League, has been short-lived – one season (1908/9, 1954/5, 1980/1, 1994/5, 2003/4), two seasons (1937/9) and four seasons (1983/7).
Even when the stay in the top league has been longer, the possibility of relegation has never been far from the thoughts of those involved with the club. For example, the Leicester team managed by Jimmy Bloomfield in the 1970s - containing such stellar names as Frank Worthington, Keith Weller, Len Glover, Alan Birchenall, Peter Shilton and Jon Sammels – is often regarded as one of the best in the Foxes’ history. And yet, in their seven-season stint in the top-flight, they only managed (in a league containing 22 clubs) finishes of 12th, 16th, 9th, 18th, 7th and 11th before succumbing to relegation in 1978.
Success in a different era
Yes, there have been very successful seasons almost on a par with 2016 too. With great players - such as Arthur Chandler, Adam Black, Johnny Duncan, and Ernie Hine – Leicester stayed in the top-flight for 10 seasons between 1925 and 1935 finishing seventh, third, second and eighth during that time. They were one point away from winning the title in the 1928/9 season. Similarly, the great ‘ice kings’ side in the 1962/3 season looked likely, at one point, to win the double, eventually finishing fourth and runners-up in the FA Cup. Before 2016, Leicester had also won the League Cup three times as well as the Charity Shield.
But, and this is a big but, football was much more egalitarian before the advent of the Premier League in the early 1990s. It was easier before then for smaller clubs to be successful. This fact shows what a remarkable achievement it was for the Foxes to win the Premier League in 2016 and maintain top five finishes for two more seasons. Indeed, it remains unprecedented.
Crucially, though, it also reveals that the present position of the club is not unusual. Leicester City have been here many times before and, sad as it may seem, they will be here again at some point. This should be borne in mind before joining fans who are roundly condemning the club’s owners, directors and players.