In a striking departure from his usual diplomatic reserve, Leicester City chairman Aiyawatt "Khun Top" Srivaddhanaprabha has taken a scathing swipe at Chelsea. The Thai businessman accused the West London club of 'stealing' Enzo Maresca. Speaking to the BBC and local media in an emotional sit-down for the first time in a decade, Top laid bare the deep-seated frustration felt at King Power Stadium regarding the Italian’s sudden exit last summer. The LCFC chairman revealed that the club had painstakingly mapped out their top-flight return around Maresca's tactical philosophy, only for those blueprints to be torn up by an aggressive pursuit from CFC.
Accusation from Leicester City
Top was uncompromising in his language, stating that the club was planning for the future from the very first day they dropped into the Championship, only to have their manager "stolen" just a week before the Premier League season commenced. This sense of betrayal is compounded by the Foxes' current plight. The City supremo suggested that while the squad was built for stability, the disruption caused by Chelsea’s intervention left them in a state of tactical and structural paralysis.
The loss of Maresca wasn't just a change in personnel but a fundamental derailment of a long-term project, suggests Top. For a chairman who views the club as his "son," the raid from the English capital side was clearly perceived as more than just business; rather a personal blow that left Leicester struggling to forge an identity in a season defined by "love and pain."
"I sat down with the whole team to plan how to get back there, without planning that we were going to get the manager stolen in the week before the start of the Premier League."Leicester Mercury
While a record-breaking £10million overall payout eventually trickled into King Power coffers, the owner remains steadfast that a fee could not buy back lost time at the eleventh hour. Top maintains that compensation for Maresca and his six-person staff was mere consolation as the destruction of Leicester's long-term future began.