How Leicester Went From Premier League Champions to League One in 10 Years

The Gamble That Didn’t Pay Off

After the initial euphoria of that title triumph in the 2015–16 campaign, Leicester tried to build upon that success. The appointment of Brendan Rodgers, who had taken Liverpool so close to the Premier League title in 2013–14 before stuffing his trophy cabinet at Celtic, signalled the push to greater heights in February 2019.

That is spelled out in the bank balance. Wages progressively increased as the club tried to recruit higher quality players in search of greater success—but they never managed to make enough revenue to balance the ever-increasing outlays. Although they did come painfully close.

Across the 2019–20 and 2020–21 campaigns, Leicester spent a combined 567 days in the top four only to finish both seasons in fifth place, outside the scope for Champions League qualification.

An FA Cup triumph in 2021 may forever live in the club’s history but it didn’t shift the financial dial. Leicester earned a total of $2.4 million (£1.8 million) in prize money from their run to Wembley glory. Ferencváros banked $21.6 million in the same year after losing five of their six Champions League matches.

Despite an attempt to rectify their ways, the rot had already set in. By the time Leicester slipped out of the Premier League’s trap door for the first time in 2023, for every $1 they earned, $1.16 was being spent only on wages.

That gross financial mismanagement was belatedly punished this season as Leicester were handed a six-point deduction for breaches in the 2023–24 campaign. The Foxes successfully managed to delay that penalty after climbing back to the Premier League the following year only to find the points deduction waiting for them after a swift return to the Championship.

Ruinous Recruitment

“When you want to compete,” Rodgers seethed in the summer of 2022, “you have to add quality. But in the last two windows, we haven’t been able to do that.”

Ruinous recruitment has been a damning feature of Leicester’s precipitous decline. In an attempt to balance the books after those Champions League near misses, the Foxes dramatically pared back on transfer spending—much to Rodgers’s frustration. Yet, the players they did buy simply weren’t good enough.

Numerous studies have shown that a club’s expenditure on salaries (rather than transfer fees) is the best predictive measure of success over the long term. Soccer is the ultimate meritocracy: the best players are often the best paid. But not always. Leicester had the seventh highest wage bill of any Premier League club in the 2022–23 campaign, yet finished a lowly 18th.

Jon Rudkin has been ruthlessly targeted by fans as the root cause of these transfer debacles after serving as the club’s sporting director for more than a decade. The Telegraph report that the Leicester native “does not even feel safe” walking around his hometown.

The transfer market is a punishing setting. Misguided purchases can set a club of Leicester’s size back years, while the failure to land transfer fees for the few promising talents which somehow slipped into the club’s net compounded these missteps.

Jonny Evans, Youri Tielemans, Çağlar Söyüncü and Ayoze Pérez all left Leicester in the summer of 2024 for a combined transfer fee of precisely $0 after running down their contracts. Eight first-team players from the current roster will also leave the club for free this summer.

Managerial Mishaps

Leicester’s demise has been spread across all tiers of the clubs, stretching from the players through to the board.

The tragic passing of owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha during a helicopter crash in October 2018 robbed the club of its decisive figurehead.

“He was so influential,” former Leicester defender Robert Huth said of the late owner in an interview with BBC Sport. “He had a ‘get stuff done’ attitude.” Vichai’s son, Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha, was thrust into this yawning void.

“Top is younger than me,” Huth continued. “He lost his dad, he now has to run King Power. The spotlight is on him. It’s very easy to criticize. He lost his father in public surroundings and it’s going to have an effect. People overlook that. He had to take over the company when he was 33. You’re a young man, you look at your dad for guidance, and it was taken away from him overnight.”

With those mitigating factors in mind, the muddled decision-making from those at the highest points of influence comes into sharper focus.

The most obvious example of the board’s mismanagement lies in the identity of those who have inhabited Leicester’s dugout since Rodgers’s exit three years ago.

Leicester’s Muddled Manager History

Enzo Maresca aside, the rogues gallery of coaches cycling on and off the touchline have struggled to inspire any sustained success.

The three interim appointments epitomize the chronically unsuccessful nature of Leicester’s appointments, combining for seven games and seven defeats. Andy King, the latest and most obviously reluctant temporary manager, was left in the post for four straight defeats this season before Rowett, who had been available throughout that period, was turned to.

Toxicity Bleeds Onto the Pitch

All these failings have bled their way onto the pitch.

Leicester have fallen apart at the seams this season, floundering in the most basic areas of the pitch. Only two teams have conceded more set-piece goals than the limp-wristed Foxes, who have dropped an outrageous 30 points from winning positions this season—the most of any team in England’s second tier.

The fallen Premier League champions have been so wretched they are on course to get relegated even if they hadn’t had six points stripped off their total in February.

Once relegation was confirmed on Tuesday night, club chairman Top Srivaddhanaprabha took the unusual approach of issuing a public statement. “We have experienced the highest highs and now the lowest lows,” he wrote, “and the pain is shared by all of us.” That pain is set to last for a little longer than Rowett’s generous prediction of a few days.

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