A real emotional rollercoaster was experienced by everyone who was in the stands of the King Power Stadium on Sunday afternoon and also for those who followed Leicester’s convulsive struggle in the Premier League through modern media. Useless victory over West Ham is proof that Leicester woke up too late because after 22 defeats in 38 games, not even luck could save the club that wrote the most beautiful modern football fairy tale seven years ago and became the champion of England.It looks surreal from a current point of view. It seems like it was yesterday when Claudio Ranieri masterminded the greatest football feat of the third millennium, an event that made the hearts of proper football romantics beat with happiness and infected them with a euphoria not felt in Premier League football for a long time. Every game was impatiently awaited, waiting for the new goal of the favorite of the ordinary world: Jamie Vardy, the bravado of the all-seeing Riyad Mahrez, how N’Golo Kante will lock down the midfield and grow into the new Claude Makelele, or the improvisation of Shinji Okazaki, who will forever be remembered for that scissor-kick against Newcastle, the burly Wes Morgan and the towering Robert Huth patrolling the defense and the reincarnation of Peter Schmeichel in the form of his son Kasper in goal…##EDITORS_CHOICE##Seven years later, Leicester fell into an abyss, straight into England’s second tier – the Championship. That this could be just such a season, could be felt even during the pre-season, when the first signs of the crisis appeared. After the eighth place and the semi-finals of the League Conference, Brendan Rodgers had the idea to change something, to refresh the team and try to enter the top six again.The idea was to strengthen the club with players who can bring new energy and enthusiasm for victories. And a massive error was made. Anyone who has followed Leicester in the past years knows that the title was built on the foundations of exceptional scouting that secured the signatures of Vardy, Mahrez and Kante for “pocket change”. Behind such feats was the signing of scout Steve Walsh and many feared that Leicester would not be able to repeat anything similar when he decided to move to Everton in 2016. And without Walsh’s discoveries, Leicester made some more spectacular deals in the future. From the sale of Harry Maguire to Manchester United for almost 90,000,000 euros, Ben Chilwell and Wesley Fofana to Chelsea for 50,000,000 or 80,000,000 euros, while Youri Tielemans, James Maddison and Ricardo Pereira were brought in below their realistic price.In recent years, the club has rarely managed to make a good move in the transfer market. The purchases of Ayoze Perez from Newcastle for 33,000,000, Patson Daka from Salzburg for 30,000,000 or Boubacar Soumare from Lille for 20,000,000 euros are far from the kind of hits that Leicester once made for ‘nothing’.This brings us to last summer and the disaster the club suffered in the market. The sale of Fofana for 80,000,000 euros was not only logical due to the burning financial crisis, but a move that would not be made by a person who has any sence of football or business, since the French stopper’s medical record shows a severe fracture of the tibia in addition to knee problems that have followed him since Saint Etienne. The club and the player struggled over whether he would go to Chelsea or not, in fact it was a mechanism to extract a few more euros from the newly arrived American businessman Todd Boehly, which turned out to be a spectacular move by the management, with the choice of Fofana’s replacement was criminal. The purchases of Wout Faes and Harry Souttar from Reims and Stoke for 17,000,000 euros each turned out to be an absolute disaster in every sense. Truth be told, Brendan Rodgers put Levi Colwill on his wish list when he went on vacation, and instead of the Chelsea graduate who ended up in Brighton, he got two footballers of questionable quality.The departures of players like Ayoze Perez, 2016 champion Mark Albrighton, Hamza Choudhury and others were nowhere near as important as the departure of Kasper Schmeichel.The decision of the club’s bosses not to hire a replacement for the man who brought so much to the club in so many ways after leaving for Nice for a symbolic million euros was extremely strange from the beginning, but in the end it proved to be fatal for Leicester. After 11 years and 479 games, it wouldn’t be easy for anyone to replace Schmeichel, but Rodgers’ or whoever’s choice to rely on Danny Ward and Daniel Iversen can be devastating for the entire season.Ward did go on a run of six clean sheets spanning eight games, but ended up averaging nearly two goals conceded per game and never once exuded confidence as miscommunications became commonplace. Because of this, he was later replaced by Iversen, who also did not do good, but left a slightly better impression. His biggest mistake happened against Fulham and it acted as a trailer for the collapse that happened yesterday. Ward and Iversen conceded 68 goals together, and only Southampton (73), Leeds (78) – both clubs also relegated to the Championship – and Bournemouth (71) allowed more.Kasper Schmeichel (©Gallo Images)The Dane was the voice of reason in the dressing room, a natural leader and, let’s not forget, the first to run towards the flames when the helicopter carrying then-owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha crashed. After all, this summer he was practically chased away by an offer for a one-year cooperation. Leicester have had almost the entire summer to secure an adequate replacement, instead – as a result – faith in Ward will now cost much more…When cardinal mistakes are made with the goalkeeper and in the heart of the defense, no club can survive. The consequences of the terrible moves were clearly reflected in almost every game. Defensively, Leicester looked like a group of ‘civilians’, without a trace of chemistry and someone who could shout, gather the team and organize it better. This quickly led to the aforementioned communication errors, along with decisions that directly affected the result. Faes started well, but not long after, he suffered a form collapse and never recovered, showing that he could be a leading figure at times, but not continuously. It’s a similar story with almost all other members of the back line. Rogers’ fault in all this is also substantial. Just the fact that Leicester allowed as many as 20 goals from stoppage time last season should have caused some kind of reaction, instead the fans collectively panicked every time a cross from a free kick or a corner followed.Whether Rodgers got fed up with everything after winning the cup and the Community Shield or simply lost his compass, we will probably find out in his next job, but the lack of innovative solutions and generally good ideas led to the whole team experiencing a terrible decline. The best example is Wifred Ndidi, who went from being an “octopus” with a thousand tentacles in the middle of the field to a huge gap of a player, which is why he was no longer even a starter. His place and, above all, his performance from earlier seasons, no player has been able to replace.Leicester won only one game in the opening ten rounds, but later still managed to find some kind of rhythm before the World Cup in Qatar. And now many are wondering what would have happened if the World Cup break had not happened, that is, if the Foxes had been allowed to continue riding the wave that brought them four points above the relegation zone before the “break”.Brendan Rodgers (©Gallo Images)Instead, Leicester were hit with a sledgehammer as the squad began to crack as the season resumed. The management debated for a long time whether to present Rogers with flowers and a thank-you note, torn between the feeling that maybe it wasn’t so dark and that it actually was. And the fans realized that it was time for some fresh blood, which is why the loud messages “Rodgers Out” came from the stands more and more often. The first shouts were heard after the defeat against Chelsea at home in March, immediately after the draw with Brentford.Rodgers stayed during the international break, so that the final separation happened immediately after the slap from Crystal Palace, which threw Leicester back into the relegation zone. The club embarked on a search for a successor, and until Dean Smith’s election, caretaker manager Adam Sadler suffered defeats at home to Aston Villa and Bournemouth. It was written and talked about that Leicester wanted Graham Potter, who was just fired by Chelsea, there was also speculation about Jesse Marsh, both of them refused, which is why Dean Smith was brought along with former Leicester coach Craig Shakespeare and John Terry. But it was too late…On top of all that, injuries made it even harder for Leicester. Not only this year, but above all in previous years, which in a certain way influenced what we see now. Ricardo Pereira was among the Premier League’s best right-backs until he tore his ACL, and with an Achilles injury just as he was getting into his stride, Leicester suffered a lot. It’s a similar story with his replacement, James Justin. He replaced Pereira perfectly, and then he himself tore the anterior cruciate ligament in February 2021. On top of all that, he also suffered an Achilles tendon injury this season after recovering, which seriously hurt the team. Kelechi Iheanacho’s groin problems all season have drastically reduced his time on the pitch, although his signature bursts of form could have been of great importance to the team.Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha (©Gallo Images)Those who were on the field not only played far from expectations, but were often accused in the public of playing indifferently. That’s what Leicester’s only real star player James Maddison said after the heartbreaking defeat to Fulham, when he questioned the hunger of his teammates. The fans then showered the entire team with volleys of insults and whistles, and even asked Maddison after his statement to clarify who it was and what the reason was, which he did not want to do in order to avoid further tabloidization of the terrible season.As someone who has been a supporter of Leicester since childhood, Maddison knows best how much it hurts to be eliminated from the Premier League, the consequences of which could be fatal in the long run. Because even such fragile club finances could now be completely devastated. Leicester was hit hard by the corona virus pandemic and seriously damaged the business of the club owner in the “King Power Duty Free” business due to the chaos in the airline industry. On top of all that, the war in Ukraine and rising inflation did not favor anyone, especially not the club, which had already begun to sink… The biggest blow to the club’s finances was the decision to build a first-class training center in which over 110,000,000 euros were invested, which directly influenced Leicester reporting record losses of over 100,000,000 euros in March.Believe it or not, salaries-wise, Leicester are the most ‘wasteful’ team after the Premier League’s ‘Big Six’ with more than €200,000,000 needed to pay off all the players! Maddison, Vardy and Pereira are just some of the players with a salary of more than 110,000 euros per week.##NAJAVA_MECA_7288090##What side effects relegation to the Championship will have will be felt in the next season. Leicester is under a loan repayment burden due to a loan taken from an Australian bank to amortize various expenses. Therefore, it is very likely that the club will not see any of the money that follows from the collective agreements, since the annual loan installment is more than 20,000,000 euros. In total, Leicester borrowed more than 400,000,000 euros, with the principal of more than 200,000,000 euros tied directly to the owners who wrote it off earlier in the season.”Leicester have become a team with the highest wage bill to be relegated from the Premier League,” said financial expert Kieran Maguire. “Leicester is in for a serious belt-tightening, although no one at the club will want players to leave, but everyone will have to make sacrifices. Some players with luxury contracts will become a serious burden, which is why the best will probably leave first. Leicester will still get solid money, but not as much as it would be in the case of survival. Leicester will be in a significantly weaker position compared to the competition when the season comes.”It’s clear that players like Maddison, Tielemans, Soyuncu, Barnes will depart. An automatic reduction in wages when a club is relegated will speed up the decision for players to leave, as wages could be as much as 50 percent lower if such a clause is included in the contract. Seven players’ contracts expire this summer (Tielemans, Soyuncu, Bertrand, Evans, Mendy, Amartey, Tete), another eight are entering their final year (Vardy, Ndidi, Maddison, Iheanacho, Westergaard, Praet, Thomas, Smithies), which means that the club headquarters and the administration will have a lot of work to do during the summer.The last time Leicester were relegated was in 2004 and it took ten seasons to return to the top flight, including one spent in the third tier. There are many challenges ahead of Leicester, and the fans can rightly fear that what happened to Leeds at the beginning of this century – will not happen to their beloved Foxes…Leicester are relegated from the Premier League seven years after winning the title 💔 pic.twitter.com/6PtKZXkLiY— B/R Football (@brfootball) May 28, 2023
